The 'Hidden Tracks' sound walks are a live realisation of the album series of the same name, for which Sartorius hiked from Basel to Geneva and from Domodossola to the summit of the Weissmies. With the objects he encountered on his way, he expanded our ideas of a percussion instrument. He now continues along these paths and awakens the sounds that lie dormant in all things.
Drummer, percussionist and artist Julian Sartorius forms sounds into previously unseen shapes. His precise and multi-layered rhythmical patterns are keen excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, bridging the gap between organic timbres and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music.
Julian Sartorius has released numerous solo albums, creates audiovisual art works, collaborates with musicians, writers and artists and performs live in intimate venues and on festival stages. His performative practice is characterized by great versatility, which is reflected in concept albums, collaborative formats, and musical experiments—including concerts, installations, and site-specific interventions such as urban and landscape-related sound walks. He also composes and produces music for film, dance, theater, and exhibitions.
Trained at the jazz schools in Bern and Lucerne by Fabian Kuratli, Pierre Favre, and Norbert Pfammatter, Julian Sartorius soon developed his own unique approach to music. He is interested in finely scaled variations, tension and relaxation, mass and vibration. His releases and works include the 12-LP box set »Beat Diary« (Everest Records, 2012), which consisted of 365 rhythmic compositions and a photo book; the daily audiovisual loop series »Morphblog« (2013–2019); and »Depot«, an audiovisual installation for 16 speakers and 16 screens for the Kunstmuseum Thun. For his album »Hidden Tracks: Basel - Genève« (Everest Records, 2017), Julian hiked over 200 kilometers with his percussion instruments, recording sounds and textures on surfaces and objects along the way.
His current releases include: »Locked Grooves« (OUS Records, 2021), a work consisting of 112 loops arranged as locked grooves on vinyl, revealing a wealth of rhythmic forms and exploring ideas of infinity, reduction, and repetition; »Mux« (Marionette, 2022) explores the potential of acoustic resonators that appear as electronic sound sources; »RLLRLRLLRRLRLRLRLLRLRLR« (OUS, 2023) is based on a pattern of 23 beats, played continuously with hypnotic precision by four percussionists from the ET|ET ensemble and transformed sonically by Sartorius' modification of the instruments. In 2024, he continued his soundwalk series with »Hidden Tracks: Domodossola – Weissmies« (Everest Records).
Sartorius has toured Europe, North and South America, and Asia, and has performed as a soloist at festivals such as CTM (Germany), Unsound (Poland), Ultima Festival (Norway), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Cully Jazz Festival (Switzerland), AMOK Festival Bruges (Belgium), and Green Hours Festival (Romania). He has collaborated with artists such as Matthew Herbert, Sophie Hunger, Agnes Obel, Sylvie Courvoisier, Alabaster DePlume, Valentina Magaletti, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, and Shahzad Ismaily. His percussive signature can be heard on albums by Kae Tempest and James Zoo.
„…the sounds change, the traffic sounds gradually disappear and the sounds of animals change from dogs barking to sheep bleating… At all levels we hear the rhythms created by Sartorius… It is a fascinating album…“ — London Jazz News
„Zijn nieuwe album Hidden Tracks is een zeer experimenteel ritmisch album… terwijl hij met drumstokken op straatlantaarns en verkeersborden slaat… Het album Hidden Tracks is uitgebracht door Everest Records op 15 maart 2024.“ — Written in Music
„Hidden Tracks zeigt, wie Sartorius aus der Umwelt Musik macht: Er geht, lauscht, schlägt, nimmt auf—vom Verkehrslärm der Täler bis zu Wind und Eis auf 4000 m.“ — musikch.com