1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?
All 16 knobs on the DJ Techtools Midi Fighter Twister.
They turn control into an instrument and give me an indestructible kind of freedom. I don’t think in parameters anymore, I think in gestures.
2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?
Right now my setup feels complete. In most cases, it lets me focus entirely on sound instead of technology.
The only thing missing is a new Eurorack case, purely for space reasons. And of course, if there’s more space, there will be more modules. That’s not gear lust, that’s gravity.
If I could wish for one more thing, I’d love to see Nana Modules release a Caixa 208.
3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?
In my last live set, I used my laptop, the Midi Fighter Twister, the Arturia MicroBrute, the KOMA Electronics Field Kit and Field Kit FX, and my DIY soundbox filled with kalimba, an egg slicer, and other objects. The soundbox has become an essential part of my practice, both on stage and in the studio, and I’ve been working with different versions of it for over ten years.
Overall, it’s a small system, but one that still allows me to lose control.
4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?
I sometimes wish Ableton itself existed as a physical instrument.
Not a controller, but a real object with resistance, weight, and limits.
I wouldn’t want any of my hardware as software. I chose it as hardware for a reason.
5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?
I try to keep the things I might regret selling.
That makes storage complicated, but it keeps my past intact.
Still, I had to let go of a Korg electric piano once, space won, music lost.
6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?
I switched to Ableton more than 17 years ago.
It was the first time the tool stepped out of the way of listening and working.
7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?
An analog synthesizer. Any one.
It teaches you signal flow, patience, and listening.
Eventually it teaches you something about the universe and about yourself.
8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?
My headphone cable.
It constantly gets caught under my office chair wheels and pulls me back into the room.
A reminder that sound is physical, and so am I.
9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?
The biggest trick was realizing that looping isn’t repetition, it’s a way of listening longer to the same moment.
Artist or Band name?
Max Würden
Genre?
Ambient, Experimental, Sound Art, Field Recording
Selfie?
Where are you from?
Cologne, Germany.
How did you get into music?
As far back as I can remember, I was always surrounded by music, from waking up until falling asleep.
When I was very young, I had a key moment: I suddenly understood how a band works, which instruments are played, how they sound, and what their roles are. That realization sparked my desire to learn an instrument and start making music myself. In the 1980s I learned to play drums and spent many years playing in bands, from indie rock to jazz. In the 1990s I began making solo recordings with 4-track recorders, effects and guitars, trying to free myself from the band format. When more powerful computers became available, I chose to move fully into electronic music and work solo. I’m entirely self-taught in this area.
What I carried over from my band years is a love for using all kinds of sound sources, mostly analog ones, often treated as instruments rather than tools.
What still drives you to make music?
What drives me is the search for calm inside sound.
I’m interested in making music from my surroundings rather than for them, a quiet contradiction to the original idea of ambient.
Real sounds have always been essential to my work. Field recordings have been part of my music from the beginning.
How do you most often start a new track?
I start with the desire to make sound and to become calm.
Anything can be the beginning: a tone, a chord, something in my hands.
The desire is what starts the next project.
How do you know when a track is finished?
I know a track is finished when I fall asleep while listening to it.
Unfinished tracks keep me awake, because I still hear what needs to be changed.
Show us your current studio
Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?
Listen longer than you think you should, and trust what remains.
It’s never the one session, it’s the many sessions.
That’s something I had to learn myself.
Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.
My latest project is RAUSCHKASSETTE, a collaborative cassette release with Ron Schmidt. It treats noise as the main material for a continuous narrative, moving through shifting textures toward a quiet, meditative stillness.
https://wuerden.bandcamp.com/album/rauschkassette
I’m also featured on KOMPAKT’s POP AMBIENT 2026, together with LUKAS SCHÄFER, as part of the long-running, Wolfgang Voigt–curated series dedicated to beatless, elegant ambient music.
https://kompakt.bandcamp.com/album/pop-ambient-2026
