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Some projects come along that don't fit neatly into any category. The Pancrator Principle was one of them. In May 2023, author Chris Mathias reached out with an idea that was unlike anything we had been asked to do before. He was writing a sci-fi novel – a NeoFiction trilogy set in a dystopian 2069 where artificial intelligence controls Europe, a corrupt council rules with an iron fist, and a teenage girl named Nyssa fights for survival in the sewers of Berlin. The story was dark, cinematic and deeply human. Chris had a bold vision: every major character and key scene in the book would have its own original song. Not background music. Not a playlist. A fully produced, vocal soundtrack – woven directly into the reading experience via streaming links embedded in the novel itself. The AI-generated illustrations would bring the world to life visually. But the music, he insisted, had to be real. Reading the Book First Before a single note was written, my songwriting collaborator Niklas Esse

Every composer has a story. Mine started at a piano in Herberhausen, a small village near Göttingen, Germany, at the age of six. I was lucky. My piano teacher recognized early on that I was a little different. Sheet music and pre-written pieces didn't hold my attention for long – what I wanted was to sit down, sink deep into the keys, and play what moved me. Rather than forcing me into a mold, he gave me the space to explore. Looking back, that decision changed everything. Heidelberg, an Internship and a Band By the time I was 14, I had moved to Heidelberg. A year later, I enrolled in a music boarding school where I stayed until I was 17 – deepening my musical knowledge, getting my hands on a small rehearsal room and playing in an amateur band for the first time. It was a formative period. Not because of any single breakthrough, but because of the daily immersion – surrounded by music, musicians and the relentless curiosity that comes with being young and hungry to learn. Around this t