Koen Holtkamp - Moon's Adrift EP (2026) [Hi-Res]

Dutch-American musician and producer Koen Holtkamp left Brooklyn for the rural Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. Surrounded by trees and mountains rather than apartment blocks and traffic, he reordered his priorities and deliberately slowed down, which is why a long gap opened between his releases. During this period of experimentation he built, on his own modular setup, an instrument that sounds like a kora (a West African harp-lute): a plucked string timbre created through physical modeling techniques. Once the instrument was finished, the songs began to take shape, and it became clear they needed other musicians. Drummer Greg Fox, woodwind player Matt Bauder and Ben Vida joined the recording.

The result is the album "Nightlife". Bauder's flute on "Olm" twists around Holtkamp's uncanny "chordophone" plucks. Fox's drums are deliberately light: on "Northern Flicker" they sail past the other instruments like gusts of wind, stripped of the usual aggression and dynamic range. This brings Holtkamp's synth work to the fore, and the record sounds like a live recording of a 1970s loft show, the opposite of a typical electronic album. It sounds out of time, and the change of surroundings has clearly done its author good.

Tracklist:
1. Koen Holtkamp - Moon's Adrift
2. Koen Holtkamp - Northern Flicker
3. Koen Holtkamp - Slow Fox Run