Sometimes it’s astonishing what people can do with a lot of time on their hand - the music made by HEIMLICH MANØVER is just another proof for it. We reviewed their first EP (here) and are very happy to host this playlist compiled by the duo from Northern Germany. The guys have incorporated tracks by acts as diverse as Hugar, Trentemøller, Angeloa Badalamenti, Utopia Union, Pray for Sound, Bohren & Der Club of Gore, William Ryan Fritch or Nils Frahm. Enjoy!

“Maybe it took a lockdown light version and the ensuing reduction of contact with other people for Jan & Bernd to find a starting point. A long time before the pandemic both shared the idea of joining forces in order to produce some calmer sounds than the ones they normally recorded with their instrumental rockband MMTH. At first they met regularly once a week in the evenings and began working on a new fragment every week all the while recordings their ideas without really thinking about it. Having been friends for more than 20 years they also lost sight of each other a few times alongt the way. Only when they founded MMTH together with two other mates their bond grew much tighter and closer. Since then they always exchanged musical suggestions and when Jan showed Bernd the Icelandic duo Hugar and one of their live-sessions on YouTube, that sparked the idea, to get together as a duo and work on some such ideas without any specific goals in mind.

Shared visits to the cinema and suggestions for movies also unravelled a common love for science-fiction movies as well as their oftentimes highly atmospheric soundtracks.

This mixtape shall not discover any secret sources of inspiration, because some obvious similarities between the tracks on our EPs (Fragments 01 and 02) and some of the tracks on here can simply not be denied.

As many know, Mogwai have already composed many soundtracks alongside their regular full-lengths and those soundtracks are always amazing. Another big inspiration was the album Waiting Room of the (unfortunately) a little less famous band Pray For Sound, which also follows a calmer train of thought and which was a favorite for Jan and Bernd long before the formation of HEIMLICH MANØVER

During the songwriting-process both of us also dove deeper into similar soundscapes, re-discovered some older stuff (Angelo Badalamenti or Trentemøller) and also found new faves (Nils Frahm, Tim Hecker, etc.)”