Conic Rose | Young Man
Conic Rose’s “Young Man” - Berlin’s trumpet-led neo-jazz collective’s debut single that captures the haunted beauty of a city at 2 AM, mixing Bach with lo-fi beats and urban solitude.
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Story Behind “Young Man”
A Berlin Dream at Two in the Morning
Picture yourself cycling through Berlin’s streets at 2 AM. The neon lights flicker sporadically in the darkness. No one else is on the road. Occasionally a fox crosses your path. Yet beneath this apparent silence, there’s a persistent background noise—glass clinking, electricity humming, trees rustling, your tires on the pavement, your own heartbeat. This is the sonic landscape that Conic Rose captured on “Young Man,” their very first single.
The band emerged from Berlin’s jazz scene with an unusual vision: they didn’t want to play jazz as a historical artifact. Instead, they wanted to translate the feeling of their hometown into sound. Trumpeter Konstantin Döben explains this approach: “Coming from a jazz background, I had to work up the courage to write something simple and accessible. But that was what I felt I could stand behind. Like a rock band, we sit together in the studio, someone records something, the others put in their two cents, and suddenly it becomes something.”
“Young Man” became their artistic statement of intent. For Döben—who had previously played in Clueso’s touring band—this represented a fundamental shift. He was stepping away from playing established jazz standards to creating something unclassifiable, something that belonged entirely to Berlin’s particular mood and energy.
The Courage to Reject Genre Categories
Conic Rose formed with musicians from diverse backgrounds united by a shared philosophy: to explore, create, and redefine without being boxed into traditional categories. On “Young Man,” this manifests as pure sonic risk-taking. The track exists somewhere between neo-jazz, indie-pop, ambient, electronica, and art rock—and it’s impossible to pin down because the band refuses to be pinned down.
What makes this possible is the distinctive voice at the center: Döben’s husky trumpet. Unlike the bright, articulate trumpet of traditional jazz, his sound is intimate, almost conversational. It doesn’t announce itself; it whispers. This became the band’s signature—the hoarse, evocative trumpet floating over soundscapes built from electric guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums that maintain a deliberate distance from conventional jazz grooves.
“Young Man” Recording and Production Details
Studio as Instrument, Improvisation as Method
“Young Man” was recorded during a period when Conic Rose was still finding its sound. Unlike traditional album recording where compositions are carefully arranged before entering the studio, the band’s approach was profoundly different. They would record raw ideas, then layer other instruments over them, allowing the composition to grow organically across sessions. As Döben described it, “Sometimes you have to leave something for a week before you can continue working on it. And at some point it grows into a whole sound. It was the search for an essence that we approached, without ever completely touching it.”
This process of intuitive calculation and calculated intuition produced a track that feels both polished and improvised—structured yet breathing. The guitar work reflects this approach: Bertram Burkert’s playing throughout Conic Rose’s catalog is described as having “mournful” improvisational quality. On “Young Man,” his electric guitar creates textural rather than lead-driven moments, supporting Döben’s trumpet without competing for attention.
The production is intimate despite its cinematic ambitions. The band worked with a deliberate aesthetic that could accommodate influences from J.S. Bach, Krautrock, Thom Yorke, and Bonobo without synthesizing them into a unified style. Instead, these reference points coexist, each emerging at different moments throughout the track’s 6:13 runtime.
The Beauty of the Imperfect
Conic Rose’s philosophy explicitly celebrates “the beauty of the imperfect.” On “Young Man,” this manifests in moments of controlled looseness—passages where the rhythm feels slightly behind or ahead, where textures overlap in ways that feel accidental yet intentional. There’s nothing in modern studio production that demands this approach; it’s a deliberate artistic choice reflecting their commitment to authenticity over polish.
The track represents what MOJO described as the band’s attempt to capture “the cut and thrust of city life” through music. Every layer—the bass, the drums, the keyboard textures—contributes to this immersive urban portrait without becoming busy or cluttered. Silence and space are as important as the notes played.
