My name is Pablo Damián Ruiz Alcantú. I was born in San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina in 1992.
From a young age, I explored various artistic fields, as well as some high-performance sports. After completing secondary school, I started travelling to discover different places and cultures, learn new languages, and find my feet in an ever-changing and unjust world. I also developed my social skills and pursued a simple profession that has allowed me to express myself artistically without financial pressure or political constraints over the years.
I’ve just moved to Freiburg im Breisgau, a city in Germany. I’m really pleased with the change of scenery, and with how close I am to nature and the cultural life on offer.

I came up with the German wordplay "Nebel lang" by combining "Leben lang" ("life long") and "Nebel" (“fog"). It's a play on words that basically means "life long uncertainty".
Leben and Nebel are anadromes.

It all began when I started playing the piano in my spare time during school holidays. I made the most of the fact that there were several pianos in different classrooms, as I didn’t have one at home. The end-of-year recitals gave me the chance to perform in front of a large audience and experience the pressure of people listening intently. In my final years at secondary school, I performed my own compositions on the piano and guitar, which showed me what was possible. I went on to study for a degree in musical composition, but I dropped out because it wasn’t what I was looking for. Even so, I would try to play and improvise something new whenever I had the chance to find a piano.
You could say that the Nebel lang project officially began when some of my recordings were shared online, particularly following the release of '00000' – for which I have Adriano Esteves to thank. He was a contact of mine on social media who was very enthusiastic about my recordings and thought it would be a brilliant idea to feature them on his wonderful YouTube channel “collectablesblog” alongside great artists, including Arvo Pärt.
This sparked interest among his followers, with lots of likes and comments, and it made me realise that there are people who can relate to what I had been doing up to that point.
The project started out as '_ne', then became 'und_ne', and finally settled on 'Nebel lang'. Those name changes didn't help to promote the project at all, but I felt it was important to find a name that clearly represented what the project was all about — and that was easy to pronounce, of course.

Initially, the pieces lasted just a few minutes. Although they were improvised, I performed them as reproducible pieces with some flexibility; they felt more like composed works. Over the years, I began to place greater importance on the improvisation process – the moment when a motif or idea emerges.
Once, while collaborating with videographer Raya Kim, she told me that, of all the recordings I had sent her, she preferred the first one – not, as I had thought, the 'cleanest' one. I then realised that it wasn’t just me who noticed a difference when playing something I already knew – the listener could perceive it too. Since then, the vast majority of the pieces I’ve released have been recordings of improvisations which I am now unable to play again, and I like that – the distance created by being able to see myself in the recordings but not play the same thing again.

Having learnt the basics of dance as a child, I was fortunate that my parents sent me to an arts secondary school, where I decided to shift my focus more towards music, specifically the piano. I learnt the basics and studied the classical composers, practising their respective exercises. I then forged my own path and continued to explore my abilities and potential, both on the piano and through other means.

I always say that I try to forget what I’ve learnt and let myself be guided by things that have become second nature and feel intuitive, but of course everything I’ve learnt is there in some way. I’m one of those people who draws on other artistic disciplines, uses analogies and sees things as a whole, so I’m always learning – both for music’s sake and, through music, for life itself.

Nebel lang has changed over time. It started with no big plans, just a want to record and share the music with more people. I kept going with persistence, and that's taken the project to a next level, given it a real meaning in my life. I have also learned so much from the project itself. Over time, I lost the fear of just sitting down at the piano without knowing what to play and letting myself be carried away by whatever came out, being patient and finding meaning in the sounds. What started out as a random mix of words and numbers now has an identity and a meaning. As the name suggests, it's all about exploring uncertainty. Nebel lang has so far only used acoustic piano, but I know I can apply the same idea to other instruments – we'll see what happens in the future.

I like to create music that is austere and unpretentious, with a life of its own, rather than just a snippet of something or a technical demonstration. I'm not against speed or technical complexity, but I usually don't think it's necessary. To me, it's more of an embellishment than a foundation.

