Why you should be listening to: Roomer
Berlin isn’t just Berghain, currywurst, or bleary-eyed black-clad techno-heads on the morning train out of the city, or a skyline engulfed in mist.
It isn’t just that one famous mural of the former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing East German counterpart, Erich Honecker, on the Berlin Wall, but it’s also the dream-rock band, Roomer.
I first came across the four-piece via their NTS show at the end of last year, ahead of a performance at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, where they played indie-rock and dream-pop goldies like Wednesday’s ‘Wasp’, Cindy Lee’s ‘Just For Loving You I Pay The Price’, and The Breeders’ ‘Do You Love Me Now?’. Soundscapes that imbue a skittering haplessness with flirtatious romanticism, without having to turn the heavy moodiness into something it’s not, speaking truth to malaise.
Though their choice of NTS setlist might shed light on their artistic ambitions, Roomer are doing things differently. Last May, when they announced their line of merchandise, a picture of a bottle appeared on their social media. “Roomer Eau de Parfum”, they announced, continuing mystically, “A fragrance that captures the feel of a forest walk through the Borgsdorf swamp—freshly split wood, damp soil—and blends it with the familiar scent of a windowless rehearsal basement: warm dust, burnt tube amps, and the weight of hours spent in sound.”
This tells us a lot about their sound, which values texture over structure, phantasmagoric melodic rivulets melding into one shimmering lake of sound, rather than a singular stream that guides the listener, lazy-river style, down one avenue of experience. It’s music for a daydream that appears out of nowhere, and exists in the glassy film keeping your eyes from seeing.
Their debut album, Leaving It All to Chance, came out in April 2025, and across nine impressive tracks, singer-songwriter Ronja Schößler is a dreamy parachute in the hazy free-fall of slacker-rock rhythms and gritty feedback. Alongside her, composer Luka Aron, experimental producer Ludwig Wandlinger, and jazz guitarist Arne Braun spin gushes of genius around Schößler’s steady, seductive centre.
In an indication that the best is yet to come, the penultimate track on their debut album, ‘Stolen Kisses’, deviates from the swimming, shuddering textual attentiveness of the project and instead goes all-in on a band-first track, with strong verses, “fa-fa-fas” in the chorus, and heavy-handed drumming. Spin it in a Gaspar Noé movie, and we’ve got ourselves a winner, and it’s surely one of the most underrated tracks of last year.
Roomer’s music is also notable for what it asks of the listener, where the blend of dream-pop and slacker-rock makes for a transcendental experience, one that you can switch off and let wash over you, or one you might fully immerse in; both options are rewarding in their own way.
“All perfection spent in your arms,” Schößler sings on ‘Stolen Kisses’, and she might as well be referring to the debut album itself.
Plus, with their latest release, Roomer has taken things to the next level; ‘Written By’ is the first-ever take, as the trio messes around with a singular chord sequence in the chill of the moment for a raw, honest, and emotionally resonant five-minute epic.
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