Some people look out of windows. Field recorders slam them shut and turn them into thundering kick drums.

That's at least what one massive metal window at Berlin's legendary Funkhaus broadcasting center sounded like to Alex Cowles on a gray and chilly afternoon in November.

"It made a big boom and was a really clean recording," said the Scottish producer, who makes atmospheric electronic music under the moniker Stillhead.

Cowles was demonstrating the beginnings of a track he had put together over the course of …