I usually play upright pianos, which have a certain mechanism and sound that suit the sound exploration I do under the name Nebel lang. I sometimes play grand pianos too, but they feel different, so I have to change  a bit how I play.
When it comes to tuning, I try to adapt my improvisation to the sound of the piano, which also includes its tuning. I'm not talking about a specific tuning temperament, but rather that if a key doesn't sound right, I'll skip it and play other notes. I apply this to everything that happens on the piano. For example, if a hammer makes too much noise, I might use it on purpose or skip it if it's not needed. I sometimes get the chance to tune the piano, and this helps me understand which notes – and consequently which intervals and chords – sound in one way or another. This in turn prepares me if I'm going to play on it. 

Sebastian just did it. He took the impulse, texted me privately, and invited me to perform a concert at the bicycle factory where he works. I followed the impulse, he organised an acoustic piano, and it all turned out just as we had hoped.

About 30 people attended the concert, all sitting respectfully in chairs, most of them were new faces to me.

None of the recordings I've released have been done in a studio, and most of them were done on old pianos. You know how it is with old pianos – they make noises. That's just how they are. Also, as I said, the rooms were originally regular rooms in a house. Depending on where the house is, there could be all kinds of noise coming from outside. I can sometimes edit certain parts that are too annoying, but I very rarely "polish" the sound as you mention. It's not always possible to take out a certain noise that sounds on top of the piano, and if possible, it can alter the sound a lot. I prefer to keep things as close to how they were in the recording as possible. When I'm working on a track, I sometimes decide to cut out a section if it is too noisy. At a concert, like the Werkstatt-Konzert, the noises are part of the performance and it makes sense to let them in the recording.

It's just the whole concert, all in one take.

I don't play in many concerts, probably because the kind of music I make isn't that popular, but also because I like to play in places where it's nice and quiet (I would never play as Nebel lang on the streets for example). The music I play at concerts is always made on the spot. It's not a set list of songs I just keep playing over and over again. It requires extra focus and a certain mood to play.

I've been moving around quite a lot over the last few years, and sometimes that's actually led to some great opportunities to play concerts. But it's only if I know people where I'm going. If I move somewhere and no one knows about Nebel Lang, the chances of playing a concert are pretty rare.

Usually, people who come to my concerts already know what kind of music they're going to hear. Well, at least they know it's 'calm' music. I remember having those situations years ago where people would leave after just a few minutes of music. I always understood they never expected the music to be so calm and meditative.
I've also experienced the 'opposite', where people fall asleep to my music. I see that as a good thing. People generally don't sleep well, so if my music helps them relax, I'm glad.

These days, when I play a concert, people are pretty respectful. They let the music do its thing and give me space to do my thing. It's an amazing feeling, and I really appreciate it.
After a long concert, I usually find it hard to talk or think clearly in any language, but luckily for now, people don't expect me to say anything.

I used to do collaborative work, sometimes with musicians, but also with writers and photographers, for example.

When it comes to musicians, I've done a couple of collaborations. The only one that's been released so far is "On Paper" with Ishmael Cormack. Other attempts didn't quite go as planned, and some collaborations are still to be released.
But yeah, Nebel lang's way of doing music, with improvisation and long form recordings, does make it tricky to play with other people. It's not often I come across people who think the same way about music. I guess I respect the core of Nebel lang as well.

"Alejado de todo mal" means "Far from all harm" and was a release dedicated to a friend who passed away. He was a really kind, politically engaged and creative guy. I was in Argentina when he was there towards the end, and I got the chance to see him. He was doing street poetry, writing for people who passed by. He would be given one word to start with, and then he would improvise a poem on a typewriter. Then he would give the poem to the person, and sometimes they would give him some money in exchange.
The album cover is a photo of a photography shop that closed after 50 years in the city. I took the photo when I was passing by one of his stands. It was about 100 metres from where he used to write. Coincidentally, Claudio was also 50 when he passed away.

I've got nothing planned just yet, but I'm organising a couple of gigs: one in Berlin and one in Magdeburg, in Germany, and there's a possibility of playing in Spain, in Valencia.
As I said before, I’ve recently moved to Freiburg im Breisgau. It's got good connections to Switzerland and France, so there are plenty of opportunities for me to explore. If any opportunities come up, I'll be sure to let all listeners know.

