After a six-year hiatus, German producer Efdemin makes a powerful return with POLY, his fifth studio album on recently revived Ostgut Ton, the iconic imprint closely affiliated with Berghain.
As its title suggests, ‘POLY‘ is an exploration of rhythm, texture, emotion, and artistic identity. Spanning 11 tracks, Phillip Sollmann weaves a multidimensional tapestry of sound that both nods to techno’s origins and pushes into uncharted sonic territory.
Over the course of 60 minutes, the album traverses shifting landscapes: from mysterious, droning abstractions to stoic, pulse-driven structures that pull listeners back into the club. Moments of warmth and luminosity punctuate the haze, creating a delicate balance between introspection and propulsion.
The tone of POLY is subtle yet playful. It feels like an afterglow of decades spent on the dancefloor and in the studio, a synthesis of Efdemin’s many facets as DJ, composer, and researcher. The record captures the culmination of Sollmann’s polyphonic artistic identity, bridging the worlds of club culture, contemporary art, and academic inquiry.
The album’s cover features a striking photograph of a human ear by renowned German artist Isa Genzken, whose radical visual language serves as a fitting metaphor for POLY’s central theme: deep listening. The ear becomes a symbol of perception and connection — an invitation to experience sound in all its complexity, fragility, and force, and to discover its potential to unite diverse voices within a fractured reality.
‘POLY’ is scheduled for release 17th October via Ostgut Ton.
TRACKLIST
1. Drift
2. Poly
3. Signal to Noise
4. Rauris
5. Trophic Cascade
6. Aachen
7. Microphase
8. Radical Hope
9. Irrlicht
10. Lost Somewhere in the Day
11. Below the Surface