Ralph Heidel

“Incredible musicianship” - Wonderland

“This Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist’s austere orchestrations betray a delicate touch” - Mojo, ★★★★

“Nostalgic warmth and delicately skittering arrangements” - Electronic Sound

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Ralph Heidel has teamed up with avant-garde musician Douglas Dare on his latest track, ‘Curly Hair’, out today via Ralph’s own label Friends with Oranges. A beautifully affecting piece of baroque pop, the track begins with layered flute lines that slow burn into a climax that sees Douglas Dare’s fragile vocals intertwining with Ralph Heidel’s virtuosic saxophone melody atop noisy electronic synth sounds.

Douglas wrote the lyrics about the new hair of a friend battling cancer. With utmost tenderness, vulnerability, and rawness, the arrangement is a stand out track from Ralph’s upcoming album, ‘anyways.onto better things’ due 21 February.

On the track, Ralph offers: “Collaborating with Douglas is a wonderful thing to happen. When I wrote the instrumental, I felt hope and acceptance at the same time. Sometimes I write music with a certain mood in mind how I want to feel, but where I’m not yet. When I sent it to Douglas, I didn’t tell them anything about what I intended with the music, so I wasn’t influencing their first instinct. Douglas wrote lyrics about a good friend who battled cancer and her hair grew back curly. What beautiful lyrics about hope and acceptance.”

The piece is released alongside an incredible live session recorded in Berlin Neukölln, with Ralph, Douglas and three flute players.

Ralph Heidel’s anyways.onto better things is a statement of profound transformation. It is a spacious album that glows with understated beauty, and navigates the uncertain terrain of loss and renewal with a rare clarity. Across its tracks, Ralph seems to find entirely novel tones, weaving the warmth of analogue instruments—saxophone, piano, and flute—with lush electronic textures.

On the creative process behind the album, Ralph shares: “It’s the first time for me that the development of the album is perfectly in line with my inner process in life, that was very fascinating. This album is definitely my most personal and intimate work and feels like a new chapter - both in life and musically. It’s the rawest sounding yet also. Of course I still use a lot of my analogue synthesizers, but how I recorded and treated my woodwinds is different than before, because I recorded certain moments in the room. There were no second takes - the performance and moment was the focus, not the post production.”

Drawing deeply from personal experiences, Ralph describes the record as a farewell to a time when music became his survival strategy, using it as a space to process loss and embrace new possibilities. anyways.onto better things balances this delicate tension: the pain of letting go counterposed with the quiet hope of new beginnings. Tracks unfold like private revelations, at times steeped in introspection, and at others reaching towards something vast and universal.

Collaboration is also central to the album’s fabric. Contributions from singer Douglas Dare, Japanese composer Jun Miyake, German vocalist Lisa Harres, multi-hyphenate artist Selassie and musician Finn Ronsdorf all bring diverse voices to the dialogue, each enhancing the record's genre-spanning approach and its emphasis on artistic unity and merit.

In anyways.onto better things, Ralph Heidel has made a record that doesn’t just reflect on transformation but embodies it—a work of quiet urgency and enduring possibility.

More on Ralph Heidel

As a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer, Ralph Heidel creates music that bridges the intimate and the expansive. Drawing from jazz, electronic, pop, and contemporary classical influences, his work captures deeply personal moments and transforms them into pieces that feel both immediate and timeless.

Ralph studied jazz saxophone and composition at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts. During that time, he developed a unique approach to music-making, blending acoustic and electronic elements into something entirely his own. This exploration led to his debut album, Moments of Resonance (2019), recorded with his ensemble, Homo Ludens. Originally a university project, the album laid the groundwork for his future projects.

After relocating to Berlin, Ralph’s work has continued to evolve. His sophomore album, Modern Life (2022), created in collaboration with producer Max Rieger, explored themes of contemporary existence through layered instrumentation and intricate production. The album earned international acclaim, with praise from Mojo, Electronic Sound, BBC Radio 6 and BBC Radio 3, among others.

Throughout his career, he has collaborated with an impressive roster of artists, including hip-hop producer Ben Bazzazian, Finn Ronsdorf, Apsilon, and German rap icon Casper.

With each project, Ralph Heidel continues to explore the edges of genre; unbound by tradition and led by emotional authenticity.