FLUKIN' by SILVAN STRAUSS

Producer, drummer and Hamburg’s Jazz Prize Winner of 2021 Silvan Strauss has already been a household name in the German Jazz bubble when he released his debut LP „FACING“ (via KFR 2021) - a collection of Madlib-soaked beats with hazed-out contemporary jazz. The two years since Strauss stepped out as a solo artist and composer have been more than impressive: Fans were able to follow in real time how Strauss’ talent reached international spheres such as Montreux Jazz Festival (2022). Also virtually he gained momentum through his viral drum improvisation on IG and TikTok up to the point, where music giants like Pete Rock and Queen Latifah praised Silvan’s unique bounce.
Ever since Strauss has been working on designing a new sound for a follow up album. After much soul searching and a lot of trial and error he realized that he needed to go back to the source: Get into a great Studio with great artists, prepare a couple ideas - some quite rough, some rather developed and just play that material for three days. Eventually that’s when Strauss’ sophomore LP FLUKIN’ came to live as a project and a sound. It represents music made the way Silvan likes it best: light, uncomplicated and in collaboration with other artists, all recorded in a studio that so greatly captures the magic of music - namely Hamburg’s Clouds Hill Studio.
On FLUKIN’ Silvan focused on what he learned to do best: playing and interacting with other humans in real time, catching these organic moments of communication with and make each idea sound really lucid and strong. While FACING displayed Strauss’ talents to create tight loops and bounces, Strauss’ sophomore LP consists of real playing, more improvisation, less programming and most importantly more interplay.
FLUKIN’ features a range of artists that contributed to the vision - from Kabul Fire Records founder and mentor Farhot, TOYTOY band mate Alex Eckert, longterm collaborator & vocalist SALOMEA, British rapper Oscar #Worldpeace, Keys wizard Joe Armon-Jones, Gnawa musician Mehdi Qamoum or bassist Giorgi Kiknadze.
The album’s title „FLUKIN’“ is a made up extension of the word „fluke“ - a word commonly used for example in basketball commentary for an unlikely occurrence of chance, a surprising piece of luck or in Strauss case: Moments of lucky coincidences that can happen in improvised music while collaborating with different artists.
So FLUKIN’ equals his act of proactively making these flukes happen, dressed up in an 10 track LP that joins the world of Cautious Clay, Terrace Martin or Hiatus Kaiyote.