Biography
Grandbrothers craft a distinctive blend of contemporary classical and electronic music by generating intricate rhythms and harmonies through a grand piano fitted with electromagnetic hammers. Their debut full-length, Dilation, surfaced in 2015, while later projects such as the 2021 release All the Unknown leaned further into dance-oriented territory. The more atmospheric Late Reflections arrived in 2023 after being recorded inside the Cologne Cathedral.
Erol Sarp and Lukas Vogel first crossed paths as students at a university in Düsseldorf, Germany, where they began refining and merging their abilities to establish Grandbrothers. Sarp arrived with formal jazz piano training, and Vogel brought hands-on experience constructing synthesizers at Access Music. Drawing on these complementary skills, the pair fused classical composition with modern production methods. Their initial single, “Ezra Was Right,” emerged from this approach and received sustained support from radio DJ Gilles Peterson, who featured the track repeatedly on his program.
The duo issued their first album-length project in 2015 through the Film label. Dilation combined techno, ambient music, minimalism, and IDM by means of an unconventional setup in which piano was activated through a self-designed system of electro-mechanical hammers, producing a novel sonic identity. They later aligned with the independent City Slang imprint for their next LP. Open appeared in 2017 and extended the expansive textures introduced on the debut; the single “Bloodflow” preceded it and was reworked by producers including Lone and Brainwaltzera.
Grandbrothers placed greater weight on the dance dimensions of their sound with their third album, All the Unknown, which surfaced in 2021. They contributed a reinterpretation of “Gnossienne No. 1” to Fragments, a 2022 anthology of Erik Satie reworkings. The same year the duo performed inside the 700-year-old Cologne Cathedral, composing music expressly suited to the building’s vast dimensions and resonant acoustics. Late Reflections, captured at the cathedral ahead of that concert, was released in 2023.
Erol Sarp and Lukas Vogel first crossed paths as students at a university in Düsseldorf, Germany, where they began refining and merging their abilities to establish Grandbrothers. Sarp arrived with formal jazz piano training, and Vogel brought hands-on experience constructing synthesizers at Access Music. Drawing on these complementary skills, the pair fused classical composition with modern production methods. Their initial single, “Ezra Was Right,” emerged from this approach and received sustained support from radio DJ Gilles Peterson, who featured the track repeatedly on his program.
The duo issued their first album-length project in 2015 through the Film label. Dilation combined techno, ambient music, minimalism, and IDM by means of an unconventional setup in which piano was activated through a self-designed system of electro-mechanical hammers, producing a novel sonic identity. They later aligned with the independent City Slang imprint for their next LP. Open appeared in 2017 and extended the expansive textures introduced on the debut; the single “Bloodflow” preceded it and was reworked by producers including Lone and Brainwaltzera.
Grandbrothers placed greater weight on the dance dimensions of their sound with their third album, All the Unknown, which surfaced in 2021. They contributed a reinterpretation of “Gnossienne No. 1” to Fragments, a 2022 anthology of Erik Satie reworkings. The same year the duo performed inside the 700-year-old Cologne Cathedral, composing music expressly suited to the building’s vast dimensions and resonant acoustics. Late Reflections, captured at the cathedral ahead of that concert, was released in 2023.
Albums
Singles
