INTERVIEWS WITH ARTISTS FROM DETECT CLASSIC FESTIVAL 2024
Sometimes we need an escape from city life. A portal to another dimension. To be away from the noise and be surrounded by calming silence. A place to immerse in nature and be inspired by the sounds within. To be triggered by different types of converging energy. A space to reconnect with others and—most of all—with yourself. 
Every year, Detect Classic Festival offers such an escape. For the third time, the festival returned to the historic Schloss Bröllin estate in Northern Germany where music, community, and nature converge. Founded by musicians, the festival encourages a fluid exchange between performers and spectators, creating a space for the open-minded, inquisitive, and curious to experience different genres of music in boundary-defying forms in beautiful rural settings.
What was it like to travel out of the city to experience music in the midst of nature? We spoke to a few artists about their experiences at the festival.
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SEBASTIAN is from DIE WILDE JAGD, and he has been releasing records for about 10 years, working from his studio in Berlin and releasing them on a label called Bureau B. His latest album, Ophio, came out last year, and that’s the album they mainly played songs from at Detect Classic Festival. As influences for his music, he is really interested in repetition, so his go-to instrument is usually either the piano or a guitar. He works a lot with looper pedals. In general, he is quite interested in growing dynamics within music. He likes it when as little as possible happens, yet you feel that something is constantly changing. That’s what he likes about repetition and loops in general.
(DIE WILDE JAGD: Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Website)
What was it like travelling to the festival venue?
SEBASTIAN: I came here with my cellist, Lih Qun Wong. The drummer, Caroline Weber, traveled here separately. It was a really lovely drive from Berlin—this is a very dynamic and busy city. I was just taking in the view and having a really nice chat with Lih. I think drives are always a great opportunity to chat when you’re traveling with someone else. You start to talk about things you might not discuss when meeting up in a café in the city or something. It always feels like a portal to another dimension.
Going somewhere always triggers thoughts. It’s nice to see how the environment and nature changes the further out you go. It was also nice because it wasn’t just highways, but lovely little countryside roads. I love little things like people putting out vegetables or fruits for sale on the sides of the street.
I was also thinking a lot about what to expect here because I’d heard of the festival before but had never been. When traveling, there’s always a sense of anticipation about what’s to come—excited but with a hint of nervousness about the performance. But mainly, there’s joy and joyful anticipation.
How does it feel to perform in the picturesque countryside of Northern Germany? Do the natural surroundings here affect or inspire your music in some way?
SEBASTIAN: It’s lovely to be in the countryside. It is something I’ve been enjoying more and more lately. I’ve been spending more time in nature in general recently. Together with my partner, I got this little house with a garden in Senftenberg, which is about an hour and a half south of Berlin. In some ways, it’s a bit similar to the feeling here. So I really like getting out of the city and coming into nature.
I read somewhere that even just looking at a lot of green and countryside landscapes triggers positive chemicals in our brain. So I don’t see how it couldn’t be inspiring. The fact that we can stare into the distance or see things growing that we wouldn’t normally see in our cities is very inspiring. There’s always an element of nature in my lyrics.
I find that spending time in nature is always a great opportunity. Even if I’m not consciously writing or composing at that moment, I benefit so much from just being here—hearing all the different sounds, feeling the breeze, and seeing things grow.
I also thought it was very special to play in a place that’s so old. I feel that the life that has happened in a place that’s been around for 800 years, like Schloss Bröllin, means you can really feel the traces of that history. And one thing I found very interesting is how these places have been transformed in terms of their use.
So while there probably had been music played in the church back then, many of the other places, including the barn I performed in, were most likely not used for the purpose they were used for at this festival. It’s really nice to see how new generations, the “descendants” of those who originally inhabited these places, are now doing something completely different and bringing new life to them. I feel that in places like this, there’s always a certain strangeness and sense of alienation, which I think is a really nice energy to be performing in, especially since we’re so used to playing in more conventional music venues. From the structure to the materials used, like the high wooden roof that influences the acoustics, everything contributed to a very alien, in a good way, environment for performing, which I really enjoyed.
Were there any memorable moments from the festival?
