Andrew Pekler is a Berlin-based musician and sound artist whose approach to composition heavily involves recontextualized archival musical materials, combining samples with live instrumentation and electronic processing. First receiving international notice during the late 1990s for his abstract downtempo instrumentals as Sad Rockets, he also blended techno and indie pop as part of the group Bergheim 34. Pekler's first releases under his own name, starting with 2002's Station to Station, were curious blends of dub, post-rock, minimal techno, and jazz. On later releases like 2011's Sentimental Favourites and 2019's Sounds from Phantom Islands, he constructed dreamy collages drawing from easy listening, exotica, and library music. He also performed free-form collective improvisations with Jan Jelinek and Hanno Leichtmann, as Groupshow.

Together with cultural anthropologist Kiwi Stefanie Menrath he developed Phantom Islands - A SonicAtlas, an interactive online map that charts the sounds and histories of a number of islands that were once found on nautical maps but have since disappeared. 

Since 2002 he has released solo and collaborative musical works for labels includung Faitiche, Shelter Press, Kranky, Staubgold, ~scape, Edições CN and Senufo Editions. His latest album For Lovers Only / Rain Suite – under the pseudonym SG – is a collection of minimalist, sentimental solo electric guitar pieces released last year for Jan Jelinek’s Faitiche imprint.

andrewpekler.com
andrewpekler.bandcamp.com