Claude VonStroke Channels Roots and New Growth in Nostalgic EP, ‘Noche Clara’

“This whole release is a throwback and a new beginning at the same time,” VonStroke said of the new EP.

A decade-old promise has finally come full circle for Claude VonStroke, who has dropped his Noche Clara EP on Damian Lazarus‘ Crosstown Rebels.

The release arrives two decades after Lazarus first booked the now-influential house music producer to DJ in the UK.

“I promised Damian I would make a Crosstown Rebels release over 10 years ago, and it’s finally happened,” VonStroke said in a press release. “He was one of the first people to ever book me in the UK twenty years ago. He’s come to play my festival, remixed one of my biggest tracks, and I’m somewhat obsessed with Lazpod. This release is a throwback and a new beginning at the same time.”

VonStroke went on to explain the impact of minimal, early-2000s house music on Noche Clara and shared plans to steer towards the stripped-back stylings of his seminal first record, “Deep Throat” in the future. While the new project clearly nods to his past, he said the EP has “maybe a little bit more modern production than those days.”

The EP’s titular opener feels like an ode to artistic independence and unapologetic self-expression, two values that VonStroke is embracing now more than ever since his departure from Dirtybird, the beloved label he founded. “Bam Bam” (with Honeycomb) pairs psychedelic vocals with late-night, minimal grooves that simmer with moody tension.

“The B-side is kind of a wacky A&R tale where Honeycomb and I played the same private party in the desert and I heard a specific loop during his set. His sets are created from scratch live,” he explained. “I asked him afterwards if he recorded the set and could send me the parts to that one specific loop at a specific timestamp. He found it and we made the entire Bam Bam track from that tiny little section that just grooved exactly right.”

Listen to Noche Clara below.