SEBASTIAN: I think one of the most special moments was when I was listening to the performance group that was playing in the venue before I was able to set up on stage. It was, I think, a 20-piece choir that sang the most beautiful music. I watched part of the concert from inside the venue but then walked out towards the back, where my car was parked. I had to change and prepare some things before setting up the stage. I could still hear the choir from inside the venue, but I was also surrounded by incredibly beautiful nature and the sounds that come with it.
The audience was so quiet that you could really only hear the voices coming from inside, which mixed with the beautiful, eerie sunset nature noises. I think that felt particularly magical and was probably my favorite moment of the festival as a guest. I really enjoyed the performance and thought it was interesting how the audience almost separated into groups—some willing to move and dance, others sitting and chilling, and others standing and listening.
It felt to me like a group of people was very aware and considerate of what each part wanted to do, and they had probably already spent a lot of time together at the festival. I thought that was very beautiful to see as well.
Did you learn or discover anything from the entire experience at the festival?
SEBASTIAN: I have taken much joy back with me from the festival. It was also really nice to unexpectedly bump into some friends there whom I didn’t realize would be attending. And as I mentioned previously, traveling from the city I’m so used to—because I consider myself more of a city boy—into the countryside always feels like a portal to a new dimension.
And perhaps not even a new dimension, but an old one, because it feels like spending time in an area that’s less touched by the passing of time. I always feel very special being in those places. I also got to see some things I never usually see.
For instance, it was nice to drive from the festival to the hotel in the next village, which was about a 15-minute car ride. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a golf course right next to the hotel, which is something I don’t often see. It was funny to suddenly be standing on this golf course and see people pulling out their golf equipment. It’s a sight I’m not so used to.
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ERLAND COOPER writes music inspired by the natural world, people, places, and matter. He thinks music has the ability to transport you to a place, whether that’s real or imagined, an internal landscape or an external one. A lot of his work, especially the songs on his previous records (a trilogy inspired by the island he grew up on, in Orkney, Scotland), is about the elemental forces of those islands—the air, the sea, the land. These three records have not only enabled him to collaborate but also given him the confidence and encouragement to work with some of the best musicians. This means he is now able to compose with different colors of orchestra, orchestral articulations, electronics, and traditional orchestral techniques, textures, and colors.
(ERLAND COOPER: Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Website)
What was it like travelling to the festival venue?
ERLAND: I traveled from my studio in London to Berlin, where I met the players. We found a rehearsal space and created a show together, having not worked together for maybe six to nine months. It was lovely to form a nest-like feeling with each other. I call it my nest ensemble because we’re making music in the round, all looking at each other, creating a show. After that, we got in a little minibus and drove to the countryside. Leaving Berlin took a long time, but then the roads started to open up, and the country began to expand. The air felt brighter and bigger, and the landscape grew. We arrived on-site and were greeted like we were arriving in a giant nest. Again, the bird-like theme was growing, but we were so welcomed and taken to where we needed to be. We thought about how we could put on a performance that celebrated not just our connection with nature, but also the audience’s connection with nature in this special place, which feels like it’s being nurtured and grows every year. It seems quite restorative, safe, welcoming, and a place to nourish and grow. 
How does it feel to perform in the picturesque countryside of Northern Germany? Do the natural surroundings here affect or inspire your music in some way?
ERLAND: There was a moment in the middle of the concert, in the beautiful barn with sunlight pouring through large doors and windows into this lovely acoustic space, surrounded by fields of crops, trees, and wildflowers. It felt really appropriate to try an experiment. I asked the audience to go to this site on their phones. We’re always encouraged to put our phones away, but I asked everyone to take them out. It created this fantastic, awkward energy. As an experiment, it could go completely wrong, and that’s okay. It’s just music. It doesn’t matter. A large group of people started to go towards this particular link. Then, before we knew it, I think for the first time, the barn was full of the sound of blackbirds. I thought to myself, what better way to celebrate the natural world than to echo the sounds of birdsong back as music to us, performing music to you. I was inspired by being here. When I do an experiment, I’m reminded of two things. One, to never stop having childlike curiosity. Two, the original form of music really is the natural world. Before humans invented or had the ability to create music, there were birdsong and the sounds of the natural world—the weather, the changing sounds. It’s the original form of music, isn’t it? It’s not uncommon for composers to have been inspired by that, and I’m trying to find ways to dig a little deeper.
