Berlin-based composer and sound artist Hanno Leichtmann created his album Outerlands on Villa Aurora’s historic organ. With its built-in percussion—including marimba, tubular bells, and other mechanical sound elements—the instrument is ideally suited to his distinctly rhythmic approach to sound.

Leichtmann composed on the same organ once played by Marta Feuchtwanger and Hanns Eisler. His fellowship at Villa Aurora inspired twelve intricately crafted “vignettes” that move between luminous transparency, rhythmic precision, and a minimalism infused with the atmosphere of Southern California.

Drawing on his background as a drummer, Leichtmann weaves the organ’s rich sonic resources into music that feels at once physical and weightless, poised between subtle echoes of minimal music and experimental electronics.

Text: Kathrin Jentjens

With a keen sense for charting new territories, Hanno Leichtmann‘s work spawns a multitude of languages that go from delicate ambient excursions to techno explorations or abstract sceneries on numerous sound installations, releases on such esteemed labels like Entr’acte, Karl Records, Arbitrary or The Tapeworm and collaborations with artists like Annie Garlid, Valerio Tricoli, Magda Mayas, Sara Persico, Andrew Pekler or Jan Jelinek.  
https://hannoleichtmann.com/