R. SCHAPPERT - Can't see the Rebel

ALBUM

With Can't see the Rebel we celebrate the first release of R. Schappert at KOMPAKT Distribution in spring 2025. The album will be published on the project label r-ecords. r-ecords was founded in 2022 and launched in the same year with ROUTE 1 (LP and digital) and ROUTE 2 (double LP and digital). A lot has happened in the meantime. The new album is not just a set of six tracks, but a cohesive work of sound that feels like a familiar dream that you can't quite remember, but can't forget either. It's an album that doesn't force itself on you - it drags you in. Right from the start, there is this interplay of movement and introspection. A fluid clarity that lays over the listener in waves, carried by a bass that not only provides structure but also creates confidence. Floating above it all are sounds that are not simply melodious, but seem like fragments of a collective consciousness - memories of moments that may never have happened, but still feel real. Between playful sparkling moments and clear rhythmic paths, a soundscape unfolds that takes its listeners seriously. Not as consumers, but as travel companions.

This album is full of departures without ever arriving. There are doors that open briefly - the view into a club where the light flickers. The music pulsates - suddenly the doors close. Are we outside or inside? The tracks make you feel what it's like when sounds dance - not only on the floor, but also around your head, inside, in the space between sensation and reflection.

At a time when everything seems to be getting faster, louder brighter, this album takes the freedom to take a stand and pause for a moment. It opens up where others hold tight. It thinks in circles instead of structures - and that is precisely why it seems so present. R. Schappert calls this organic digitality. Perhaps this is its greatest strength: it is a soundtrack for the uncertain, for the as yet undecided. For the moment before something begins - or ends. In the best moments, something arises that has become rare in electronic music: a feeling of sincerity. Not a pose, not a quote - but expression. An album like looking through a half-opened door. Behind it: Space. Potential. Sound. And the invitation to linger, to dance, to dream.

TRACK

Can't see the Rebel is the title track of the album and unfolds like a sparkling moment between daydream and dance floor. A pearly, melodic sound composition that works with a clear structure and playful lightness - as if you were looking through an opening club door for a moment, only to be immediately drawn back into an inner world. The track combines a dreamy lightness with a booming depth that immediately gets under your skin. Like champagne on the tongue: the highs dance around your head, the synths float like petals in the spring wind. The bass provides support time and again, guiding you through dazzling sound chambers, opening up spaces that seem larger than they probably are. Between mind trip and physical flow. Can't see the Rebel appeals to both the body and the heart.

Roland Schappert founded the project label r-ecords.com in 2022 with the participation of music critic Joachim Ody. Initially, 3 LPs were planned in close succession, following the concept of inner and outer travelling and open to numerous influences of a musical and intellectual nature. ROUTE 1 (LP + digital) and ROUTE 2 (double LP + digital) were released in the same year. Distribution for Vinly for these first LPs was handled by a-musik, Cologne. 

‘Routes are distances between two points. They serve as orientation from a start to a destination. Roland Schappert achieves this with his music of an organic digitality, which is based on many years of practice, feeds on diverse sound languages and, with the technical possibilities of today, leads to a collection of contemporary musical structures.’ — Joachim Ody

On the one hand, the project label stands for abstraction and clarity; on the other, it creates sound spaces for diverse associations, images as well as memories and dreams.

Releases of sessions together with other musicians are planned.

Biography

Roland Schappert verfolgt Grenzgänge in Form einer „organischen Digitalität“ oszillierend zwischen Melos, Klang und Rhythmus. Er entwickelt eine prägnante Tonsprache, die allen Tracks innewohnt und die eine angenehme emotionale Wärme ausstrahlt. Der Musiker kreiert jeden Syntheziser-Sound individuell und strebt dabei stets nach organisch klingendem Variantenreichtum. Eine tiefe, warme Bassline legt oft das Fundament für eine ausdrucksvolle Stimmung, ergänzt durch abwechslungsreiche eindringliche Beats und umgekehrt, abgerundet durch pointierte atmosphärische Sounds. Manchmal erklingen lediglich komplex alternierende Tonfolgen und laden zum Träumen ein.

Roland Schappert pursues border crossings in the form of an “organic digitality” oscillating between melos, sound and rhythm. He develops a concise tonal language that is inherent in all tracks and radiates a pleasant emotional warmth. The musician creates each synthesizer sound individually, always striving for an organic-sounding variety. A deep, warm bass line often lays the foundation for an expressive mood, complemented by varied, insistent beats and vice versa, rounded off by pointed atmospheric sounds. Sometimes only complex alternating tone sequences are heard, inviting the listeners to let their mind wander.