Berlin-based producer and DJ Barker (aka Sam Barker) has announced his second album Stochastic Drift, which drops April 4th via Smalltown Supersound. Barker has also provided the first taste of this new record with its leading single "Reframing."

The new single is dense with throbbing synthesizers and echoing melodic synth stabs. "Reframing" is named after the psychological technique that is used to reinterpret something into a positive.

Check out the "Reframing" below:

The years since the Barker's last studio record (2019's Utility) have been filled with questions and uncertainty. Barker's own shifting attitude toward how he produced music, living through a global pandemic, and experiencing moments of a professional transitions in this time lead him to use Stochastic Drift as a new way to appreciate the unexpected:

“I'd been working with an approach that was quite deliberate and goal-oriented before, but I realized this wasn't so helpful in the context of uncertainty. Being suddenly unemployed and stuck at home for an indefinite amount of time, with one disruption after another, it was like the target kept moving and I didn't know what to aim at.” Barker continues, “I noticed this unpredictability starting to creep into what I was making, and tracks were ending up a long way from the intentions they started with. So the challenge for this record was to try to embrace that process, to let go of expectations.”

Throughout this new album, Barker explores the world of mechanical instrumentation deeper than he has on any of his previous works. He explains:

“My interest in mechanical instruments is not to replace a human performer, but to explore the tool in a different way, maybe dehumanize it a little bit and look for the potential outside of what humans have already perfected.”

Addressing any sort of anxiety surrounding AI influence on the artist's music, he is quick to quell any and all fears fans may have. He emphasizes that regardless of what technology is being implemented, what digital instruments are being used, be they synths, robot, human, etc., they are just tools. These tools are being used in a very human way - in a creative way, according to Barker.

Stochastic Drift full tracklist:

1. Force Of Habit
2. Reframing
3. Difference And Repetition
4. The Remembering Self
5. Positive Disintegration
6. Cosmic Microwave
7. Fluid Mechanics
8. Stochastic Drift

Barker European Tour Dates:

02/14 Tallinn, EE @ Dreamscape Festival (Live)
03/15 Dublin, IE @ The Complex (Live)
03/23 Berlin, DE @ Berghain Panorama Bar (DJ)
04/05 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso (Live)
04/13 Berlin, DE @ Berghain Panorama Bar (Live)
05/02 Basel, CH @ Sudhaus Basel (Live)
06/05 Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound (Live)
06/29 Berlin, DE @ Berghain Panorama Bar (DJ)
07/19 Berlin, DE @ Berghain Panorama Bar (DJ)
09/07 Berlin, DE @ Berghain Panorama Bar (DJ)
11/01 Berlin, DE @ Berghain Panorama Bar (DJ)