Stefan Knappe is a man who wears many hats. He runs Drone Records, which releases some of the best in dark ambient and experimental music, and serves as both a mailorder and distributor of music not directly found on his label as well.

The talent we wish to concentrate on is as a composer with his project TROUM. In this release from 2015, Knappe unleashes a cascade of some of the darkest experimental music I’ve heard in some time. It is dark, however, in a way that is not vulgar or cheap, as too so-called ‘noise’ bands are wont to be. You won’t hear any children with vile fetishes for rapists or serial killers who turn on their vacuum cleaners and try to sell this as ‘music’. No, in this case, Knappe actually goes through the process of crafting something worthy of being a soundtrack to a very intense film. There is a lot of sub-bass throbbing and pulsating, but all of it done with the precision of a master surgeon who knows how to weild his scalpel. TROUM is always releasing music of note, or collaborating with others to do the same.

If you have a Bandcamp account, follow his work. You will find no disappointments there.