Blaufinger.
Between precision and feeling.
Blaufinger on THRESHOLD, the guitar’s own voice and allowing live music to emerge in the moment.
Roman · Blaufinger
An album as a connected world: on THRESHOLD, Blaufinger take their combination of guitar and electronics further. In this written conversation, Roman explains how different ideas become shared songs, and why the recording is only the starting point on stage.
Based in Aarau, Blaufinger combine electronic music with a distinctive guitar voice. The project performs both solo and as a duo. On 7 November 2026, they present THRESHOLD at KIFF in Aarau. Roman answered our five questions in October 2026.
One world for the whole album
After MONOLOG comes THRESHOLD. What did you do differently while working on the new album?
I think with THRESHOLD we had a clearer sense of where we wanted to go musically. MONOLOG was our first album, so it was also a search for what Blaufinger actually is. We experimented a lot and really got to know our sound.
With THRESHOLD, we wanted to make fewer individual songs that stand on their own, and instead make an album that works as a whole and goes through a development. The pieces are connected emotionally and musically. It is about loss, memories, hope and looking ahead again. We took more time to work out those connections and also to leave things out if they did not fit the story of the album.
At the same time, we did not want to restrict ourselves musically. There are different moods and energies on the album, but everything belongs to the same world. I think we now have a better understanding of what makes Blaufinger what it is, without wanting to define exactly how a Blaufinger song has to sound.
A voice of its own
The guitar has a voice of its own in Blaufinger. Could you use a track from the new album to explain how a guitar idea and the electronic elements changed one another?
For us, a song rarely starts with a finished guitar part that we then build electronic elements around. Often, the things influence each other. A guitar sound can suddenly function like a synthesizer, or an essentially simple guitar idea takes on a completely different meaning through effects and rhythm.
It is precisely that contrast between something organic and something electronic that interests us. The guitar does not necessarily have to sound like a guitar, and the electronic elements do not have to control everything. Sometimes something interesting happens when you do not immediately try to put everything neatly into categories.
On THRESHOLD, it was important to us that the guitar was not simply an additional instrument, but brought its own atmosphere and emotion to the songs. It can have something fragile about it, but it can also generate pressure and energy. Together with the beats and synthesizers, that creates a sound we would not achieve with a purely electronic production.
The songs are the foundation, but we want to give them room.
Two perspectives
What happens between the two of you when you disagree about a track? Is there a moment on THRESHOLD that became better precisely because you had two different ideas?
Of course, we have different ideas and tastes. But that is a good thing too. If we always agreed straight away, a lot of things would probably be less exciting.
Usually, we first try to understand the other person’s idea. Sometimes you spend quite a while discussing a detail that is extremely important to one person and does not work at all for the other. Then you try out different versions and listen to what actually happens, rather than just talking about it.
We have learned that it is not about who gets their way. In the end, the song has to feel right. Sometimes that is one person’s original idea; sometimes it is something completely different that only emerges through the discussion. Precisely because we both bring our own ideas, a piece often gains more depth than it would if it came from just one perspective.
Precision meets the moment
Blaufinger performs both solo and as a duo. What changes musically, and where do you like to leave room on stage for something that works quite differently on the recording?
As a duo, Blaufinger is naturally more immediate and more alive, because we can respond to each other musically. There are things you cannot plan: small changes in timing, spontaneous decisions, or moments when you realise that a song needs a different energy today than it did at the last show.
When I play solo, I have to make more decisions myself and bring the various elements together differently. That also changes how the music is perceived. Some details become more prominent, while other things have less space. It is not simply a smaller version of the duo, but a perspective on the songs in its own right.
In general, we do not try to reproduce the recordings as precisely as possible live. The songs are the foundation, but we want to give them room. Especially in electronic music, we find it exciting when something very precise meets something unpredictable. The music should be able to move and emerge in the moment.
With people in the room
On 7 November, you will present the album at KIFF. Which track are you especially curious to hear with people in the room, and why that one?
I am especially curious about “Mauersegler”. The song has a special significance for us within the album. Thematically, THRESHOLD moves between loss and hope, between looking back and what still lies ahead. “Mauersegler” deliberately looks forward and carries something light, warm and positive within it.
I am interested in how that mood feels in a room full of people. When producing, you often sit alone in the studio, focusing on every little detail. Live, it suddenly becomes something shared. Perhaps people will take completely different things from the song than we had in mind when writing it. That is exactly what I find exciting.
The album launch at KIFF is also special for us, of course, because we will be sharing the album as a whole with our audience for the first time. We have worked on these songs for a long time. Now they should leave our studio and our own heads, and find their place with people.
Blaufinger
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Jessica Christ