It’s officially still winter, but the sun rays start to shine through in, albeit sporadic, but hopeful bouts. To accompany the ever-increasing auspicious rays, here are a few beams of musical light to carry you over the hump of cold towards the sure-to-be glittering spring that’s patiently waiting just around the bend.
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Subbacultcha – an Amsterdam-based platform, aiming to reverberate its community – is rekindling Klub470: their collaborative effort with Goethe-Institut. And for the upcoming edition on March 11th, they’ve invited visual artist, composer and vocalist Rosa Anschütz. Rosa forges futuristic yet nostalgic art pop and darkwave, that’s catchy, pummeling and industrial. It’s swift, but weighs a ton. “Her voice softly floats without losing its depth through the ethereal and hypnotic sound spheres – from the sacred, gloomy mood reminiscent of Nico to the post-punk aura of Joy Divisions,” – BPitch. Don’t miss this special joining of forces from Amsterdam, Berlin and Vienna! Details: here.
The UK and Vienna-based singer-songwriter, pop-force-to-be-reckoned-with, Florence Arman has some highlights to be named this late winter season. For one, she will be playing a special show from the “BBC Introducing” series, where the renowned media giant presents their picks of emerging artists. The show takes place at The Lexington in London on Mar 2, 2023. Together with two other acts, Twinnie and Bellah Mae, the night is potent with potential for moving music and a grand time. Get your tickets here!
If you can’t make it to the London gig, you’re in luck, because ARTE has posted Florence’s show at the Eursonic Noorderslag Festival (ESNS) in Groningen January 2023 to their concert-videothek, featuring a small selection of artists from the colossal list that played this year’s festival. An honor, to be certain. So, settle down and enjoy the sweetly sung sounds, behind which are often cringingly bitter messages – a tight rope walk that Florence does better than nearly anyone.
A LITTLE BIG
Elektro Guzzi released a new “Studio Live Session” album earlier this month, recorded on 2″ analogue tape in Spring last year by Little Konzett at LITTLE BIG BEAT STUDIOS in Lichtenstein. In typical Guzzi style, the music twinkles, drives, digs and energizes with its seemingly unstoppable pulsing and intergalactic nuances. In combination with the pristine recording and mastering of Little Konzett and LITTLE BIG BEAT, the final product is something not to be missed. Grab your copy of the limited vinyl here, and watch the moving images that go along with it:
Feeling inspired? Catch them ina city near you on their tour through Italy, Germany and Austria between March 11 and April 21, 2023.
BUILDING BRIDGES: MISSION SWITZERLAND
As part of our Building Bridges pilot project, we are launching our first mission to Switzerland. More than 16 local labels, management companies, agencies and artists will make their way to Zurich together by train on March 22. Already along the way, they will network and exchange information about the Swiss market. On the following day, a workshop series will be held with Swiss companies, where a basis for a deep and sustainable cooperation between Austria and Switzerland will be developed. Afterwards there will be a showcase at the renowned Zurich club Exil with local acts Anna Mabo, Berglind and Lou Asril before the Swiss showcase festival m4music starts the next day, where My Ugly Clementine and the Leftovers will perform among many other international artists.
Fittingly, Switzerland will also be the guest country of the Waves Vienna Festival in September, where we plan to further deepen the collaboration we have started.
TOUR TOUR TOUR
Austrian singer-songwriter wonderwoman and recent Music Moves Europe Award winner OSKA seems to be endlessly busy of late. And in the same vain, with full speed ahead, the artist hits the road in March, for her “Hallucinating” Tour, heading thru Germany and the Netherlands, performing every evening from March 23rd to April 5th. Even better, all of the shows will feature support acts doppelfinger from Austria and Sweden-based, Australia-born artist Hazlett. For details, check Austrian Music Export’s “Live” page.
But, she doesn’t stop there. Following her Hallucinating Tour, OSKA travels on to Spain, France, the UK and Ireland with Seattle-based artist Syml, till end of April. You go girl.