Were there any memorable moments from the festival?
ERLAND: I think turning all the lights off, turning off all the sound desks, and just hearing the barn—and then hearing the embers of the experiment I had done before with the birdsong, and realizing it was the sound of birds from outside coming in—was really special. Sometimes we don’t get an opportunity to truly hear silence. In fact, I know that somebody came in and shouted, “Turn it up!” But I think sometimes, and what better place to do it, it’s quite bold to do an experiment like this at a festival, where there is usually a lot of noise, particularly kick drums and similar sounds. But to go the other way and see how quiet we could get for a moment before bringing the lighting back in and bringing the sound and all the electronics back together was quite lovely.
It was inspired by talking to the promoter, who said that the year before, they had a power cut, so the whole festival had to be acoustic. They had to get a generator, and there must have been a period of complete silence before the generator arrived. It must have felt quite unnatural, and in that silence, we find ways to resonate and just be in that silence.
Did you learn or discover anything from the entire experience at the festival?
ERLAND: Yes, I learned two things. One should always be curious and experiment, and trust in your musicians. Also, you’ll find that the audience is very willing to enjoy it if you’re also enjoying it. We are all just trying to find that place together. It can take a while to find, but there should be no rush. It’s just about enjoying it, and we truly did. We were met with warmth, and I hope we returned that warmth.
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BOBBY RAUSCH is NICO STALLMANN (drummer), LUTZ STREUN (bass clarinet and effects), and OLEG HOLLMANN (baritone sax). Their music is instrumental, which makes it very open to many spaces, categories, and styles. They appreciate the spirit of jazz, feeling free to do whatever they like. They enjoy playing beats—especially electronic and hip-hop beats—and mixing them with the sounds they create. They love jazz, and listen to a lot of jazz, particularly music from the 50s, and from there, everything is an influence—whether it’s the 60s with Jimi Hendrix, the 70s with James Brown, the 80s with Metallica, the 90s with Nirvana, or the 2000s with artists like Daft Punk or Dr. Dre.
(BOBBY RAUSCH: Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Website)
What was it like travelling to the festival venue?
OLEG: This is an area where I am quite often, and I really enjoy the open spaces, and the feeling of the open sky around this area. It doesn’t feel like a journey to a foreign country. It’s more like visiting old friends.
LUTZ: Well, for me it’s a bit different because I have my kids with me, and on Wednesday in Berlin, the school ended. So, today I was driving with them here and looking at the nature, like Oleg just told us. It was the first time I felt that the holiday was starting. It was like really leaving town to go out to nature with the kids. I mean, it’s crazy. They have six and a half weeks off. We all know that’s the best time in life. And I was driving there, and I knew they have these six weeks in front of them. So, this is for them their start of that wonderful, magical time. That was in the air.
NICO: I was very impatient to get out of Berlin. I mean, in the beginning it was like we were riding and riding and riding. I thought, “Hey man, how long do you need to get out of this city?” And every half an hour I was asking Oleg, “Are we still in Berlin?”
Did performing in the natural surroundings here influence your music in some way?
LUTZ: Very much! I would say it influences our feelings on the stage especially, because we do play more or less the same songs, and we do the same things we want to do. And what we want to do is, we want to blast away all the thoughts, and just keep an intuitive vibe. And sometimes we have to work hard to bring in this vibe, and here we don’t need to work hard. After five seconds we have that vibe, and then we can just let go and fall into it. We played here, I think it was three years ago, and it was then already amazing, so we really looked forward to playing here again, and it was super, super cool once again. The people just really dig it. It’s a very special festival.
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AFAR is ELENA and JOSEPH. They are an Electronic and Psychedelic Krautwave band. They make electronic music without using a computer or laptop on stage. Everything they do comes from a live experience, a live jam session vibe. Everything they create in their music is not initially created in a studio; it’s created in other places where they can find their focus. These are often unique and special places they travel to, where they set up their own little pop-up studio.
(AFAR: Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Website)
What was it like travelling to the festival venue?
