Klangstof

For Koen Van De Wardt, making music is a far greater pursuit than simply creating something to catch someone else’s ear. “It’s always the goal to challenge myself and the band as much as possible. I want the music to even catch me on the wrong foot from time to time”, admits the singer and musical architect who records ethereal, ofthushed but forever gripping synth-anchored music under the moniker Klangstof.

The Dutch-born, Norway-raised Van De Wardt is on the surface a happy-go-lucky 24- year-old (“People expect a very depressed young man and instead they get this smiling asshole”), and yet when he retreats to his solitary place to write music, much in the way he’s done since first picking up the guitar at age 14, the anxiety, the negativity, the feeling that he’s misunderstood, it all comes pouring out. The result is a collage of the supremely genteel yet haunting vocals, sleek melodies and experimental beats and rhythms.