The Saxophone-House Sound of Times EP by Nikolay Cranner, and Where It Went
The Saxophone-House Sound of Times EP by Nikolay Cranner, and Where It Went
Two Tracks, Two Guest Vocalists and Live Saxophone Hooks From a Norwegian House Producer
Times EP by Nikolay Cranner came out on 5 May 2023, a two-track house release that puts live saxophone at the centre of the mix. The Norwegian-Canadian producer, DJ and saxophonist, now based in Vancouver, split it between two guest singers: Kieran Fowkes on Sunshine Living and Joey Law on the title track, Times.
Nikolay Cranner’s Times EP now sits in our Dance Pop, Vocal House, Pop Dance playlist below, and every article about the record is gathered on Nikolay Cranner’s artist profile. The release reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Press play on the sax, then read on for how it was built.
A Herbie Hancock Horn Line, a Feel-Good Hook and a Song About Standing Together in Hard Times
The hook on both tracks is the saxophone. Cranner plays it himself, and it is the detail every review picked out. Necessary Outlet heard soaring sax solos on both songs and compared the one on Sunshine Living to a late-1980s Herbie Hancock horn solo. Plastic Magazine, meanwhile, wrote of saxophone solos lifting each track.
Underneath the horn, Sunshine Living stacks 1990s house snares and hi-hats on a modern EDM kick, according to the same Necessary Outlet review, with a funk feel running through the groove. Kieran Fowkes, a British singer-songwriter, carries the vocal, and the track plays as the bright, summery half of the EP.
The words split the release in two. Sunshine Living is the feel-good one, built for a summer dancefloor. Times is heavier. Cranner dedicated it to people who keep going through difficult periods. Plastic Magazine, in turn, described a song about the challenges people face on personal and collective levels, and about standing together. Wonderland summed up the title track the same way, as a reminder to stick together during difficult times.
Joey Law, an American singer-songwriter, takes the vocal on Times. Necessary Outlet placed the track in late-2010s EDM territory, pointing to Cash Cash and to Zedd and Clarity. It also heard a sax line that climbs the way the solo on Lady Gaga’s The Edge of Glory does. That combination of a big-room build and a live horn is the craft move worth listening for.
Two Four-Minute Tracks, a Saxophonist’s Background and What Nikolay Cranner Released After Times EP
The structure is simple and confident. Sunshine Living runs to four minutes and three seconds, and Times to four minutes and 26. Testing Melodies noted how well the two complement each other, and the pairing works because they share a palette but not a mood.
The saxophone is not decoration, either. In his interview with Wonderland, Cranner explained that he played in marching bands as a child and took music theory lessons on the trumpet. He only found a real love for music, he said, once he started producing and learned the saxophone. His first brush with electronic music came around 2003, through a piece of software that shipped with house demo songs. An early Ableton Live demo followed a few years later.
That history explains the sound. Wonderland describes Cranner as a producer, composer, DJ, engineer and saxophonist who fuses electronics, vocals and jazz, and Times EP is the clearest example of all five roles at once. The jazz reference points are real too. Herbie Hancock spent the 1980s moving between jazz and electronic dance production, and Cranner works the same crossing from the dance side.
Times EP sits in a run that began with Celebrate in June 2019. Before it came Lies, Moving On, Deep Motion and The Sky, both of the last two made with Batuhan Çelik, and Don’t Walk Away in 2021. Wonderland also traces the releases back to a 2018 EP, Dancin’.
Since then the output has sped up. Moon Vibe followed in August 2023, then Hidden Passage and Time & Space in 2024. A run of 2025 singles stretched from I’m so alone at this party to Stupid Wish, alongside two EPs, To The Beat and Play no more. In 2026 came Angelbirds, Broken Beat and Swingin’, released on 30 June.
From the ElectroPop.News curator team: “Times EP gives its hooks to a real horn rather than a synth patch, and that is the choice worth hearing. It makes two house tracks sound played rather than programmed, without slowing either of them down.”
Stream Nikolay Cranner Times EP and Follow the Vancouver Producer on Spotify and Beatport
Follow Nikolay Cranner on Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud. Find Times on Beatport and the catalogue on Traxsource.
Keep up with him on Instagram, Facebook and the YouTube channel.
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The Saxophone-House Sound of Times EP by Nikolay Cranner, and Where It Went