With new full-length 1989, Kölsch presents the final chapter of an elegant, anthemic album trilogy that started with an exploration of early childhood memories and influences on “1977” – the year of his birth – and continued on “1983”, a vibrant and picturesque journey sound tracking the year he travelled through Europe aged six.

1989 marks Kölsch’s inten­sified deployment of real-life orchestral sounds and the continuation of his extremely fruitful collaboration with Gregor Schwellenbach. After contributing to predecessor album “1983”, the Kompakt affiliate, composer and multi-instrumentalist now conducts the Heritage Orchestra for tracks Khairo, Liath (featuring a violin solo by Kate Robinson) and Serij, the latter of which Schwellenbach co-wrote and
coproduced.

The 24-person Heritage Orchestra consists of violins, violas, cellos and double basses, adding the sweeping drama and organic, richly layered textures that only real strings can produce – a deeply humane tone that is set with the album’s opening recording of the orchestra tuning its instruments (which incidentally also incorporates a voice recording from 1989 of Rune Reilly’s gran­dfather Ludwig). Seeing Kölsch’s propensity for vocalist cameos on his albums (Trœls Abrahamsen on “1977”, Tomas Høffding and Waa Industry on “1983”), one shouldn’t be surprised to find beautiful cut In Bottles, which features vocals written and performed by Aurora Aksnes.

Kölsch has initiated a head-turning run of global domination with his touring around the globe, remixes of Sven Väth, Flume and Coldplay, Ibiza commitments and his own BBC Radio 1 Residency radio show.