Niklas Paschburg

Born in Hamburg, Germany, pianist and composer Niklas Paschburg crafts pastoral instrumental works that merge warm acoustic textures with electronic atmospheres. Much as his fellow Germans Nils Frahm and Hauschka do, he roots his music in a strong sense of place while drawing inspiration from weather patterns and the natural world. The meditative Oceanic served as his first full-length album upon its 2018 release, and he later joined forces with Lamb’s Andy Barlow to shape the 2020 follow-up Svalbard. He sustained his blend of post-classical, pop, and electronic approaches on the 2023 album Panta Rhei.

After introducing himself with the pulsing 2014 single “Dawn,” Paschburg issued a more structured project in the form of the six-track Tuur Mang Welten EP, which Unperceived Records put out in 2016. He subsequently signed with the Berlin label !K7 and delivered Oceanic, his debut full-length, in early 2018. The single “Blooming (in C Minor),” an interpretation of Bach’s “Preludes in C Minor,” followed in 2019. Paschburg wrote his next album while in Norway and enlisted Andy Barlow of the U.K. duo Lamb to help complete the project; Svalbard appeared in 2020 and was succeeded the next year by Post-Svalbard, a set of remixes and remakes. Additional standalone pieces included “Synchronised Valve,” issued on Deutsche Grammophon, and 2022’s “Riva,” a collaboration with Frank Wiedemann (Âme, Howling). His third album, Panta Rhei, arrived in 2023; the contemplative yet playful record featured guest vocalists luìsa, Bianca Steck, and Kaktus Einarsson.