Between March 10th and April 22nd, Tyrolean “psychedelic space rock band” Mother’s Cake heads on a mother-load-of-a-tour, including shows in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and the UK. Simultaneously, Oehl starts its tour through Germany beginning of March, taking them through May where they play their final concert of an approx. 15-show run in their hometown of Vienna at Porgy & Bess (May 23). The legendary band from Vienna, Wanda, soon embarks on their tour with their latest album “Wanda” and plenty more in tow. Starting March 10th and going through August, the band bestows its live music to most of the major and minor cities in Germany and Austria. Shows are selling out quickly, so grab your tickets now. Check out all these live dates and more on the Austrian Music Export live-shows page.
A moment of release
DRY THRUST – “THE LESS YOU SLEEP” (TROST RECORDS / Released Jan. 2023)
In January 2023, a brand new project, DRY THRUST, comprising of Martin Siewert (guitar, electronics), Georg Graewe (organ) and Didi Kern (drums) released its first album: “The Less You Sleep” on Trost Records.
Austrian based collaborators of free jazz, improvisation and sound experiments release their long awaited debut album of DRY THRUST – the new project by the trio of German pianist and composer Georg Graewe, Martin Siewert (Radian, Trapist, Also) and Dieter Kern (DEK Trio, Bulbul, Fuckhead). Graewe has been leading a variety of ensembles – ranging from trio to chamber orchestra formats – which have involved some of the leading instrumentalists in contemporary music. His compositions include works for full orchestras as well as scores for films, theatre productions, and radio drama. DRY THRUST is one of the very rare occasions Graewe plays organ instead of piano. (Text by Trost Records)
YATWA – “MARVIN MORSER” (LAS VEGAS RECORDS / Released on Feb. 10, 2023)
Jesus Christ, Neo, Superman, Harry Potter. The savior has many names. The band YATWA puts its hope in “Marvin Morser”. At least in the current release. For the longing for God must be satisfied in some way, even in secularized modernity.
C. G. Jung – something of the Mozart of the psychoanalysts – claims to have proved this. You can read about it in his work, “Archetypes”. It seems that man automatically puts his hope into supernatural hands. And the more the church loses credibility, the more numerous are the alternatives as a result.
Too bad that this “Marvin Morser” has left a message after the refrain. One should not call him any more, because he has no answers to our questions. Shame. All hope remains with the band YATWA itself.
In fact, one feels a little warmer around the heart when Valentin Seißler raises his pain-relieving voice psalmodically over the four minutes of reggae. It’s high time to join the fan club of these, otherwise rather rocking, itinerant preachers – after the trumpet angel has finished soloing.
Translated by Arianna Alfreds from the German original by Dominik Beyer.
MODEST ODA – “NEW HEART” (MODEST ODA / Released on Feb. 10, 2023)
“Modest Oda” is the new pseudonym of the former alternative rocker Lukas Wassermann. With the current electronic instrumentation, several electro-pop singles were created on his own over the last two years. When browsing through various live interpretations of his own songs or numerous cover versions, one quickly realizes that no one is hiding behind the effect here. Electronic aids such as harmonizers and autotune serve skillfully as an extension of musical expression. The current single “New Heart” is more or less the soundtrack of this new beginning of the multi-talent who has, in the meanwhile, moved to Vienna.
Translated by Arianna Alfreds from the German original by Dominik Beyer.
GLAM – “BOOKSHELF” (TEACUP RECORDS / Released Feb. 10, 23)
Through the single, “Bookshelf,” Gloria Amesbauer has announced the debut album, “The Color, The Dark” coming out in spring. Who – perhaps misguided by the pseudonym Glam connoted with superficiality – expects cheerful pop music, has landed in the wrong place. For the opener drags back and forth tentatively in a funeral march-like quarter-pulse and delicate falsetto between the two harmonies. At minute 2:20 the earth opens up and a four-minute hell ride à la “My Body is a Cage” by Arcade Fire begins. Through massive use of distortion, and thus hardly distinguishable from the instruments, Gloria Amesbauer delivers a gloomy image of these days with the lines “all the cries, archived in no bookshelf”.
Translated by Arianna Alfreds from the German original by Dominik Beyer.
Arianna Alfreds