What does romance sound like when the future refuses to settle? On Times New Romance, German duo qrauer & TAPE SHIFTER answer with five original tracks that treat intimacy as something playful, surreal, and a little uneasy. The EP has been out since November 6, 2026, on Sonderling Records (cat. no. Beso05, issued through its Besonderling Rec. imprint), and it fits the label’s curatorial instincts neatly.
The label. Sonderling Records is an independent electronic music label based in Berlin, founded and run by the renowned German producer Dapayk Solo. Its diverse, forward-looking curatorial approach has grown into a complete sonic ecosystem of specialized sub-labels: deep house and melodic techno on Sonderling Berlin, experimental electronica on Frickel, and ambient on Kopfsprung. With this release, the Berlin platform reaffirms its commitment to musical innovation, stretching the limits of the dancefloor through meticulous productions and an unmistakable underground identity.
The artists. qrauer is a German electronic music project spanning orchestral soundscapes, energetic minimal techno, innovative IDM and genre-defying collaborations. Its music runs from orchestral drones with glitch effects and delicate lo-fi pianos to minimal rhythms and moments of gloriously surprising complexity, yet it almost never sacrifices danceability.
Tape Shifter is the solo project of drummer and producer Demian Kappenstein, based in Dresden. Trained in jazz drumming in Dresden and experienced in international touring with bands such as ÄTNA and Masaa, he fuses tradition and innovation in a truly singular way. As Tape Shifter, he combines old tapes of jazz, meditation and folklore with the raw pulse of drum machines, creating an improvised, constantly evolving dance flow. The result is a sonic experience that is at once hypnotic and deeply physical.
The collaboration. Now the two meet on a record whose own description invites us to “imagine something halfway between Modeselektor, DJ Koze and Daphni”: a fun, unconventional addition to your collection, with live experimental electronics, dreamy melancholy, irregular rhythms and heavy bass. Times New Romance explores romance and intimacy in times of uncertainty, with a playful, surreal touch. It features Paul Frick (Brandt Brauer Frick, Tangerine Dream) and Moritz Fasbender, the electronic music alias of composer Friederike Bernhardt.
Cudo (feat. Paul Frick). A rather cheerful, colorful portrait of sound, in which the record’s experimental quality is briefly announced. From lush vegetation and deep feelings about existence, the sound shows a warm, subtle, quite calm emergence. It is the condition of possibility for quickening the sound, whose sonic rails gravitate between experimental tension and carefree freedom.
Times New Romance. We arrive quickly at the title track, probably a wink at the famous typeface of the famous word processor, though we can’t be sure. The sound loosens itself somewhat from the experimental moorings, showing a latent warmth firmly secured by rhythmic vines that accompany the sonic center of gravity very well. And just as quickly we reach a kind of nostalgic indie neon rave semantics that coats the whole sound and gives the track a privileged position in retrospect.
Blaue Decke. A mastery of sound design that is plastic, volatile, expansive and symmetrical. This time the dense vegetation is glimpsed far away, where the modern world perhaps doesn’t want to be the world, or wants to withdraw from it in order to inspect it better. And as it arrives, it leaves, with a beautiful flash of fleetingness.
Fun Fact (feat. Moritz Fasbender). It focuses on sonic millimetrism, from where it gains a privileged view of small things and can reflect in absolute calm. That calm also echoes contemporary anxieties, in a sound that plays with levels of depth that evoke those sensations.
Warteschleife. The closer plays with two effects through sound: total experimentation and the exit toward the club. Either we focus on sonic introspection, or on the dance of bodies. The sound doesn’t decide, probably because it wants us to decide…
Taken as a whole, the record is a new romance in uneasy times, a fragile flower descending into orbit, a happy place in the middle of everyday life. A peculiar couple in a frame hanging on the wall of your grandparents’ house.
Artist: qrauer & TAPE SHIFTER
Title: Times New Romance
Label: Sonderling Records
Release Date: November 6, 2026
Support & Buy: Bandcamp
Tracklist
1. Cudo (feat. Paul Frick) 02:52
2. Times New Romance 03:31
3. Blaue Decke 03:21
4. Fun Fact (feat. Moritz Fasbender) 03:03
5. Warteschleife 03:34
Credits
Written by Demian Kappenstein & Christian Grochau
Except «Cudo» written by Demian Kappenstein, Christian Grochau & Paul Frick, Except «Fun Fact» written by Demian Kappenstein, Christian Grochau & Friederike Bernhardt
Produced and mixed by Christian Grochau
Tape Master by Jacob Korn (tailout.de)
Vinyl Cut by Niklas Worgt (ilovevinyl.de)
Artwork by Jonny Polka (jonnypolka.com)
Besonderling Rec./Sonderling Records
Beso05
qrauer
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Tape Shifter
Sonderling Records
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Club Furies
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