Rezident returns with mesmerising new EP Air

Rezident – ‘Air’ EP PR

Berlin-based producer Rezident returns with his spellbinding new EP Air, releasing on 5th May.

A tight three-track release, the EP kicks off with the throbbing synths and emotive textures of title track ‘Air’, with ethereal lead vocals and melodic bass flourishes setting the tone. ‘Elevate’ is a more brooding techno affair, with its crescendo of deep synth tones showing off Rezident’s flair for atmospheric sound design. Taking the EP to its climax, ‘Vortex’ ups the ante even further, layering reverberating arpeggios and whooshes of distortion over a polished house groove.

With house, electro, techno, or dance music as a whole, there’s a specific sweet spot where a tune can just as easily be rinsed on a hazy dancefloor as it can be received like a looping

spiritual mantra, bridging a unique gap between celebration and therapy. Rezident, the project of emerging 24-year-old producer David Roif of Karlsruhe, the city in Germany’s southern Baden-Württemberg state, demonstrates that electronic music best sustains itself when these separate entities interlock. Citing a consistent flow of Deadmau5 which influenced him growing up, and taking notes from progressive canons like Bicep, Rezident’s 2023 is warming up—fast.

Like his counterparts growing up in the technologically-accessible 2010s, Rezident downloaded various music programs on his Windows PC laptop at the age of 12, eager to concoct his own melodies after hearing a ringtone his sister’s friend composed on her Nokia cellphone. There, he gathered essential production techniques, like layering, streamlining, and learning when to walk away from a track for a while. Today, at points in his intimate but expanding discography, reverberating chords informed by deep house accents whirl in and out, only to have sharp hi-hats and intermittent whooshes sober the ethereality. Such instances mark Rezident’s desire for a more minimal and honest approach to producing, one which contrasts from his earlier school of beatmaking, self-described as “commercial”, trusting the project and himself.

Following 2020’s Chapters and last year’s On Fire on Anjunadeep, Air is another beguiling addition to Rezident’s releases, and proof of the Berliner’s evolution as a producer of progressive electronic music.