Switching seaside ambience for a sound shaped by inner-city living, Atelier's second full-length studio album,
Lights Towards The Exit, channels the mood of a sleepless cityscape.
Lights Towards The Exit is Atelier's second full-length studio album. After the release of Varsam Court at the end of
2019 on Lossless, run by mentors and friends Mathias Schober and Thomas Herb, the duo experimented with
different ideas in the studio, and at the start of 2020 a common thread began to appear between a few of the tracks
which laid the foundation for the sound of their second album.
Both Alexander and Jaś moved to Berlin in the period before the release of Varsam Court from their hometown of
Cape Town, South Africa, where their first album was written and recorded. Moving provided some challenges,
particularly with what was the most essential equipment to bring from their previous studio set-up, but those
limitations proved to be useful in incorporating new instruments and techniques to the recording process.
Lights Towards The Exit was written and recorded in different spaces in Berlin - from bedrooms in apartment blocks
to three different studios across the city. The different locations all had a specific ambience - such as 4th- and 5th floor bedrooms with busy street views; a studio with no windows in a typical old Berlin backyard complex forever
under threat of being sold and gentrified; and a bigger studio with windows on the opposite side of the corridor
overlooking the backyard of a mechanic workshop. The final details and edits were completed in Atelier's current
studio, in a contrasting area surrounded by office blocks, plazas, 9-5ers and, most importantly, their friends and
colleagues.
Swapping the mountains, sea and seclusion for tall buildings, backyards and a new community, Lights Towards The
Exit channels the sensation of being surrounded by people, but still feeling like you're on your own. The album was
written through three years of cold winters, sweaty summers and a period where the world stood still during the
pandemic. Frustrated with the cease of momentum, but still optimistic, Atelier disappeared from public view,
abandoning social media to focus on recording, songwriting and experimentation.
It was a difficult time: the duo longed to perform and continue producing music, and the imposed limitations
sometimes felt like an impossible obstacle. Ultimately, though, this would provide unexpected inspiration and
influence the sound and direction of the new album.
The sound of Lights Towards The Exit is not a departure from their first album, but a progression: influenced by the
new surroundings in the duo's adoptive city, Atelier's second album is an ode to first-time experiences, new
languages, challenges, club culture and the shift from youth to maturity, as well as a balm to those stuck
somewhere in between. The overall sound is a lift not in tempo, but in energy, matching the openness needed to
make a new start in a new place.