Martin Brugger announces first album in five years, The Shell

The Shell follows Brugger's 2020 debut Music For Video Stores. The songs were composed using field recordings, synths and lo-fi guitars, with "Knees, Hands, Shoulders, Teeth" serving as an introduction to the album.

Much of The Shell was written alone in Brugger’s Munich studio using a nylon string guitar once owned by his grandmother. The melodies were layered with phone recordings, and analogue equipment was used to record the songs. The album’s title comes from a passage in Vicki Baum’s 1929 novel Grand Hotel, which focuses on the idea that fear and pleasure are interwoven.

Speaking about The Shell, Brugger shares: “Listening to the music on this album, I can relive the emotions that were put into it at a certain point in time and that gives me the greatest pleasure. I can say that I’ve been honest in making it and that’s all I can give and it’s what I know now matters most to me.”

The Shell artwork

The Shell tracklist

“Downward Curving”
“Knees, Hands, Shoulder, Teeth”
“Wounded Dove”
“The Brilliant Light Between The Ropes”
“Thick Of The Fray”
“I Can Really Stand a Good Deal”
“Souvenir From Flanders”
“White About the Gills”
“Malachite”
“Coasting Around”