Klangkarussell

Salzburg, Austria

Swan Song

Electronic

Behind the Music

We like the idea of reporting about people who have no voice and we think Ian does a great job with this. That's why we jumped aboard. We actually did the same as we always do, starting with some chord progression and building around that. We also partnered with a friend, Johannes Winkler. Johannes is a composer of film scores and had already worked on some other tracks with us. It was great to spend time in the studio together. When we composed our music, we used sounds from the ocean and some radio messages too. The project helped us realize that there's much more happening on the ocean than we ever believed.

Klangkarussell
About Klangkarussell

The evocatively-named house production duo Klangkarussell - which translates to English as “Sound Carousel” - was formed in Salzburg, Austria by Tobias Rieser and Adrian Held. While Rieser originally used the name for his solo project, Held worked under the name “i herald” until the pair teamed up. The jazz-tinged instrumental, “Sonnentanz,” was issued in 2012 and eventually reached the Top Ten in six different countries, even hitting the number one spot in the Netherlands. When a vocal version - retitled “Sonnentanz (Sun Don't Shine)” and featuring British soul singer, Will Heard - was released the following summer, the track charted in both the U.K. and Ireland. The song was one of the first hits of what soon came to be known as tropical house — a laid-back, summer-y variation on deep house, often utilizing live instruments. In 2014, the duo released their second single, “Netzwerk (Falls Like Rain),” which featured vocalist Tom Cane. The song also became a hit and set the stage for the duo's debut full-length, “Netzwerk,” which appeared soon after. In 2015, the duo released a third version of their debut single, this time titled, “Sun Don't Shine” and featuring vocalist Jaymes Young. Singles, “Hey Maria” and “In the Crowd Alone” appeared in 2016, followed by “Time,” “Circuits” and “Good to Go” in 2017.

Winner of the 2021 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Innovation in Journalism

The Journalism behind the Music

All music in this project is based on The Outlaw Ocean, a New York Times Best-Selling book by Ian Urbina that chronicles lawlessness at sea around the world. This reporting touches on a diversity of abuses ranging from illegal and overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murder of stowaways, thievery of ships and other topics.

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