Parra for Cuva

If there’s one word that encapsulates Parra for Cuva’s sound it’s “wanderlust”. His music has become known, above all, for a sense of worldliness – a magical terrain where Caribbean steel drum may meet an ancient Zimbabwean instrument over melodic electronic soundscapes that immediately take the mind to far-away places. It’s this sense of openness that the German electronic producer and multi-instrumentalist has cultivated from the start, and even as his skills become evermore refined and his sound more mature, Parra for Cuva’s music retains this starry-eyed quality of wander that’s hard to resist.

Born in 1991, Nicolas Janco has been fascinated by sound since a very young age. His first studio was in his childhood bedroom in Northeim, a small city in Germany, where two rudimentary speakers and a midi piano sat amongst his toys. He started his journey with music with classical piano but his enthusiasm soon took him on forays into hip-hop, jazz, pop and indie. And even upon discovering electronic music, moving to Berlin shortly after to pursue studies and a career as a producer, his journey with different instruments and musical languages was just beginning. In his studio today the diverse display of instruments – from bells to flutes to kalimbas and percussion of all kinds – makes evident just how much Nicolas is an explorer of sound.

Although he had already garnered a loyal following with chart-topping singles and two acclaimed albums, Majouré (2014) and Darwîś (2016), it was really with the release of Paspatou in 2018 that Parra for Cuva’s name became intrinsically connected with a sense of wanderlust, and his unique production style instantly recognizable around the world. Titled after the butler in Jules Verne’s Around The World In 80 Days, Paspatou mixed field recordings and samples, trippy modulations and reverbs with segments where Nicolas tinkered with a new instrument or gadget in an emotion-filled journey filled with subtle twists. Paspatou carved a unique position for Parra for Cuva as an artist who’s unafraid of mixing dance floor experimentations with acoustic and ethnic soundscapes.

His fourth studio album Juno, released in 2021, took his global outlook even further with the participation of seven musicians from around the world, many of whom Nicolas met online and worked with remotely. Juno showed that Berlin’s electronic music scene has more to give than just hard electronica and techno. Juno’s soundworld was closer to the output by contemporaries such as Christian Löffler and Max Cooper who infuse their electronic productions with warm, oftentimes melancholic, analog sounds. With the album, Parra for Cuva showed that it’s possible to create journeys that go just as well on the dancefloor as they do at home or even on the road.

Parra for Cuva has performed at some of the world's most famous festivals and sold-out stages such as Burning Man, Sziget, Fusion, Koko London or Concourse Project in Austin. His music was used as the soundtrack to the Netflix TV series, The Umbrella Academy and subsequently entered Shazam’s Global Charts’ top 30. In 2023, he remixed Monolink’s track Turning Away and Odesza’s Light of Day featuring Ólafur Arnalds. His new, fourth studio album, Mimose is set to be released in spring 2024. The album continues Parra for Cuva’s avid exploration of sound in a surprising and sensitive journey that unites haunting vocals, choir-singing, groovy basslines, trance-inducing shakers and many exciting collaborations.