Photo: Dan Medhurst

Two years on from the release of All The Unknown, Grandbrothers are ready to follow it up with their fourth album. Entitled Late Reflections, the new album was recorded in the iconic Cologne Cathedral following a surprising invitation from the church’s master builder and architect, Peter Füssenich back in 2019. On the run up to the performance, which took place last summer, the duo of German-Turkish pianist Erol Sarp and Swiss engineer/mechanic/sofware designer Lukas Vogel ended up writing a whole album. Vogel elaborates:

“The first idea was to only have one or two songs specially made for the concert. This concert came closer, and we were there to have the first test of the acoustics. We were really impressed by this place. Sound-wise, it is really huge, and especially at night, when nobody else is in the Cathedral, it’s so breathtaking. During the process, we realized that this environment makes it so much fun and challenging to write music for this place.”

The actual recordings were done before the concert but it bears the influence of such a monumental and historical building and is reportedly more ambient and atmospheric. “On our previous album we went into a more physical and club-influenced direction,” Sarp said. “This album, we just said, ‘Let’s see what happens and be free to go more into ambient, or more atmospheric, experimental sound spheres.”

We’ll have to wait until April 14th for Late Reflections to be out through City Slang but Grandbrothers are already enticing us with a grand and gripping single, ‘Infinite’, accompanied by a video. Watch it now.