Switching seaside ambience for a sound shaped by inner-city living, Atelier’s second full-length studio album, Lights
Towards The Exit, channels the mood of a sleepless cityscape.
Lights Towards The Exit is Atelier’s second full-length studio album. After the release of Varsam Court at the end of
2019 on Lossless, run by mentors and friends Mathias Schober and Thomas Herb, the duo experimented with different
ideas in the studio, and at the start of 2020 a common thread began to appear between a few of the tracks which laid
the foundation for the sound of their second album.
Both Alexander and Jas moved to Berlin in the period before the release of Varsam Court from their hometown of Cape
Town, South Africa, where their first album was written and recorded. Moving provided some challenges, particularly
with what was the most essential equipment to bring from their previous studio set-up, but those limitations proved to
be useful in incorporating new instruments and techniques to the recording process.
Lights Towards The Exit was written and recorded in different spaces in Berlin – from bedrooms in apartment blocks to
three different studios across the city. The different locations all had a specific ambience – such as 4th- and 5th-floor
bedrooms with busy street views; a studio with no windows in a typical old Berlin backyard complex forever under
threat of being sold and gentrified; and a bigger studio with windows on the opposite side of the corridor overlooking the
backyard of a mechanic workshop. The final details and edits were completed in Atelier’s current studio, in a
contrasting area surrounded by office blocks, plazas, 9-5ers and, most importantly, their friends and colleagues.
Swapping the mountains, sea and seclusion for tall buildings, backyards and a new community, Lights Towards The
Exit channels the sensation of being surrounded by people, but still feeling like you're on your own. The album was
written through three years of cold winters, sweaty summers and a period where the world stood still during the
pandemic. Frustrated with the cease of momentum, but still optimistic, Atelier disappeared from public view,
abandoning social media to focus on recording, songwriting and experimentation.
It was a difficult time: the duo longed to perform and continue producing music, and the imposed limitations sometimes
felt like an impossible obstacle. Ultimately, though, this would provide unexpected inspiration and influence the sound
and direction of the new album.
The sound of Lights Towards The Exit is not a departure from their first album, but a progression: influenced by the new
surroundings in the duo’s adoptive city, Atelier’s second album is an ode to first-time experiences, new languages,
challenges, club culture and the shift from youth to maturity, as well as a balm to those stuck somewhere in between.
The overall sound is a lift not in tempo, but in energy, matching the openness needed to make a new start in a new
place.

All tracks written, produced, arranged and performed by Atelier - Jás Miszewski & Alexander Inggs
Mastered by Mathias Schober, Artwork by David Kochs , Cover Photography by Alexander Inggs
A&R: Mathias Schober & Thomas Herb