AFAR: The way out here is really nice. We live more in the north of Berlin, and from there, it’s always like a swamp. Berlin is like a swamp. A gravitational swamp. And although you’re not so far away from beautiful nature, it’s very hard to get out. So we came with our little bus where we can sleep. We left the little city swamp and pretty quickly were in a very beautiful area of woods and fields. The north of Brandenburg is just so beautiful. You really feel how you’re getting calmer and calmer while also feeling more awake because your eyes can look a little further and are not overwhelmed by so many things around you. It has this very beautiful calmness and awakeness at the same time.
It takes like one and a half hours for us to get here, and we know the street coming here so well. It’s like, “Oh, we’re here again.” We come to this place knowing that we have one week to create everything and seeing the raw place become the city of Utopia is very beautiful. It’s also always special to drive through the Uckermark to come here. We are on the northern edge of Uckermark here, and it’s the most beautiful place in Brandenburg for us. Even though we are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern now, it’s the northern edge of Uckermark.
When driving on the last road coming in here, you realize it’s really an old road. You see these old big trees and feel like you’re going down a path through nature. You already know it’s leading to some special place. This feeling is always great. There was this one place on our journey through the woods where we opened the windows. Coming from the hot city, the air felt so fresh. This forest air.
How does it feel to perform in the picturesque countryside of Northern Germany? Do the natural surroundings here affect or inspire your music in some way?
AFAR: We haven’t had a residency time, if you want to call it that, here, but it would actually be a nice idea to do so. By doing this festival and going so deep into these different worlds of music, it is already very inspiring for us to connect with all these different styles and to be part of this festival. It’s not necessarily that we are playing here that is inspiring. Like: because we are playing here, a new song is created. It is more the process of being involved with a project like this and really being open-minded to all sounds of music, connecting them and being in this world of intersectionality in music. Instead of being stuck in the thoughts of: “Oh, this is our sound, this is how we sound,” Detect Classic Festival reminds us to stay in the mindset of blending genres and just being open to letting the music flow as it comes. This is a very interesting thing about this festival in general: there is no specific genre, and the artists are very fluid in what they are doing. Being connected to this theme during the festival is the inspiring part and perhaps an influence on how we work.
And nature also affects us, of course. It would be very different if we were playing in a concrete bunker. We were playing in this old garden of the chateau, and this gives a totally different vibe and feeling. But more important is the vibe of the audience there. Because of all these different styles of music you can hear, the people are so different as well. The audience that goes to Detect are so open-minded. You can be very brave and experimental in what you choose to show them because you know they will have open ears and hearts to dive into it and really listen to things that need focus, calmness, and concentration. They’re willing to give us that, and they are also willing to do silly dances. They have the full palette of things. Sometimes they’ll even be sleeping.
And knowing this, you know there will always be very curious people, who will understand what your initial thought maybe was. And I think the room, the mood of the people, and the music are not separable because the room with the trees has a massive influence, I’m sure, on how the people are feeling. Like if the same thing took place in a bunker, it would still be amazing probably, but it would be a completely different mood. The trees are shaping the room in this case, like this floor is full of these old big trees. This, of course, affects how we feel, how the people are feeling, and, again, what the artists are playing or what we are playing. So, with every gig we have, I always find it so interesting—the connection between the room, the mood of the people, and us playing. It’s amazing to feel how this is always different.
At the church, there’s a little old graveyard with very, very old stones, and on these stones are written the names of the owners over the last hundreds of years. This brought to mind the legacy of people who spent their lives here to make this place into something. Everything is changing, for sure, and now this whole area gets a new life and a new meaning for so many people who are coming here. Although there might never be a stone for Detect, here we are in a new phase of creation and in some line of legacy.
It’s always something to think about when we create or do something in a special place. How is this changing the world? What is it actually doing, both in the big and the small? For us, Detect is a step, maybe a little step, in the right direction because it’s like a slice of utopia here.
And because you also asked how this influences our music, the ways of utopia, like the thought of old legacies or what is still happening in this world and then creating utopia, is a theme that we often create, either subconsciously or very consciously, in our music. It’s a lot about the craziness of things in our world and then also having this little utopia inside of you and how you work with this in the world. A lot of songs come from there. So, moving into places like this and creating things like this, of course, is part of us and how we write our music.
