German ensemble Kulku have persisted with a practice of primarily experimenting with an acoustic sound, partly as a reaction against the waves of electronic music that emanated from Berlin at the time of their initial formation, over 20 years ago. “I love electric guitars, but it was interesting for us to have acoustic instruments swinging together in a room,” admits co-founder and lyricist Wenzlovar, speaking to Oli Warwick in The Wire 482, “and if you have less electric instruments it works better. Reducing your sound to instruments which have only one tone leads you to a certain way of making music – you have to work with dynamics, louder and quieter.”

Though their activity stretches back over decades, Kulku have only worked on a handful of physical releases. The most recent, Fahren, was released by Glasgow label Phase Group in 2022. Reset To Be is their fourth album, and the group share two tracks from the running order for the first time here.

“There are some things you just can’t record,” declares multi-instrumentalist and Kulku member Max Gassmann. “Trying to render Kulku’s energy on record is very difficult, but the new records capture something we’ve been trying to reach for a long time.”

Read the full interview by Oli Warwick in The Wire 482. Wire subscribers can also read the magazine online via the digital library. Reset To Be is released by Phase Group in April.