Christian Löffler
Electronic/techno producer Christian Löffler specializes in emotive, melancholic music that feels isolated yet strangely relatable. Löffler started taking an interest in music at age 14, although instead of picking up a guitar, as his friends did, he dove straight into programming and arranging music on his computer. A lot of his sound is owed to the area he was brought up in, and where he spends most of his time: the Darß peninsula in Germany. Inside of his relatively isolated studio, Löffler taught himself to use a variety of programs and instruments, as well as develop his photography skills and collect a huge sound bank of field recordings. For the most part, Löffler created music simply because he enjoyed expressing himself; that all changed in 2008 when a long-time friend approached him with the idea of starting a label. Together they founded Ki Records, launching with Löffler’s debut EP, Heights. Löffler would continue to release an EP on his own label on an almost annual basis; a notable exception was made in 2015 when he released the New York EP on U.K.-based label 20:20 Vision. Löffler also released his debut album via Ki Records, 2012’s A Forest, which featured Danish singer Gry Bagøien and German singer Mohna, the latter of whom would regularly join Löffler when he played live. His second full-length album, Mare, followed in 2016, and took a more organic approach, featuring more self-recorded instruments and field recordings instead of the sample-based approach he took on his debut.