By Ethan Pochop
Contributing Writer
On Nov. 20, Martin Vogt released his album titled “Panorama” under the artist name Haywyre. This album will mark his eighth EP release to date. In the past, Vogt has released music that was more along the lines of early dubstep. Now, in his new EP, each song switches between emotional piano with a hint of jazz. Vogt trained and studied jazz from at an early age. Vogt’s unique style stands out in his ability to switch between giant electronic dance music (EDM) bangers into more smooth, soulful, and complex piano pieces.
There are six songs on the album: “Stepping stones,” “Tell me,” “Storyteller,” “Square one,” “Context pt.1” and “Blind Faith.” “Stepping stones” consists of an atmospheric intro where Vogt encourages the listener to forget who and where they are for a while and choose where to go next. He writes “Take a second to close your eyes/ Pretend you don’t know anything/ You don’t know who you are/ You don’t know where you are/ You don’t know what you did yesterday/ Now open your eyes, you decide where to go next.” This really draws the listener in and encouragers wonder as to what Vogt’s underlying message is with this album.
This song flows into the most famous song on his EP called “Tell me,” where Vogt goes into a ballet. In this ballet, he combines organ sounds with a guitar to create a poppy and fast tune. The lyrics to this song are simply asking the listener what’s on his or her mind. The chorus goes into a groovy futuristic, fast beat that has hints of R&B accompanied by intense synths and vocals. This breaks down into a smooth piano solo with nothing but a small bass, kick, and snare. The best part about the song is him showing off his many talents. He likes to use a vocoder for his voice when he sings. This gives him an almost robotic voice, similar to Daft Punk, that he can manipulate with his keyboard. He’s able to also play his voice along with the pitch bending to give the illusion of a rock guitar.
His signature sound is a synth lead that he plays with one hand on the keys, the other on a pitch control knob. This gives a sense of note bending and relates closely to the sound of a guitar, which gives him the opportunity and ability to seemingly go on forever in his keyboard solos. Alongside his incredible instrumentation, he likes to include minimal, but thoughtful vocals such as “Storyteller, tell me a story. Endless space and endless time, we can choose your story line,” which leads to the thought that everyone in essence is just a storyteller.
Martin Vogt, or Haywyre, has become a pioneer of the electronic music scene. Vogt’s use of synth, vocoders and piano is bound to revolutionize what listeners consider electronic and dance music. “Panorama” is available on popular music platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
pochopej16@bonaventure.edu
