Album Review: Augenblick: Side A

Constant evolution is the lifeblood of Kiwi-based, German producer and beat-maker Sanoi AKA Jonas Fisher. Whether he’s deep in the studio sculpting sound or commanding at iconic gigs like Electric Avenue, Rhythm and Alps, Chi Wow Wah Town Melbourne, Splore, SoundSplash, supporting The Chemical Brothers or Barry Can’t Swim he’s built a rep for intricate, meticulous, melodic, and roguish sets that meld style and blur boundaries.

He’s released a stack of productions on various respected local and Euro-based EDM labels, including Tube & Berger’s Zehn Records, Stil Vor Talent and Aotearoa’s Beat & Path. On Loop Recordings he’s dropped Echoes of Home and Loose Change. These led to Sanoi appearances on an array of digital platforms and hitting number one on various Beatport singles charts.

His latest project is Augenblick. My friend told me this means ‘Moment’ or ‘Eyes View’ or ‘Instant’. Take your pick. As a producer, Sanoi is known for his textured approach to sound design, which is very much what you hear in this collection, alongside exploration of nostalgia, emotion, and atmosphere. According to the liner notes, this project was originally released as a limited-edition cassette, designed to be a continuous listen. I’m guessing that’s a deliberate nod to earlier days when it was more normal to listen through without the interruptions of social media notifications. Spanning a full 19 tracks, Sanoi manipulates his palatte between cinematic washes, ambient soundscapes, and downtempo grooves. The Augenblick I got to review is Side A. In the making of this material Sanoi says:

“Augenblick was about letting go of structure, about following sound wherever it wanted to go. I wanted to make something that felt nostalgic and human, but still carried the precision and space I love in electronic music. Becoming a dad kind of blew my whole world wide open in the best way, but it also meant my own creativity had to find new shapes and new windows to breathe. This album became the place where I rediscovered that part of myself, sneaking back into these little pockets of sound and remembering why I fell in love with making music in the first place.”

So, what do you get? To my ears I’m thinking of a mashup of influences – Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, stuff you’d play from the 90’s Warp Records catalogue. Perhaps some Brainfeeder or Low End Theory. Even a bit of Rhian Sheehan or a smidge of Brian Eno. Is there a theme connecting these first 9 tracks? Maybe. Let’s call it a ‘celestial soul journey’. Yeah, that’ll do. Well, that’s my interpretation, listening through without stopping. Although, given that these pieces, now free of the constraints of magnetic tape, can exist in any order. So, effectively, you can build your own adventure.

We open with Inner Space, and the squeaking and mewing of digital animalia stalking an imagined tropical rain forest that spreads out into a wild magenta interplanetary sunset sky. Perhaps this might not be your interpretation, but you can’t help running with it as the heady music envelops the senses and warps your perceptions. Let yourself get lost. I nearly did. My only disappointment is that the timing is too short (only 2:41 – the longest track on here is only 4:28, though). I wanted longer to settle into this ambient bliss. But before I could do so the track had moved on to Blue Sun, featuring a soundbite, potentially sampled from an audiobook or script reading of Frank Herbert’s Dune novel. Perhaps this is intentional, to create a place for me to land and explore, a point of reference and a narrative to work with as I continue this journey. And a spark to move to a new lily pad quickly and diligently.

From there, we go to Casual Dreamer. And in my brain we encounter a street corner of the future. Like those classic movie scenes, kids still hang about creating their own a cappella street chants (a bit like that old skipping game, Double-Dutch) which Sanoi’s looped into delicious club-ready earworm. Effectively the grooves start on the pavement and find their way into the DJ booth on a hot and sweaty summer night.

When You Ready wafts on some sweep-looped vocals repeating the title on a carpet of sound – a bit like a drone shot soaring high across the ancient walls of our cranium city. Is this a question or a statement? That’s undecided. Perhaps the answer comes with the next, It Might Take Some Time (bad pun, sorry). This appears to optimistically skip about, buoyed this time by a distorted male vocal, also tightly looped, before dropping into a sensual, crystal groove pattern, dragging the former cantering behind. With the delicate injection of some 90’s rave piano chords this is the most recognisable dance number in the set.

Nowhere else have the collaborators been credited, except here, on Cardio, where DJ/Producer Benji makes an appearance on the decks. Kicking off with a selection of DnB beat tricks, they mix Latin and Euro grooves with a veritable potpourri of other fresh herbs creating a plush, fast-paced, but short-lived dance floor workout.

Landing off that particular cloud, Digitalism steers you safely into a downbeat comedown with a soothing slice of future lounge. But don’t get too settled as we’re about to take off again. We taxi down the runway in a gentle sweep take off on the wings of Maybe You. Finally we spin out into a haze of crackling audio gas, star-twinkly piano and a comforting hum with the final ethereal excursion for Side A, the appropriately named We All Float Up Here. Less a club banger, this is more a meditative lullaby – this one I really appreciated as I turned away in horror at today’s news of the Bondi Beach shootings and searched for solace to calm my anxieties.

Clearly, my interpretation will not be your specific journey. But you can see the opportunity that this set presents to you. These are not big, long, or bombastic excursions. Brevity is the watchword. These are snapshots of tiny inner-spatial sonic solariums. “They appear, they disappear, and they leave you wanting just a little more. That is the whole point,” says Sanoi. Side B is slated to appear early 2026 and I can’t wait to get back into it. But for now, enjoy this over the coming summer months. Plug in your phones and shut off your feeds. Take the ride, indulge fully in this beautiful soulful balm. It’s a fully illustrated navigation chart for your imagination.