Frieder Nagel Artist Bio

Having grown up in the music scene of Southern Germany, Nagel spent his childhood mainly backstage – sleeping in cars while his father played in jazz clubs, or bored during the endless orchestra rehearsals of his mother. While he never took proper classes to learn an instrument, the young autodidact could always count on his hearing. After moving to Berlin at 17, Nagel soon started working in the music business – at first with small student-jobs and later as a producer. He created his studio Resonant Workshop, a self-built wooden room-in-room construction to craft music and sound design.

He is known for managing projects in venues ranging from theatres to clubs, for concerts to audio-visual experiments – working with artists like David August, La Boum Fatale and Daniel Brandt (Brandt Brauer Frick). The first time he appeared on stage, in 2016 at Berlin’s infamous Radialsystem V, armed with several synthesizers, effects, drum machines, one grand piano; and backed by the German Symphony Orchestra (DSO).

Now finally Nagel ́s first solo work “Distract Robots” will be released by French label InFiné. This 12″ has become an album in miniature with a final polish by mastering guru Zino Mikorey – known for his work for Nils Frahm ́s All Melody. This EP offers up a mystical world, full of warm synths and detailed sound clusters morphing into each other to form utterly dark and dystopian ballads. Nagel gets lost in obsessively endless sessions with his instruments. He isolates himself and spends night after night drifting away from reality. The result is that his tracks carry moments of utterly deep relief and deliverance, as well as despairing sadness and stoical escapism.

Despite its melodic complexity, improvisational skills and vivid drums, Distract Robots is rooted with one foot in the basement of an underground club featuring loops building up with unescapable pressure, majestic voice samples, and analog sawtooth wavefronts – while still reminding listeners of an electrified music combo playing live. This EP has become Nagel ́s long-awaited step away from behind the studio desk to finally addressing the audience directly. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.