I am very sad to announce that my good friend, German ambient musician Mathias Grassow, has died at the age of 62. He wanted to swim in the Rhine River on a beautiful summer's day and was swept away by the strong current.
Newspaper article (german): https://www.echo-online.de/lokales/...her-badeunfall-im-rhein-bei-bacharach-4878769


"Grassow is known as the king of the ambient drone"
Jim Brenholts, allmusic.com


"Perhaps my drones are ‘cosmic downloads’ that contain a certain message – but even if so: if perceived by our ears only, this message does not have the power to change our DNA and open up the way to more profound experiences of our inner self. Such music can, at best, give us a vague idea about who we are, and where our home is. I have the firm believe that if we manage to perceive music on more channels than just our ears – which are governed by our brain with all it’s judgements and categorisations – this will enable us to perceive it on a level which still is beyond our imagination, an expanded perception that might include the relativity of space and time, and the simultaneity of past, present, future, and more …"

Full interview (german): https://mathias-grassow.de/articles...ew-2016-machael-brueckner-electronic-magazine

https://mathiasgrassow.bandcamp.com/

As you can see on Bandcamp, his work includes a three-digit number of album releases.
Himalaya is a release from 1999 and one of Mathias favourite tracks.

In grateful memory of our freundship, inner journeys, magical moments, created sounds.....
May you have found your way through the Bardos !!

 

Last edited: Aug 24, 2025

Dear Matthias, rest in peace and thank you for your great music.

Space Ambient Mix 20 - Interstellar Gravity by Mathias Grassow

 

Mathias Stephan Grassow (* 1963; † August 13, 2025[1]) was a German musician.

Grassow is internationally known as a keyboardist for his productions with former Popol Vuh musician Klaus Wiese. He played drums and guitar in the 1970s and switched to keyboards in the 1980s. Since the late 1980s, he specialized in ambient music, especially drones – very slowly developing soundscapes with a consistent fundamental tone (drone), multifaceted overtones, but often completely without rhythm or melody – and explored their effects on the human psyche (ancient Indian Nada Yoga).

He often mixed acoustic sounds into his dense electronic soundscapes, using voice, tambura, zither, flutes, singing bowls, and self-made instruments. His art is influenced by Far Eastern philosophy, Sufism, and Celtic and shamanic Northern European music.

His recognition in the international ambient scene as the "king of the ambient drone" has led to numerous collaborations with other artists, including Ted De Jong, Jim Cole, Rüdiger Gleisberg, Amir Baghiri, Oöphoi, Tomas Weiss (Aestrata), Heikki Lindgren, Claudia Barth, Stefano Musso (Alio Die), Carsten Agthe, Siegmar Fricke, Bruno Sanfilippo, Jiří Mazánek, John Haughm, Anton Shafarostov (Closing The Eternity), Luigi Seviroli, Michael Brückner, Greg Moorcroft (eyes cast down), Evgeny Vladimirovich (Heavenly Hermit), Marcel Trettin, Agalloch, Louisa John-Krol, and Cornelia Kern. In recent years, he has lived and worked in Bad Soden.

https://mathias-grassow.de/page/mathias-grassow/home

 

rest in peace sir

 

Sorry to hear you lost a good friend.

 

Rest In Peace

 

RIP

 

Mathias Grassow & John Haughm - Mosaic (Full Album)