OUT: album 'Bananenkiste' by Fruchtmax
After over a year of releasing singles, Fruchtmax’s album 'Bananenkiste' is now out. Street rap straight from Kreuzberg, featuring many well-known artists and Fruchti’s signature humor
Peter Sempel has passed away
It is with deep sadness and grief that we have learned of the passing of director Peter Sempel. He passed away during the night from Thursday to Friday at Marienkrankenhaus in Hamburg, shortly before his 72nd birthday, which would have been today, March 24, 2026.
We shared a long-standing personal and professional friendship with Peter Sempel. Almost none of his wonderful films were made without a track from our catalog; in particular, his friendship and admiration for Frank Ziegert of Abwärts led to numerous appearances in his films. But Blixa Bargeld, both as an actor and through the music of Einstürzende Neubauten, and most recently Derya Yıldırım in his last major work, ARTISTAS, were also featured by him and lovingly integrated into his films. With Peter Sempel, we have lost one of the great independent, unique, and pioneering filmmakers. In his New Year’s card, he wrote: “How lucky we are!! To work with music, to play… yippee!!! Keep on going!! With luck and good energy!” We will miss him and his good energy.
OUT: album 'Cloud Chamber' by Material Object
What Material Object says about his new ambient album:
"Nary a overbearing, lingustically savant automaton is to be found here, just an assortment of luxuriant, billowing stratocumuli of monochromatic vapour, inducing deepest brain wave states in the listener and eventually coming to the fore as something like the loading menu at the end of existence."
OUT: album 'Meine Sterne fallen' by Kiev Stingl
Kiev Stingl is "Hamburg’s proto-punk superstar" (Rolling Stone), "the forgotten genius of German pop" (taz), "Germany’s Most Wasted" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), "the unjustly forgotten genius of the last 50 years of GEMA" (laut.de). And it was with arranger and producer Niklas David, one half of the art-pop duo Audiac, whom Stingl worked on his final album up to the very end.
On the second anniversary of Stingl's death, 20 February 2026, Klangbad – the label of Hans-Joachim Irmler, founding member of the legendary Krautrock band Faust – will release Stingl's swansong and musical legacy, 'Meine Sterne fallen' (My Stars Are Falling).
OUT: album 'Paper Masks' by Phew & Danielle de Picciotto
'Paper Masks' marks a striking new collaboration between visionary Mute labelmates Phew and Freibank's long term partner Danielle de Picciotto. Developed quietly over nearly five years, what began as an experiment between friends gradually evolved into a full length album. Phew composed and arranged all the music, weaving in de Picciotto’s voice and freely reshaping it to create something entirely new. Performed in both German and English, the result is an exploratory work that balances electronic minimalism with emotional immediacy.
new signing: Efkaes
Efkaes makes bedroom soul music that deals with a mixture of depression, hope, and psychosis. All of this is accompanied by lots of feel-good music. He is currently finalizing his first real album, which will be released on the influential label Sichtexot.
Derya Yıldırım for NDR Kultur
"She is a singer and multi-instrumentalist, but her most important instrument is the bağlama, a lute with centuries of tradition, inextricably linked to Anatolian folk music. Derya Yıldırım grew up in Hamburg, has Turkish roots, and naturally combines cultural influences in her pieces. She studied classical music, played the piano, and immersed herself in Beethoven, Bach, and Schubert. Today, she and her band Grup Şimşek represent modern “Anadolu Rock,” a musical style that combines Turkish folk music with Western rock, among other influences. The band is currently on tour in Europe with their new album."
Watch the interview -> here <-
OUT: album 'Take Me Back To Nowhere' by A.S. Fanning
With 'Take Me Back To Nowhere', A.S. Fanning presents a work that does not dwell on answers, but rather asks the right questions. The fourth solo album by the Berlin-based Irish songwriter unfolds like a floating state between inner turmoil and melancholic clarity. Deutschlandfunk Kultur has already named it album of the week!