Were there any memorable moments from the festival?
ELENA: The first thing that comes to mind is the Dobrawa Czocher concert. Her music is just beautiful, and her whole presence—she’s really into it, and it can be seen and felt from the audience as well. This is why it was so special to me. The moment she said, “My biggest dream is for people to dance again because this was so special to me here,” from the last time she played at Detect Classic Festival.
People wanted to dance, but there were all these chairs, so no one wanted to be in the center, like being the performer because it was supposed to be about her. Everybody was a little shy and wanted to leave space for those seated to be able to see her. But then she said that she wanted people to dance, and some started coming to the sides and began dancing. This was already beautiful, seeing them sway to her music, and how happy it made her.
She looked over and was smiling, like, “Oh yes, people are dancing.” I think this is also so great about Detect in general. So many people coming from the classical music scene are not used to others who are so free, listening to the music however they want to. There’s not this etiquette of, “Oh, this is how I have to dress, this is how I have to sit.”
This always really moves me here. Then there was this point when she said, “Now my last two songs are coming,” and people finally went to the front and danced. I think they did it for her. They were like, “Okay, it’s her last two songs, we want to show her that we are here.”
It was so moving to see all these people dancing. Everybody looked so different and danced so differently. This whole thing—her music, then the mood of the people coming together—makes her music even more emotional because there is this intersection of audience. That completely blew my mind. I’m still getting goosebumps because afterwards, I was just so filled with emotion, and those are really the Detect moments for me when this happens.
JOSEPH: I would agree with that, and what touched me especially was seeing people dancing to classical music. It’s like reclaiming classical music because, back in the days when classical music was contemporary, it was totally normal to dance and move to it and have it as part of a party. All this etiquette, cliché, and elite behavior towards this kind of music is something that developed over the last centuries.
It’s not that old, and it’s not necessary. This is also something we can show here, and that’s what made me feel like reclaiming it and making it not something coming from some higher authority. It’s something made by artists and people like us, and we can connect with it and be together, feeling free with this music and not feeling it as some kind of elite trademark or something like that.
Did you learn or discover anything from the entire experience at the festival?
ELENA: I think I knew this already before and we had this at many concerts, but again it really sank into me that it doesn’t matter how many people are at a concert. We have experienced beautiful performances from artists here, and at times there are only five people sitting, or let’s say 20 or 30, but for a stage, sometimes that’s not a lot. It seems like five even though there are 20. But it really doesn’t matter. You look at them and feel the mood, and those 20 people are so into it and loving it. It means so much to them that it’s worth it. This is something I learn again and again. As an artist being on stage, sometimes you’re very confident, and then there are times when something happens, the room is doing something, or there are not so many people. You never know what happens when you’re playing. But then one person comes up and says, “Wow, this was the greatest concert I’ve ever seen. It changed my life.” And you really feel very messed up because you thought it was so bad—the room was not nice, maybe you didn’t hear yourself well. I didn’t feel that here this time, but sometimes at other places. So, it’s really always about remembering that if there’s one person that is really into it, it’s worth it. This is something I learned again here. I think it’s also something for our society in a bigger sense. It’s not about doing something that is always catchy or a mass product that reaches most people. Sometimes special things are meant for just a few people, and this is very precious.
(Photo credits: LUCIE SCHULZE and SOPHIA HEGEWALD)
From July 19th to 21st, 2024, the Detect Classic Festival returned for the third time to the historic Schloss Bröllin estate, celebrating the meeting point of classical and electronic music, with a special focus on vocal arts. Set in the serene Northern German countryside, Detect Classic Festival offers an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life to a beautiful rural setting where music, community, and nature converge. This year’s edition features over 80 acts across genres, including incredible performances by AFAR, Bobby Rausch, Die Wilde Jagd, and Erland Cooper. Initially founded by musicians, the festival encourages a fluid exchange between performers and spectators, creating a shared sense of community. Describing themselves as “a musical-dramaturgical team of inventors,” the Detect Classic Festival team has created a space for the open-minded, inquisitive, and curious to gather and experience classical, electronic, and experimental music in its fluid and boundary-defying forms.
https://detectclassic.com/
