> It’s something that, at some point in our lives, we all must sadly face. The death of a loved one – particularly a parent – can be a life-defining, emotionally crippling moment. For Danish techno monolith Kölsch, the loss of his father, Patrick Reilly, some 20 years ago, still loomed large internally. On his latest record, I Talk To Water, Kölsch (aka, Rune Reilly Kølsch) took audio recordings of his father, a sometime musician and guitar player, and built new electronic arrangements around these starting points.
We caught up with Rune to learn more about this intriguing process, and just what motivated the making of his fifth, and most arresting, record to date.
“Well, from a broader point of view the album process started basically 20 years ago when my father passed away,” explains Rune. “He was a musician and songwriter but he never released any music. He worked with drug addicts for 25 years and decided that that was his way of life, but nevertheless he’d play his guitar pretty much every day. I was into more modern music and he’d often come crashing into my room and start playing his guitar over anything that was on my stereo – it was pretty annoying at the time but in retrospect, quite funny.”
Following Patrick’s death, Rune avoided listening to anything his father had recorded. “It was quite sore and sensitive for me. During COVID, I finally mustered up the courage to go through his work, and some of it was recorded on MiniDisc and was usable, but some of it was broken. I found a few beautiful pieces, three of which ended up on the album.”
Where it began
Wallowing in these old MiniDisc recordings became a comfort
