About

“Niklas Paschburg is only 23 years old but he knows how to charm and bewitch with melodies and notes; mesmerising sounds and a cinematic atmosphere, intense crescendi and a pop flavour that moves and fascinates. His debut album ‘Oceanic’is a moving trip full of both melancholy and energy; twelve instrumental songs between neo-classical, ambient and electronic music inspired by nature. “I live in the countryside but to compose this record I went to the Baltic Sea”, Niklas says. Paschburg spent as much time as possible on the coast throughout the past year, catching the mood, breathing in the sea breeze, listening to the constant flow of the waves and transposing it all into his music…

…The result is a soundtrack of a landscape with echoes of Bonobo and Kiasmos, on the electronic side, and with Bon Iver as Paschburg’s main pop reference, co-produced and mixed by Gijs van Klooster (who has previously worked with Joep Beving and Tom Trago). On ‘Oceanic’, colours and dynamics melt with a nostalgic, sweet, delicate sound and energetic and touching progressions. “There is the calm of the sea, but also its strength”, Paschburg explains. And that’s powerful.” - Bandcamp

“Oceanic is deeply imbued with a sense of location, with 12 slowly shifting instrumental tracks that ebb and flow with the tide and, at times, seem to mimic the behavior of the waves. Actual field recordings of water and weather bookend and shimmer underneath Paschburg's meandering compositions that continue to explore electro-acoustic textures, like the subtly throbbing synth basslines and treated piano on the haunting "Journey Among Worlds." Lengthier pieces are occasionally interspersed with brief tonal apéritifs, like the introductory "Pier" and the lush "Sonar." Eschewing straightforward melodic lines for wide-lens seascape architecture, Paschburg does a nice job conveying the inherent drama of a large body of water, moving from pastoral sonic wavelets to surging menace, often within the same piece. "Magnetic Perturbation," for example, transforms itself midway through from solo piano introspections to growling distortion followed by a sudden murky silence suggesting an unwelcome dunk beneath the waves. Evocative and quite beguiling, Oceanic is an impressive debut, with many layers to uncover and a strong attention to craft in both composition and production.” – All Music

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