Martin Roth - Mono No Aware (2022)

Electronic music heavyweight Martin Roth will release his second full-length, piano-led album 'Mono No Aware' on Reflections this fall, the new sister label of Anjunadeep. Roth is well-known for his ability to glide between genres while maintaining a distinct, instantly-identifiable style, and his new release is no exception. With this 13-track album, Roth moves away from the club space and into his classical pianist background to explore themes of impermanence, fatherhood and simplicity.

Roth prefers to describe the album as minimalistic rather than ambient with each track stripped back to create space for one leading sound, instrument or melody. This results in an immersive listening experience, and instead of being pulled in multiple directions, we’re gently led to wherever Roth wants us to go.

Joining the Anjuna label family back in 2008 with a remix of Above & Beyond's trance anthem ‘Miracle' on Anjunabeats, Martin Roth has since provided numerous standout moments within the Anjunadeep back catalogue including ‘Have You Ever’, 'Organic Brewed Hipster Funk’ and 2012 label classic 'Beautiful Life’. During lockdown, while Anjunadeep launched their series of ambient VA compilations, Roth moved from club to piano-led music and the release of his first full-length downtempo album, 'An Analog Guy In A Digital World'.

Roth says it’s no coincidence his two full-length albums are classical-leaning. His emotions pour out his hands and into the piano, and 'Mono No Aware' is an amalgamation of these stories and experiences. He began the writing process in mid-2021 while the world was still under COVID’s thumb, and says lockdown in Germany was the perfect backdrop to write an album steeped in melancholia. The nostalgia and impermanence even extends to the name – 'Mono No Aware' is a Japanese phrase which means awareness that everything fades away.

'Mono No Aware’ dives further into Roth’s analog past with simplicity and elegance. “I was feeling very comfortable with my production techniques,” Roth says. “But routine can become uninspiring. So I turned to real instruments again – piano, synthesisers, turning real knobs, pressing real buttons.”

'Alicia’s Noir’ is the first single from the album. It’s a haunting piano piece, inspired by cinematic scores and epic soundscapes. “It’s two piano lines talking to each other,” Roth says. “It’s a question and answer dialogue that represents this idea that everything will fade away.” Roth stripped the production back to its rawest form to ensure the listener can feel the power and urgency within the music.

Roth’s ambition for 'Mono No Aware' is that it touches the listener in the same way his first album did. “When I released 'An Analog Guy In A Digital World', suddenly I received messages from people all over the world,” Roth says. “They were long, heartfelt, heartbreaking messages, about how a certain track supported them through the hardest moments of their lives. The people who write these messages have no idea how much they are supporting me, so I hope the music on 'Mono No Aware' touches people in the same way.”