The latest release has been a collaboration on a compilation by Brandon Locher, called “Ongoing Solos”.

There are lots of tracks to listen to, in a variety of styles; my contribution as Nebel lang, is track number 40.

Nebel lang: Rippen 115892 is the sixth published piece from the Korf ar son project, which has a concept and a specific procedure: I tune a piano, and when I’m done tuning it and consider it ready, I improvise on the piano, testing its tuning. That’s precisely what is recorded and sent to Sylvain so he can continue with his part. This particular piece (Rippen 115892) comes from a piano I bought, a personal piano, in the city of Kiel, Germany. I tuned it and recorded it while testing its tuning; that piano is also the sound of some albums by Nebel lang. The idea for the project arose some years before its first released piece, even this very method, of recording a recently tuned piano, freshly so to speak, I did as part of a cycling trip that mostly covered France in 2018, and on a few occasions I came across pianos along the way, people who hosted me who had pianos, or people I crossed paths with and knew other people who had a piano needing tuning, and so I tuned a couple of pianos and the concept took shape. From those tunings and recordings around 2018 nothing was yet worthy for Korf Ar Son. I couldn’t record most of the tuned pianos, or the pieces were very short, or I couldn’t finish tuning and had to continue the trip. So, well, the first published piece by Korf Ar Son would be the first in which several conditions were met, both on my side with the piano and the tuning, and on Sylvain’s side as well.

Sylvain Levier: The Rippen improvisation has a rather special history, as it was recorded in 2021 and visually transcribed well afterwards in October 2024. Released in December 2024, more than a year had passed since the last release, and the challenge was to recapture the original spirit of the project despite the passage of time, to stay accurate to it and not miss out.

Sylvain Levier: Korf ar son is a sound-based art project, with music at its core. it all starts with the music using the method described above.
The graphic transcription is the second phase of the process. In order to obtain more than a simple abstract representation and to make music and image inseparable, the structure of each drawing was obtained by the materialization of a time line representing a sequence of approximately one minute extracted from the track. The alternation of silences, resonances, and clearly heard sounds determined the visual composition of each central part of the drawings, which then contained the rhythmic signature of the improvisation.
There is a strong emphasis on the notion of a unique moment in time, linked to a place and circumstances. The improvisation, as well as the original drawing work, are not intended to be reproduced. Each track carries the memory of an instant of which each visual work becomes the mode of transmission.

Nebel lang: If one explains the whole tuning process and so on, I think one of the most important things to understand is that each piano has its characteristics and each tuning a particular sound, and I feel that it is worth getting to know the piano’s specific sound and not forcing certain pieces to be played on a certain piano or expecting certain sounds from it.
You often hear from people that their piano is not played because it is out of tune or because it has some broken keys, and I don’t know, in my head if there are 3 broken keys, there are another 80 to play, and if it is truly out of tune, you can make another type of music. The problem arises when you expect a particular sound, when you compare it to a piano with a specific tuning, with a particular sonority, but if the piano expresses a unique sound that characterises it with its tuning or detuning, you can take advantage of that.
And without all that explanation, if you simply listen and see Sylvain’s art, perhaps I would like people to take a moment in their lives to contemplate, to take a step back, and observe and listen without having to interact, as we are so used to these days; to appreciate the different sonorities. One can understand that there are pianos that sound different, and there is nothing wrong with it. Regarding Sylvain’s work, I find it very interesting that, while maintaining a technique in all his pieces for Korf ar son, there are many details that characterise one piece and another. But to be able to recognise those differences, you have to stop for a moment, take a step back, and observe carefully. I think that’s one of the motivations for the project.

Sylvain Levier: There’s often a clear lack of understanding about our collaborative work, I mean people think the images are just an illustration like a record sleeve. Graphic work and music are not meant to be separate, they are deeply linked. Korf ar son represents a sensitive attempt to bring two languages into dialogue.
So I’d say we hope that people will think about the music when they look at the image and vice versa. It’s also an opportunity to buy a numbered printed artwork, in the hope that it still makes sense to some.

