Dani Scheffels' "hi" is an album that greets you with a smirk - warm yet elusive, welcoming but cryptic, as if waving from a distance and daring you to step closer. Released on June 7, 2024, under tunnel.visions, this debut solo effort by the Munich-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer distills his background in jazz drumming and electronic experimentation into a collection of intricate, deeply personal instrumentals.

Scheffels has spent years in the company of artists who thrive on breaking boundaries, from K.I.Z. to Ralph Heidel, and "hi" wears that open-ended spirit proudly. There are no lyrics here, just textures, rhythms, and fleeting moments of melody that slip through your fingers before you can name them. His drumming is at the heart of everything—sometimes precise and intricate, other times loose and ghostly, like an echo from an unfinished thought.

The album moves fluidly between moods. Some tracks pulse with a nervous energy, their electronic elements weaving around Scheffels’ percussive instincts, while others feel like sonic polaroids, capturing a moment of reflection before dissolving into the next idea. "this" introduces a spectral human touch with Amelie Scheffels’ voice, and "finally" brings in Ralph Heidel’s saxophone, a breath of warmth in an otherwise shape-shifting landscape.

It’s tempting to try and pin down "hi" - is it jazz-inflected electronica? Ambient with a pulse? A drumming experiment disguised as melody? But Scheffels resists easy classification, crafting a record that feels like a series of conversations without fixed conclusions. And maybe that’s the point. It’s an album that invites you in, lets you interpret, and then drifts away, waving once more before disappearing into the ether.