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Swiss pianist and composer Raphael Loher releases “Figuren” on 4 September 2026 through the Lucerne publishing platform Präsens Editionen. The eight-track album comes out digitally and as a limited vinyl edition with artwork and four inlays by Ukrainian-American artist Mykola Haleta. Loher built the record from his own concert recordings rather than from new performances.

The tracks are titled “Figuren I” through “Figuren VIII”.

How Raphael Loher made ‘Figuren’

The source material is ten intimate concert recordings of Loher performing pieces from “Keemuun”, his debut album. He took those tapes into a residency in the Blenio Valley in Ticino, where he separated out individual melodies, tones and resonances and reassembled them into new configurations. That work produced around thirty initial pieces and also fed his second album, “Hug of Gravity”.

He then ran the fragments through a Revox B77 tape machine, shifting their pitch before digitising and reshaping them again. The results range from layered rhythmic microstructures to sparse melodic fragments and long looping passages. Präsens Editionen describes the album as “shaped by intuition, experimentation, and a deliberate distance from his primary instrument – the piano.”

Loher expands the piano itself with preparations, effect pedals and tape, which puts the record closer to ambient and electronic composition than to solo piano recital.

Raphael Loher live dates 2026

Loher tours Europe from the release date onward:

4 September – Meakusma Festival, Eupen, Belgium (solo)
5 September – Bad Bonn Kilbi, Düdingen, Switzerland (solo, and with Remo Helfenstein)
12 September – Trial & Error Festival, Tribute to Franziska Lingg, Lucerne, Switzerland
30 September – Periscope, Lyon, France (solo)
3 October – Festival Pour Les Oiseaux, Le Havre, France (solo)
30 October – Heiliggeistkapelle, Lucerne, Switzerland (solo)

About Raphael Loher

Raphael Loher is based in Lucerne, Switzerland, and combines experimental electronic music, ambient and minimalist composition in his work. His debut solo album “Keemuun” came out on three:four records in October 2022. His second, “Hug of Gravity”, followed on the Swiss experimental label Hallow Ground in 2025.

He plays in two trios. Baumschule pairs him with guitarist Manuel Troller and drummer Julian Sartorius for long-form improvisation, also released through three:four records. KALI Trio, formed in 2015 with guitarist Urs Müller and drummer Nicolas Stocker, released its third album “The Playful Abstract” in early 2025, and co-wrote the score for “Nemesis”, the documentary by Swiss director Thomas Imbach, alongside Lukas Langenegger.

Loher has also played and recorded with Gerry Hemingway of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and with Martina Lussi. He has toured across Europe and appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Willisau Jazz Festival, Cully Jazz Festival, One Of A Million Festival, Jazzfestival Schaffhausen and Unerhört Festival, among others, and his records have been played on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 3.

“Figuren” is his third album and his first for Präsens Editionen, a Lucerne platform founded in 2011 that publishes magazines, books and records. It moves his catalogue further from live piano documentation and towards tape-based composition.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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