Sylvain Levier: The profusion is not so much the problem as our behaviour in the face of it. Hearing without listening, seeing without looking, our senses are altered by immediacy and availability. What we end up loving is the simple idea that things are accessible to us.
You can’t stop creation, but you can learn dicernement.
For our part, we simply try to be ourselves, to be relevant, without further calculations or commercial considerations. We’d be doing something else if we didn’t.

Nebel lang: I’ve been influenced mostly by things outside of music. If I have to comment on something from the musical world, more than an album it has been the Ambient genre in the widest sense that has been influential. And if we’re talking about names beyond classics like Biosphere and Brian Eno, I think the one who caught my attention the most in terms of sound was “Marsen Jules”. I’m going to do my homework and give an album name haha “Les Fleurs Variations” in the trio lineup. If we move closer to the academic world, leaving aside Arvo Pärt’s masterpiece “Für Alina“, a project that has been very important in gaining confidence in my sound, it has been the trio “Triosk”, especially its drummer Laurence Pike with his peculiar way of playing the drums, from clear rhythms, breaks and textures, something I had never heard at that time. I’m going to highlight their album “The Headlight Serenade” with special focus on the track “Lazyboat”. And since we’re on that path, as a trio, approaching jazz, another project that has given me the confidence to continue developing my sound and extended composition in the form of improvisation is another Australian band, “The Necks”. Their calm, their time management, their never-ending desire, and their ability to subject listeners to an extended session of absolute contemplation. I’m going to highlight the album that introduced me to them, almost 40 years after its release: “Sex“.

Sylvain Levier: ○ Jürg Frey – l’air, l’instant – deux pianos (Reinier van Houdt / Dante Boon). Label Elsewhere

I was lucky enough to be contacted for the cover of this recording, and I can say that I was introduced to contemporary classical music thanks to this one. It was like a new universe opening up to me And it was dizzying.

○ John Coltrane – A love supreme

Can this recording leave anyone indifferent? I don’t think so.

○ King Crimson –  Larks’ Tongues in Aspic

Progressive rock at its best. Guitarist Robert Fripp is a sound wizard.

Nebel lang:

“Ella está en el horizonte.
Me acerco dos pasos,
ella se aleja dos pasos.
Camino diez pasos y el horizonte
se corre diez pasos más para allá.

Por mucho que camine,
nunca la alcanzaré.
¿Para qué sirve la Utopía?
Para eso sirve: Para caminar.“

Paraphrased by Eduardo Galeano from words by Fernando Birri

Sylvain Levier: There are so many great quotes, but here’s one that comes to mind :

“To see is to think, and to think is to see” (Richard Serra)

I have had different searches during years I have been making music, and my taste has changed as has my life.
What now is called Nebel lang, was a project that began under other monikers. As the name implies, it is an exploration of the concept of time and the unforeseen. The organic, the living, the changes. And it happens, that with the passage of time, I have repeatedly seen the habit of man seeking to approach the machine, towards systematic perfection, no accepting "errors" or irregularities; the more constant the more controlled. With machines, on the contrary, we seek to humanize them. It seems to me so pointless. If there is something that makes a man a man, it is having irregularities, failures, unexpected events.

minui is a small atelier that explores simplicity. After almost 4 years, I have just reactivated it. Today 29th is the launch of a new album with music by my dear friend Lorenz Weber and a beautiful Haiku by 松濤 (Shoto); this time the music will be accompanied by an object, a block of one-note, as I call it; very delicate, like its music and poetry.

I will summarize some other projects:
-I am one half of the Weber & Alcantu, in which we produce sound stories with text and illustrations in a very particular format, sent worldwide as letters.
-Kaltbluetler is a very new project, it tries to include what I left aside, especially what electronic resources are. In this case, I try to only get inspired by visual work.
-Sans est is a duo with my friend Ramiro Saravia, in which we try to merge both musical voices, the search is not very clear yet, but we do seek a balance between our aesthetics.

