Portrait XO & Rick Feds

Portrait XO trains their own AI models on their own productions and builds beats with a fader instead of pads. Rick Feds drilled finger drumming until Ableton counted him among their standout Push performers. Two practices, one question. How does technique shape what an artist ends up making? Both films had to hold up for an international music magazine, so substance mattered more than polish, and neither could turn into a lecture or a standard artist promo.

STRUKTUR produced both films and handled post-production. Louis Matysik ran production, and Lukas Koch came in for edit and visual effects. A separate crew covered camera and direction, and the credits show who did what. Your Mom’s Agency led the project, Armine Badeyan directed, and Ableton, Neumann and the SAE Institute Berlin supported the production.

We approached both pieces as short documentaries rather than performance clips. Alongside the studio material we used additional footage from Rick Feds’ live shows, composing several vertical frames side by side so that a vertically shot archive reads as one horizontal picture. The close-ups do the rest. With finger drumming the technique is the story, and that story only lands at this distance. Both films found their shape in the edit.

Mixmag published both films in March 2026 and credited STRUKTUR by name. A dublab radio show with Rick Feds went out alongside them, and Louis Matysik produced that interview.