We recently sat down with a very promising duo for a chat.
Dance music offers a huge range of sounds. There’s always a fresh piece to get into, a different style to check out, and an endless flow of tunes to find. We’ve lately had the pleasure of discovering pørtl, a duo whose creative work is built on their friendship, and the result shows: engulfing melodies that sound as warm as they do hypnotic.
Formed by Jan Lüftner and Jonas Obermüller, who also play together in the post-rock band There’s A Light, pørtl’s music combines their shared passion for electronic production with a unique artistic vision. Their latest EP Elodie is a great example of how to mix experimental electronics with real acoustic elements, offering everything from calm, ambient textures to vibrant rhythmic arrangements.
And so, at this stage of their career, we ran a quick interview their way to learn more about them and their ideas and visions. Here it is! Ladies and gentlemen, pørtl, on the music business. Read on to find out.
Where did you grow up, and how did your environment shape your relationship with music?
We’ve been growing up in a small city in southwest Germany called Lahr. It’s near the French border, tucked at the base of the Black Forest. We’ve known each other since we were seven, when we started playing drums together at the local music school. We spent almost 10 years there side by side before going our separate ways for a while, as we went off to study at different universities. We’ve met again playing together in a post-rock band called “There’s A Light” with our friends. And then we started to develope our own electronic music as a passion project besides the band. We think that the early years, plaing in a percussion enesemble forced us to drag our interrests also to more rhythm driven music.
Both growing up in families where music played a big role, we’ve both been passionated with all kinds of styles of music. But we remember growing up on the countryside we had to pick up every musical offer, which was made in the mid 2000‘s. So we’ve visited a lot of local rock concerts and listened to a lot of us punk rock like green day, the offspring or blink-182, but also gained a passion for more experimental music like Radiohead, Patrick Wolf, xxyyxx or Koreless.
What’s the first memory you have of making music?
It’s definitely not the first time we ever made music, but Jonas recently came across a photo from 2000 — the two of us playing mallets at a band contest in a German theme park with our percussion ensemble. It feels like one of the first real memories we have of making music together.
When you think back to your earliest projects, what’s something you would do differently now?
Just make the kind of music you enjoy listening to—the stuff that feels right to you. Create songs you’d be excited to hear from other artists, and don’t let other people’s opinions weigh too heavily on you.
Who’s been your biggest supporter throughout your career, and what’s their impact been on your success?
Definitely our parents! They’ve supported us from day one—driving us around for rehearsals, being endlessly patient while music blasted through the house, and always having our backs no matter what.
Who are the artists or sounds that most shaped your style early on?
There are a few to be named like:
Kiasmos, xxyyxx, Bonobo, Nils Frahm, Lycoriscoris, Mount Kimbie, Steve Reich, Four Tet, Christian Löffler, Jacob Groening, Overmono, Koreless, Max Cooper, Rob Clouth, Alex Banks, Jon Hopkins
What’s the one sound or technique that you think defines your signature style?
We always want to create this kind of natural texture- even if it is a field recording we have on our phones or try to make our synth sounds more “real” with noise or detuning.
And we always have a “ghost track” running. It’s a muted track which contains some rhythms which can be triggered by a gate or used to sidechain elements like pads.
What’s the one element every track you release has to have to feel complete to you?
You’ll probably never come across a pørtl track without some kind of emotional chord progression or changes that lead to a heartfelt resolution.
And of course—atmospheric sounds are always a must!
Can you describe how your creative process typically begins when starting a new track?
Usually, one of us kicks off a new project by programming an interesting drum or percussion loop, finding a cool sample, loading a field recording from our phone, and layering some chords over it, or just discovering a nice melody or chord progression on the piano. We don’t stick to any strict structure.
After that, we upload the idea to our online cloud and either work together on it or go off and work on our own versions of the track. Since we live about 200km apart, we always meet up online to collaborate or just share our ideas with each other. It’s always fun because, more often than not, we end up with completely different songs, even though we started with the same idea. What is the very best thing, because that way we always generate new ideas mutual, while only listening to the ideas of each other. More than often that can break frustrating writer blocks.
What do you think is missing in the music industry right now?
One of the biggest issues in the music industry, in our opinion, is the steadily decreasing value of music and art itself. Society has developed an expectation of free, always-available access, which has led to many people no longer being willing to pay for music and experiences.
Why do you think some artists become trendsetters while others just follow trends?
We think it’s the perfect mix of knowing how to use modern technologies like social media to promote music and set trends, having a bit of luck, and tapping into the right vibe of the time – but also not giving a single fuck about trends and doing what sounds right to you.
Final Words
Thanks so much for sharing your reflections guys! We’re looking forward to what’s next, especially with their new release, Elodie, now out, which you can stream by hitting the ‘Play‘ button on the Spotify player below. Be sure to follow our page to stay up to date on the latest news and views regarding our beloved Dance music industry.