Aukai has unveiled his new single Las Lluvias, a spacious and radiant preview of the forthcoming album Chambers, scheduled for release on 3 March 2026 through Apapachoa Records. The project is driven by German American multi instrumentalist Markus Sieber, who has cultivated an international following for his reflective compositions and detailed instrumental soundscapes. Chambers continues that evolution, with Sieber describing the album as a dream sequence shaped by the unique acoustics of the room in which it was recorded.
Chambers was created within Saal 3 at the Funkhaus complex in Berlin, a building that has cast a long shadow over Sieber’s musical development. The Funkhaus was designed and built in the 1950s by the broadcasting specialists of the former German Democratic Republic, rising to prominence as the largest radio facility in East Germany.
As a teenager in the Eighties, Sieber tuned in to DT64, the youth radio station transmitted directly from the Funkhaus, connecting him to a world of alternative sounds. Those early listening experiences became part of the album’s emotional DNA.
For Chambers, Sieber worked alone over three non consecutive sessions held across nearly two years. He performed every instrument on the album, embracing the acoustic identity of Saal 3. The studio, later revitalised by pianist Nils Frahm, is known for its precise sound characteristics and its ability to hold both delicate tones and large resonant waves. Sieber arrived for the first session on an August day with a classical octave guitar and a baritone charango, also called a ronroco, ready to map out a new direction for Aukai.
Sieber has spoken of entering the building as a vivid return to his youth. The preserved hallways, unchanged since GDR times, produced a sense of time travel that set the emotional tone for the project. Inside Saal 3, he and engineer Antonio Pulli began laying down early sketches built from the soft textures of charango and guitar. The environment felt contained and shielded, encouraging Sieber to push into new territories while still honouring the minimalist aesthetic that defines Aukai’s work.
On his third visit, undertaken on a rainy March day, Sieber expanded the palette dramatically. Not a trained keyboard player, he approached the studio’s reed organ, piano, celeste and synthesisers with a sense of instinct rather than technique, recording improvised parts that would become crucial layers within the final mixes. He also added new baritone guitar overdubs, reinforcing the album’s interwoven structure.
One of Chambers’ signature textures did not originate in Saal 3. During a visit to the Tone Of Life instrument makers in Vilnius, Sieber discovered bell plates crafted from resonant copper. He wandered the surrounding woods, capturing natural ambient recordings that blended with the subtle ringing tones produced by striking the plates with his fingertips. This merging of environment and instrument reinforced the album’s meditative personality.
Keeping with the principle of restraint, Sieber completed the mix of the entire album in just one and a half days with Antonia Pulli at Saal 3, and chose not to revise the sessions afterwards. Chambers stands as a distillation of his creative instincts, shaped by the relationships between memory, architecture and sound.
Born in East Germany 15 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Sieber relocated to Potsdam at 16 and became active in the alternative rock scene of East Berlin during the Nineties. He later shifted into acting for theatre, film and television, working across Berlin and St Petersburg. A major artistic shift came after moving to Mexico in 2005, where he connected with local traditions and discovered the ronroco, an instrument that reshaped his compositional approach.
After a period spent between Mexico and the United States, Sieber settled in Colorado and released his self titled debut album Aukai in 2016. Subsequent releases including Branches Of Sun, Reminiscence, Game Trails, Entretanto, Apricity and Temporal built a distinctive catalogue. Collaborations with Parra For Cuva, cellist Anne Müller and composer Jamshied Sharifi expanded his reach further. In recent years he has also scored film and television productions, including the 2024 Netflix documentary El Portal: La Historia Oculta De Zona Divas, created with composer and cellist Clarice Jensen.
Las Lluvias continues this artistic journey with a piece that reflects the essence of Chambers, a work shaped by discipline, discovery and the places that have defined Sieber’s life.
Chambers is out 3 March 2026 via Apapachoa Records.
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