“The music of German recording artist Peter Voigtmann can be characterised in many ways, but above all it constitutes the reflection of an intricate personality. These five songs, released in close collaboration with video artist Fabian Willi Simon under the SHRVL moniker, are the result of a timeless struggle between the artist and his ego.

Peter spent many years on and off writing, recording and mixing these songs in a musty room overlooking the grim structures of the desolate harbour of Hamburg, while struggling with the self-doubt that comes with writing music. He calls it the impostor syndrome – the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills – and it is this struggle that feeds the music on EP I, which is aptly titled not only because it is the first SHRVL release, but also because it concerns a theme which is deeply personal yet strikingly universal.

EP I is a dark universe protruding from the careful interplay of analog synths, live drums and percussions. Haunted by samples from old records and an old Russian piano, these are sounds that envelop you as you curl up on your bed, pushing you right back into the chasm from which you crawled out of.”

– Robert Westerveld