Between Structure and Freedom: Martin Kohlstedt on His Live Album

“The courage to fail”—a mindset Martin Kohlstedt welcomes fully in both his music and life, allowing him to overcome boundaries and create without constraint. Growing up in the small German town of Breternitz, Martin’s journey began with classical piano training, a foundation that would later evolve into a unique fusion of genres. His music blendes classical structures with electronic elements, mixing tender melodies with powerful electronic textures. This interplay of ambivalence—between fragility and intensity—makes his compositions speak to the soul.

Martin’s latest release, LIVE, captures the essence of his performances, preserving the fleeting magic of improvisation and the energy shared with his audiences across Europe in 2023. With the addition of immersive 3D audio, the album invites listeners to step into the diverse spaces and moments that shaped his music.

In our interview, we talk about the challenges of curating live recordings, the philosophy behind improvisation, and how failure became a key power in his artistry.

header photography by Karine Bravo

“Martin Kohlstedt – LIVE” marks your first release of concert recordings after over a decade of performing. What motivated you to capture these live moments now, and how did you decide on this approach for a live album?

Since I improvise at every concert and never know what will happen, each live performance has always been different from my studio albums. So far, my recordings have been a collection of arguments for a discourse on stage, where I combined pieces in unexpected ways and let them interact with one another. This new album, however, carries much greater significance for me. It’s not about simply recording typical live versions of songs, but rather about capturing the real work within the specific time and space of the moment, with the audience acting as a catalyst all over Europe in 2023. For the first time, this album makes an attempt to preserve the fleeting moment of my musical creation.

You mentioned curating a “fictional best-of” from over 400 recordings across different cities. Can you share more about how you selected pieces and crafted this journey for listeners? Were there specific memories or performances that stood out to you?

Making the selection was more difficult than I had anticipated — I seriously underestimated how much harder curating can be compared to composing. Initially, it seemed straightforward. Out of 400 improvisations, I could immediately rule out a few due to factors like being over 30 minutes long, odd piano sounds, strange approaches, or simply the mood of the day. But that still left 150 recordings to sift through. Together with Karine Bravo, my collaborator and content creator who traveled with me on the European tour, we worked to transform these into a new, fictional musical journey. Our goal was to capture as authentically as possible how the pieces are created live — how they flourish, but also how they doubt and fail. It was these raw, “real” pieces that we began to hunt for, almost as if we were trying to catch rare Pokémon.

The album will be released in 3D audio, which is an exciting choice. What drew you to this immersive format, and what do you hope listeners will experience when they engage with “LIVE” in this way?

Especially in instrumental music, 3D audio offers a unique opportunity to open new, immersive doors and make the experience even more tangible. In our collaboration with Apple Music, we aimed to capture the essence of a real concert experience for the first time with this format. Whether sitting in the third row of a massive cathedral, a grand concert hall, or the coziest little club from last year’s tour, we wanted to recreate the different spaces, the people, and all the emotions in between across a journey through eleven countries — 3D audio invites you to experience it all in a way.

In releasing this album, you’ve immortalized these “fleeting moments” of live performance. How did you preserve the spontaneity and rawness of live music during the production of this album?

The answer is both crystal clear and hard to accept: everything has to stay as it is, without trying to shape the tracks. It sounds simple, but believe me, it’s brutal to listen to yourself in those moments. It would be so easy to tweak the tracks with small adjustments during production, but in case of a live album real results only come from a hellfire of self-acceptance.

“Even when the room is so quiet you could hear a pin drop, there’s a shared sense of space with the audience that exerts a subconscious influence.”

Your concept of modular composing allows each piece to evolve organically with each performance. Can you tell us more about how this improvisational approach developed, and what attracts you to it?

My pieces are in a constant state of evolution. Each new musical approach is assigned a three-letter code, which I use to trace the origin of a motif or an entire composition. This link is something only I need; the audience should be free to form their own thoughts and interpretations.
On my studio albums, I collect these musical approaches, and then, in live performances, I place them in context with each other—allowing them to react and almost have a conversation. This leads to wild combinations of pieces, but also sparks entirely new approaches that shape how my music unfolds. The concerts are the breeding ground for all of this, making them the most essential part of my work.

You’ve described your work as a fusion of electronica with classical and acoustic influences. How has this blending of genres evolved for you over the years, especially with the “LIVE” album where you bring all these elements to the forefront?

Actually, every attempt to name a genre for my music has only led to moving beyond it and pushing it further. So, not only are my pieces in constant negotiation, but the genre surrounding them is too. What remains constant is the piano at the heart of the project. As for everything that develops around it, I can hardly predict it myself — I’m often surprised by what emerges.

Your concerts are said to be an interaction with the audience, space, and moment. How do you approach balancing your own vision with the unpredictability of the live setting, and what role does the audience play in shaping your performances?

Now comes the exciting part. Even when the room is so quiet you could hear a pin drop, there’s a shared sense of space with the audience that exerts a subconscious influence. I can’t fully explain it, but it’s as if the music moves with a kind of like-minded energy—something I no longer actively control, but rather perform in a repetitive, flowing motion. In this way, many people encounter themselves in the room and are reflected back upon themselves. Sacred concert spaces, like cathedrals, especially put you in this position. On completely different occasions, like my piece VET at the Amsterdam Dance Event, which also appears on the live album, it’s the audience itself that plays, drives, and transforms the piece, and I become a puppet. That’s what makes it special—and what makes each concert moment utterly unrepeatable.

“I see this as the beginning of another thread of unfolding, rather than a final destination.”

Reflecting on your career from that first 2013 concert to now, what moments or realizations have been most significant for you as an artist? How have they influenced this live album?

To be honest, it took me a good five to seven years of free playing and improvising on stage before it developed into what it is today. In the beginning, doubt constantly interfered, restricting and sometimes even preventing every free, almost childlike decision to simply let the music flow. Looking back, I see it as a process of emancipation — both of myself and my music — that fought for the freedom it needed to unfold, chapter by chapter. To document this journey and preserve it forever, I started a tour diary with the first of over 500 concerts: diary.martinkohlstedt.com.

“The courage to fail” is a mindset that you have mentioned – can you share any specific experiences where this philosophy challenged or changed your approach to creating or performing music?

Building on what I said earlier, I can honestly say that failure was what brought the necessary freedom to my music—and I dare say that many people feel the same way. The image of the pianist carries so many genius complexes, a longing for perfection, and so many rigid conventions that it felt almost impossible for me to create my musical images within those confines. It wasn’t until 2017, at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, one of the most renowned philharmonic halls in Germany, that I succeeded for the first time in forming a counter-movement to the tight corset of today’s pianists, using a bit of trickery. I stopped playing in the middle of a piece, and a murmur spread through the rows of 2,500 people at the sold-out event. There were two options: one was to hide in my blackout, to see it as a mistake, or the other, to briefly explain that I had envisioned the piece differently, especially in this hall, and would continue in a new direction. The murmur turned into relieved laughter, and in that moment, I experienced a kind of liberation—realizing I could do whatever I wanted. That day, the knot was finally loosened, and my music found the right environment to truly develop.

What are you most excited about for this upcoming tour and release? Do you see this live album as a milestone in your journey, or more as a chapter within an ongoing evolution of your music?

Actually, I could imagine that the opening of the live album marks the beginning of a long study of my live experiences. My problem with the term ‘milestone’ is that it feels too rigid to encompass all possibilities. Of course, it feels that way just before release, but I see this more as the beginning of another thread of unfolding, rather than a final destination.”