why ludwig

For ten years I wrote songs for Keep Dancing Inc. Three albums, hundreds of stages, Saint Laurent Live Sessions in 2021, a decade spent learning how a band breathes.

Then in 2024 I wanted to write without anyone else in the room.

I moved into an old farmhouse in northern Belgium, near a village called Droevenda. I built a studio between the barns. A Rhodes, two analog synths, a Tascam tape machine, a voice learning to whisper instead of push. I didn’t want to arrange for the stage anymore. I wanted to arrange for the silence.

Thirteen songs came out of there. Ludwig is the name.

the method

Everything tracked alone, no click, in long takes. The drums are a Linn LM-1 slowed six percent. Vocals doubled three times, panned wide. The lyrics are short, sometimes not there at all. When I had no words I let the instrumental hold the room — Champs Catalauniques, Accro Yoga, Sehnsucht nach Droevenda, Thank You For The Love are the four tracks without lyrics.

I thought about Beach House when I wanted the fog to stay. About Mac DeMarco when I wanted things to breathe. About The War on Drugs when I wanted a song to last four minutes longer than planned. About Connan Mockasin when I wanted things to bend.

the covers

Visual identity by Morgat Bry — painter, photographer, currently on the Dior creative team. Morgat re-read three Pieter Bruegel the Elder paintings through contemporary fashion photography. The peasants of Hunters in the Snow, of The Peasant Wedding, of The Triumph of Death become 2026 silhouettes — technical capes, lost stares, tight crops. Same era, a thousand kilometres apart.

the release

First single arrives [RELEASE_DATE]. Two more singles follow this autumn. Debut LP in November.

You can already hear the full catalog — streaming straight from the studio, pre-DSP — right here.

— Louis de Marliave