Mesmerising, orchestral, endlessly engaging, PIANO PARTICLES – the acclaimed musical project from composer, pianist & singer Steffen Wick and electronic sound artist Simon Detel – is, with its third album, about to enter its most exciting stage yet. Red, which follows Wick and Detel’s debut album White and its sequel Blue, will be the first record of theirs which puts vocals at its very centre.
The pair met during their studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart, and soon discovered a mutual interest in exploring musical tapestries without the limits of style or aesthetics. The classically-trained Wick planned to incorporate elements from electronica and pop into his work and in Detel, who has a background producing trance music, he found someone who was equally keen to blend analogue and digital instruments into distinct soundscapes.
From the moment they devised PIANO PARTICLES – a rich mix of pop, electronica and post-classical – their project has had a rewarding collaborative journey. In 2018, PIANO PARTICLES wrote several songs for the 3D animation movie Manou the Swift, with the voice cast led by Kate Winslet and Willem Dafoe; they have also found themselves in partnership with artists from the fields of dance, cirque nouveau and scenography. They have worked with several prominent choreographers, including Marco Goecke, Eric Gauthier and Tarek Assam, who have provided thrilling interpretations of their music.
As a result of these innovative displays, PIANO PARTICLES has won a number of prestigious accolades, among which are the German Cultural and Creative Pilot Award, the Visual Music Award, and the internationally renowned Red Dot Award. Along the way, they have performed at some of Europe’s celebrated events and venues, most notably when they headlined Particles, the contemporary music-theatre-circus show at Friedrichsbau Varieté Stuttgart, for more than 50 nights. Now, with their new album Red, PIANO PARTICLES are about to launch their most bold, compelling and accessible work yet.
