Manual – True Bypass [CD]

2026 release. 16 years after the last Manual full-length, Jonas Munk finally returns with a new album! Jonas Munk released his Manual debut 25 years ago on influential Berlin label Morr Music. Back in the early noughties Munk was a teenager obsessed with the Warp Records catalog, and artists such as Tortoise, Brian Eno and Seefeel. He produced music in his basement studio that was equipped with a few analog synths, some guitar pedals, a sampler and an 8-track Fostex recorder. Early albums Until Tomorrow and Ascend became highly regarded representatives of the European electronica sound at the time – a scene also defined by the likes of ISAN, Mm, Ulrich Schnauss and Four Tet. From the start the Manual sound was characterized by blending glitchy electronics, analog synths and hand-played instruments, such as guitar and piano. Compared to his peers, Munk’s productions were always more rooted in the song structures of rock music, rather than branching out of repetitive techno music.