Notes About “Young Man” by Conic Rose
Release Date: April 2, 2020 (single release)
Duration: 6:13
Genre: Neo-Jazz / Cinematic Jazz / Art Rock / Lo-Fi Jazz / Electronica
Album/EP: Babyghosts EP1 (track 3 of 5, released August 28, 2020)
Originally: Conic Rose’s very first single (later included on Babyghosts EP)
Producer: Conic Rose
Label: Jazzlab
Live Recording: Also released as live version from Kantine Berghain, Berlin
Influences: Bach, Krautrock, Radiohead, Jon Hassell, Nils-Petter Mølvaer
Conic Rose “Young Man” Era Band Details
EP Details
EP: Babyghosts EP1
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Label: Jazzlab
Total Tracks: 5 (runtime 22 minutes)
Track Order: 1. Babyghosts 2. Projekt 6 3. Young Man 4. Finden 5. Patience
Production Context: Band’s emerging work before their 2023 debut full-length album
Recording Style: Improvisation-based approach; tracks recorded raw then layered over time
Band Members/Personnel
Konstantin Döben - Trumpet, flugelhorn, composition
Bertram Burkert - Guitar, multi-instrumentalist
Johannes Arzberger - Keyboards, piano
Franziska Aller - Electric bass
Silvan Strauss (later Nicholas Stampf) - Drums
Döben and Arzberger previously worked together in Clueso’s touring band
Production Notes
Band from diverse musical backgrounds (jazz, rock, electronic, classical)
Committed to moving between abstraction and accessibility
Influences blend J.S. Bach, Krautrock, Thom Yorke, Bonobo, Jon Hassell, Nils-Petter Mølvaer
Later album Heller Tag (2023) recorded in band’s own studio in Berlin’s Wedding neighborhood
Described by critics as “unclassifiable” and “genre-defying”
MOJO review: “★★★★ Worked up via Bertram Burkert’s mournful guitar improvisations”
Interesting Facts About “Young Man”
From First Single to Live Anthem
“Young Man” began as Conic Rose’s debut single in April 2020, arriving just as global lockdowns were beginning. The track then found new life when included on Babyghosts EP1 in August 2020. Most remarkably, the song was later recorded live at Kantine Berghain—Berlin’s most iconic cultural venue—and released as a standalone live version on Newtone Records. This live recording captured something the studio version couldn’t: the band’s ability to inhabit this music in real-time, to feel it as an actual physical experience rather than a recorded artifact.
The journey from studio single to live performance emphasizes what makes Conic Rose compelling: their music works both as carefully crafted studio constructions and as living, breathing performances. “Young Man” proved this from the outset.
The Blueprint for Berlin Soundtracking
What Conic Rose accomplished on “Young Man” and throughout their early work became influential in how contemporary musicians think about depicting urban landscapes through music. Rather than using obvious sonic symbols or melodramatic storytelling, they created genuinely immersive soundscapes that evoke place through atmosphere. A listener unfamiliar with Berlin could still feel the 2 AM emptiness, the neon solitude, the strange beauty of a major city at its most vulnerable hour.
This approach prefigured their 2023 debut album Heller Tag, which MOJO praised for its ability to capture Berlin’s atmosphere without resorting to cliché. But “Young Man” was where this vision first crystallized—proof that Conic Rose had found something genuinely original.
Common Questions
Q: What genre is “Young Man” by Conic Rose? A: Conic Rose resists easy categorization. “Young Man” blends neo-jazz, cinematic jazz, indie-pop, ambient, electronica, and art rock. The band describes their approach as moving effortlessly between abstraction and accessibility, drawing from classical (Bach), rock (Radiohead), electronic, and jazz influences without synthesizing them into a unified genre.
Q: Who is the trumpet player on “Young Man”? A: Konstantin Döben plays trumpet and flugelhorn. His husky, intimate trumpet sound is central to Conic Rose’s identity. Döben previously played in Clueso’s touring band before forming Conic Rose with keyboardist Johannes Arzberger and other Berlin-based musicians.
Q: What does “Young Man” sound like? A: Imagine late-night Berlin—sparse, atmospheric, slightly melancholic. The track features Döben’s distinctive trumpet floating over layers of electric guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums. It feels both structured and improvised, with influences ranging from J.S. Bach to lo-fi beats.
Q: Where was Conic Rose’s live version of “Young Man” recorded? A: The live version was recorded at Kantine Berghain, an iconic cultural venue in Berlin associated with experimental and electronic music. This version captures the band’s live performance energy compared to the studio original.
Q: Is Conic Rose a jazz band? A: Not entirely. While the band comes from jazz backgrounds and their music is rooted in jazz sensibilities, they explicitly reject pure jazz categorization. Their sound incorporates electronic elements, indie-pop, ambient music, and art rock. Critics note that they play jazz that pushes “outward beyond the borders of jazz.”