There are other projects that have not yet been released to the public, and I am very excited to share them soon!

With the lifestyle that most of us lead, it seems difficult to stop for a moment and observe the little details of nature with their own rhythm and melody. There is certain parallelism with music, yes, but it is also due to collaborations with visual artists, especially with photographers who by their own decision contribute with fresh images from nature.

When I improvise, I really do not know what I'll play.
There is a lot of muscular memory, the fingers start dancing and there are impulses that one gets from the very now.
It also depends on the piano, every instrument sounds different. I used to tune the pianos that I play and that is a parameter that can influence a whole new composition. When I realized that a piano is never tuned "perfectly", I discovered a new spectrum to play with, very much like another ingredient beforehand.
Broken pianos, with mechanical issues, for example, are something I take advantage of at the time I improvise, either avoiding keys or using an uncommon sound as part of the piece. There are also positions on my hands that tend to be more used than others or certain tonalities on the piano that feel more ergonomic.
Regarding theory, I learned music in an art school and then continued for a bit in the university but to be honest when I play I just listen to the piano.

What I started to do for a couple of years now is to let that improvisation there where it was played; after a while, I even forget how it was played and if I listen to a recording it often feels like music by another person.
I stopped forcing every piano to play the same piece, expecting the same sound. The pieces are made with a particular piano, moment, and place. In short, what I do is get to know the piano, listen to it and keep the dialogue.

No, I have not read those books. But now that you mention them, I will take a look and see what they wrote about it.
A book that I always keep in mind is "Le Son" by Michel Chion.

The atmosphere aspect you mention, I guess, has been developed while playing at different cafés, where I did not have to play concerts but music in the background. It was a new experience for me, playing and doing my best to not be the highlight. People's conversations and loud sounds from different machines interacted with the music. It was also a challenge for me, playing with few or nonpauses for 3 to 4 hours.
About space, I can imagine you refer to time. However, I try to make different sound layers in order to create a feeling of space, very much like a 2D image works. A topic that fascinates me, worthy for a second interview!

I really like sound-art that is made with field recordings. Artists like Francisco López take it to another level and live-concerts are really amazing, a totally different experience than listening to an album at home.
I listened to a lot of music in my past, but now that I am producing different projects simultaneously it is different. If I have a break from editing audio or checking some new recording, I try no to listen to anything.
When I started playing music, I was slowly getting to know a variety of composers, from Chopin to Debussy, Satie, and Pärt; at the same time, I had a strong electronic influence, a lot of trip-hop, and a bit of ambient.
I made a mix with some influences of my last 10 years, you can check it out here

As soon as it impacts our body, we perceive a certain space. A place located mainly by directions, amplitudes and tone variations.
If the sound we perceive is similar to that produced by the source, we can call it a transparent sound. But if the sound comes from the next room of the listener, it will change mainly in its intensity and its tone colour, it will not then be a sound similar to the original, therefore not transparent.
When the sound comes from different sources, directions and proximities, we have a clear notion of spatiality.
But sometimes the sound comes from a single direction and source, such as when listening through a speaker at home, or attending a common piano concert.
A simple visual analogy with a 2D image, allows us to not only understand the importance of the use of layers and differences among themselves but also the identification of planes, being able to thus perceive proximity even if it's a flat surface.

A work on the transparency of the sound (minimally in the dynamic range and tone colour), even from a single source/instrument, makes the listener placed in a wide sound field and feel immersed in it.

These days you can listen to music everywhere all day long, without measuring the consequences that it has on sound, and the way of producing it.
Within the passing of recent years, music has been adapted to those circumstances, mainly by reducing the variation of amplitudes, so that even in a noisy context a listener can hear most of the sounds by only increasing the volume.
This is achieved through DRC (Dynamic Range Compression). Basically making loud stuff quieter, and quiet stuff louder. The consequence of this is mainly the reduction of space in the sound field and the lack of different planes.

Mark Hollis in the song Inside looking out shows us a good example of using dynamic range as a compositional element.

I like to think sound involved in space, and the listener immersed in it.