Florian Zimmer

Florian Zimmer has been in a creative dialogue with artists in a variety of bands and duos in the course of the past three decades, including the long-running avant-hop trio Saroos alongside Christoph Brandner and Max Punktezahl, the industrial-punk project TVII SON, the dubwise duo Driftmachine featuring Andreas Gerth, and most recently his project Bella Wakame with prolific percussionist Andreas Haberl. Now the Berlin-based musician and composer is about to get even busier, this time as a solo artist. His improvised live sets draw on dub techniques and subtle grooves, mixing the sounds of his trusted modular synthesizers with a wide variety of samples to lysergic effect.

Zimmer straddles the line between abstract sound collaging and spontaneous live composition, utilising sounds from exotica or old educational records as well as field recordings to create ambiguities. Whether it is layered-and-looped polylogues between disembodied voices punctuated by melancholic melodica sounds, minimalist electronica, or intricate modular synthesizer rhythms that wouldn’t feel out of place on the dancefloor: Zimmer’s genre-transcending work with and around contrasts creates a sense of familiarity while evoking a feeling of uncanniness. The ever-changing interplay between sounds and rhythms, abstraction and concretion, semiotic serendipity and emotional warmth forms the dynamic and atmospheric core of his solo work.