New Documentary Chronicles Noisia's Breakup and Final Shows

A farewell filmed through pandemic disruption

Noisia announced their split in September 2019, citing creative differences that would end a 20-year partnership between Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen, and Thijs de Vlieger. The news hit hard in a drum & bass scene the trio had helped define. Director Farhad Khodadadzade captured the aftermath in Vlucht, a documentary that follows the band and their longtime manager, Walter, through a farewell tour launched in 2020 and the months when the three began to imagine separate futures.

Birdwatching as a parallel narrative

The film's title translates to "flight," a reference that works on two levels. Between tour stops, Roos, van Sonderen, and de Vlieger tracked birds through binoculars, a shared hobby that became an unlikely through-line. The pastime mirrors their own migration away from a project that consumed most of their adult lives. Rather than dwelling on the mechanics of a breakup, the documentary uses birdwatching as a kind of quiet counterpoint to the end of the group.

A career that reshaped electronic music

Noisia spent two decades as pioneers of drum & bass and breakbeat, reshaping the sound of electronic music through technical precision and uncompromising production. They released their third and final album, Closer, in May 2022. The farewell tour, splintered by the pandemic, culminated in their final live performance on August 21, 2022, at Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, Netherlands.

The documentary is now available to watch.