“Richly textured euphoric soundscapes of electronic music”
Plastic Magazine
“He's delighted ears worldwide with his soothing, downtempo sounds and worldly melodies”
Earmilk
It’s an amusing paradox how Parra for Cuva’s new album Juno, containing recordings of the South American ronroco, an Indian flute player, and the hammered dulcimer, an ancient Persian instrument, was almost entirely produced within the four walls of the artist’s studio in Berlin. Back in 2019, the German musician found himself in a sort of pre-pandemic lockdown – his girlfriend was pregnant at the time and the couple’s activities were mostly confined to their home. Still, Nicolas Demuth managed to fit the world into Juno – explorations with new instruments and languages, tracks named after African animals and exotic destinations. Interestingly, the album itself, Juno borrows its name from a child that lay safe inside a womb and hadn’t yet experienced the world at all.
That’s the beauty of the 21st century though, one barely has to leave a room to travel far and wide. Parra for Cuva’s previous highly acclaimed album, Paspatou, titled after the butler of Jule Verne’s “Around The World In 80 Days”, already hinted at the musician’s worldly outlook. It also carved a unique position for Parra for Cuva as an artist, who brought a truly original sound to electronic music by mixing emotional dance floor experimentations with acoustic and ethnic soundscapes. Juno takes this global interaction further with the participation of seven musicians from around the world, many of whom Nicolas met online and worked with remotely. For the artist, music-making isn’t about converging ideologies and world views, rather these multi- cultural collaborations were forged solely on the basis of a mutual love of music. In his studio, the diverse display of instruments – from bells to flutes to kalimbas and hang drums of all kinds – makes evident just how much Nicolas is an explorer of sound, “I don't believe in spirituality in music but there's definitely something when you take these traditional melodies and put them together with synths and beats – it takes you on a trip,” he says. Juno’s aptly named opener, Her Entrance, which features recordings of an Indian flute player Nicolas met somewhere in the desert of Rajasthan, feels indeed like an entryway into the world, in all its different colours, cultures and creeds.
Parra for Cuva has no problem in mixing it all up – vocals might come in the form of Ordel’s catchy English lyrics, sung by the Australian Kyson or by South African singer Bongewize Mabandla singing in his mother-tongue isiXhosa in Kamara. While the former track uses gentle guitar melodies by British neo-soul guitarist Beau Diako to inspire wander, the latter uses electronic grooves – provided by German analog synthesizer guru Moglii – to do just the same. Genre-wise there’s also a big compound in Juno that spans downtempo to house with pit stops in hip-hop and pop rhythmics, it’s part of Parra for Cuva’s style to surprise listeners, “I always want to have something weird that you wouldn’t expect in my music,” explains the musician. Manila Palm which starts off as the album’s more accessible and straightforward track, suddenly reveals itself through an unpredictable chorus of heavy bassline and a James Brown-style drumset. Somehow having this many influences and styles in the album doesn’t make Juno one bit incoherent – the tracks fit in and flow into one another perfectly. It’s music that’s in constant movement, seeping slowly and carrying you along with it. Despite being based in the city of techno, Parra for Cuva’s music stands in sharp contrast to Berlin’s distinguished hard electronica. Nicolas is making music much more akin to contemporaries such as Christian Loffler and Max Cooper, who are unafraid of infusing their electronic productions with warm, oftentimes melancholic, analog sounds, “As a musician, I see myself as more mature. My sound is calmer, wiser I think,” reflects Nicolas.
Juno is an entrance into a world that’s multi-cultural and teeming with diversity, but it’s also a serene and peaceful space. Given the year at hand, this entry might also be seen as an escape from our current limited and at times polarized reality. Juno is a meditative and dreamy journey, ever challenging the listener with subtle twists that interrupt the hypnotic groove. “Forget language and all of that and just listen. That’s how I want people to listen to the songs, not thinking about it too much,” says Parra for Cuva.
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orbit
orbit is the dream pop project of 26 year old producer and songwriter Marcel Heym. With a soundscape marked by a blend of raw acoustic guitars and atmospheric synth leads, orbit combines imagery of life in the countryside with a longing for higher purpose.
At the age of seventeen, Marcel gained international stage experience with his first rock band, which he formed together with his brother Patrick. As teenagers they played shows in Shanghai, Los Angeles, London as well as major festivals in Germany. After becoming a music producer in his early twenties and moving to Berlin, Marcel realised he could not find happiness in the noise of the metropolitan jungle. Some weeks after escaping the city and going back to his hometown he launched his first own music project in dedication to his roots. Six months after the Debut of his EP “Perspectives”, orbit gave his first live performance together with his friends and collaborators Morlin Baginski and Nils Oswald. The session recorded at 'Tonstudio Tessmar' in Hannover got released in October 2020.
Instead of being a shiny new product of the music industry, orbit increasingly turned into a multidimensional place for creativity and a real community inside and outside the internet. Going without the help of bigger music companies, Marcel and his friends have formed a collective that realises various kinds of projects, including artworks, videos and handmade merchandise.
In Spring 2021, along the latest release “Summer Someday“, orbit called up his followers to co-organise concerts in their hometowns. A few months later Marcel and his friends played over 20 shows at private festivals, in wild forests and backyards all across the country. The tour soon became an expedition into the depth of German independent culture and a movement of true human connection.
In 2022 orbit expanded circles, playing the first festival summer and support shows for Parra For Cuva all around Europe. orbit’s latest Project “Fever Dreams” got released in May 2022. In seven days of covid quarantine Marcel wrote and produced seven songs and uploaded them right away on YouTube. After many fan requests the songs were later officially released on all platforms.
Alongside the release of his quarantine tape orbit announced his first club tour in
Germany, Switzerland and Austria in Winter 2022.