Tom Schneider, AJ Nilles – Four Pieces for Viola and Sampler on Macro Recordings

Tom Schneider, AJ Nilles lays down 4 tracks of refined bass / club on Macro Recordings with “Four Pieces for Viola and Sampler”, a record built to last. Spanning 71–130 BPM across its 4 tracks, this release gives DJs flexible tempo options for different set moments.

Four Pieces for Viola and Sampler [Macro Recordings]

Behind the Bass / Club : Release Notes

Some musical ideas are less concerned with adding new sounds than with fundamentally rethinking the relationship between the sounds already present. ‘Four Pieces for Viola and Sampler’ begins with a deliberately narrow premise: every sound heard on the album either originates from or is aimed at a single viola. The instrument becomes the source and center of an expanding musical ecology, continuously transformed while remaining unmistakably itself. The dialogue unfolds between AJ Nilles – Allan Nilles of the Berliner Philharmoniker – and Tom Schneider, whose work with KUF and Loom & Thread over the past decade has established the sampler as an instrument of remarkable expression and responsiveness. Rather than treating electronics as accompaniment or contrast, Schneider approaches them as a means of entering the inner life of acoustic performance. Every processed gesture remains tethered to its origin, preserving the physical trace of the string while opening perspectives that the instrument alone could never produce. The recordings emerged from sessions in the Kammermusiksaal of the Philharmonie Berlin and Schneider’s studio. Across these contrasting environments, the musicians pursued a process that blurs the familiar distinctions between composition, improvisation and interpretation. Nilles performs with complete commitment to the immediacy of the moment; Schneider listens, transforms and returns fragments of that performance almost instantaneously. Musical time folds back onto itself. A single tone may reappear as resonance, harmonic field, rhythmic impulse or fragile memory while the viola continues to chart its own path forward. Despite the sophistication of its means, the music never presents technology as an object of fascination. The electronic processes remain almost disarmingly transparent, inviting the listener to focus not on technique but on gestalt. Familiar instrumental gestures gradually reveal unsuspected dimensions: the grain of the bow becomes architecture, fleeting harmonics unfold into sustained spaces, and the afterlife of a phrase acquires an expressive weight equal to its first appearance. What initially seems to be reflection quietly assumes the role of a second voice. The title is almost understated. Four pieces. Yet each investigates a distinct musical proposition, exploring how memory, resonance and transformation may become structural principles rather than decorative effects. The resulting forms possess the clarity of chamber music while unfolding with the unpredictability of live performance. Nothing is fixed beyond the commitment to listening. What ultimately defines ‘Four Pieces for Viola and Sampler’ is neither virtuosity nor technological innovation, but a rare kind of profound musical amalgamation. The album inhabits a space where instrumental tradition and electronic imagination cease to function as opposing ideas. Instead, they become different manifestations of the same musical thought: one that regards sound not as a finished object, but as a living material whose possibilities continue to unfold long after the initial gesture has disappeared.

Download ‘Four Pieces for Viola and Sampler’ in MP3, FLAC, and AIFF Formats

Bass / Club Tracklist

1. Tom Schneider, AJ Nilles – I Original Mix

   Ambient / Experimental | 101 BPM | D Minor | 13:40

2. Tom Schneider, AJ Nilles – II Original Mix

   Ambient / Experimental | 71 BPM | Db Minor | 7:28

3. Tom Schneider, AJ Nilles – III Original Mix

   Ambient / Experimental | 93 BPM | G Minor | 14:12

4. Tom Schneider, AJ Nilles – IV Original Mix

   Ambient / Experimental | 130 BPM | G Minor | 5:03