What can you say about March? It’s kind of an in-between month – often too raw to really feel like spring, but definitely no longer winter. It’s a time for planning, for getting all your ducks in a row before spring sashays in, all bloomy and chirpy – plenty of rainy days to spend doing serious things like applying to showcases or for support programs, lots of interesting indoor events to check out before warm weather drives you outside. March got you like “meh”? Never fear: your Austrian Music Highlights are here.
Get your music out
Here at Austrian Music Export, we’re all about Austrian music in the world – but that requires a little effort from those of you that make the music. Applications for the spring showcases have mostly closed, but we’d like to draw your attention to a couple of big opportunities (with looming deadlines)…
NASOM – The New Austrian Sound of Music: Every two years, the good folks at the Austrian Foreign Ministry and music professionals put their heads together to pick the best and brightest of Austria’s young music scene. NASOM artists receive the financial and logistical support of the Ministry in their international endeavors over the following two years. Are you an Austria-based artist born after 1990? Then you’re eligible! But be quick: you’ve got till Sunday, March 24th to get your application in. For more information see our article on how to apply.
jazzahead! 2024: The Austria stand has been a fixture at Europe’s biggest jazz-focused trade fair for many years – and this year, Austrian Music Export is taking over! It’s going to be a low-key affair; we’re mainly offering a comfortable place for Austrian jazz musicians and other parties to meet up, hang out, and network.
Thinking about going, but undecided? Allow us to sweeten the deal: if you register online “co-exhibitor” before the deadline of March 27th, We can offer you a discount on your festival pass! If you’re definitely going, and looking for a quiet corner to meet, we’re going to have a couple tables available for reservation. See Austrian Music Export at jazzahead! 2024 for more info – and see you in Bremen!
…And that’s not all! If you’re looking for inspiration on your next move as a musician or band, we’ve got intel on festivals in Skopje and Sofia, as well as programs like SHAPE+ and Culture Moves Europe that are geographically more open…but don’t wait! Some deadlines are coming up as early as the end of this week, so take a look at our “Open Calls” page for our full listing of current opportunities.
Get out of the house
And when you’ve finished a long, hard day of calculating costs, coordinating dates with the rest of your group, and filling out applications (and hopefully also writing, recording, and rehearsing music!) it’s time to clear your head. Where to go? How about…
Bernhard lang‘s Dora
“Who the hell is Dora?” ask the posters in Stuttgart. Good question – Dora is a young woman who raises the Devil in a desperate attempt to escape a suffocating life that she can no longer stand. Raises him, that is – but fails to recognize him at first…the Bayerischer Rundfunk calls it a “full-throated antidote to boredom”; the Frankfurter Rundschau speaks of “great voices” and “great characters”, praising the “compact and precise chorus” and the synthesizer-augmented orchestra. Sounds like an excellent reason to head to Stuttgart.
Dora premiered on March 3rd; performances are currently scheduled on March 22nd and April 1st and 4th at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
Jazzwerkstatt Wien
A little closer to home (unless you’re in Tirol): we featured the iconoclastic and long-lived collective Jazzwerkstatt Wien in a profile/article a couple weeks ago. They’re celebrating the 20th year of their existence with a series of excellent concerts; April brings a double bill to Vienna’s Porgy & Bess, featuring The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (a competitor for band name of the year; an international quartet anchored by drummer Lukas König) and Kurdophone, the Omid Darvish-helmed Kurdish/Iranian fusion band. Highly recommended.
- 20 Years of the JazzWerkstatt Wien: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters / Kurdophone, April 11th at Porgy & Bess.
…Or stay in and listen
OK, so it’s raining, your brain is fried and all you can think of is ordering in and spending some quality time with your couch. We get it – and we’ve got you.
Hungarian-born percussionist András Dés has long since established himself on the Vienna jazz and global scene, collaborating with the likes of David Six and Golnar Shahyar. Unimportant Things isn’t his first album as a leader, but it still feels like something of a debut: Dés has created a 50-minute work of subtle drama, anchored by Philipp Nykrin’s assured piano playing and with trumpeter Martin Eberle’s signature atmospheric sound effects and lyricism, enveloped by Márton Fenyvesi’s guitar (Kenji Herbert performed at the Vienna release concert)…and suffused with Dés’s seemingly endless palette of sounds, rhythms, and quiet humor.
- András Dés – Unimportant Things, out now on BMC Records.
We’ve been following the quirky alt-pop trio oh alien on the down low for a while now, and a first listen to their upcoming album What We Grow suggests that our anticipation is about to be rewarded: bite-sized songs with the dramatic arc of a feature film, Anselma Schneider’s voice both dreamy and precise, bolstered by lush keyboards and drums like feather pillows. The signature of Vienna producer Sixtus Preiss is clearly audible – detail-oriented, but always reaching for the big feelings. There are unquestionably songs here with summer-hit potential, but to us it’s a headphones album all the way.
- oh alien – What We Grow, coming April 5th on Assim Records.
If you’re in Austria and haven’t been hibernating these last few weeks, you can hardly have missed hearing about the acting debut of Anja Plaschg, better known as Soap&Skin. We haven’t seen the movie (we’re the sensitive type) but we have listened to the soundtrack to Des Teufels Bad. Our take: it’s film music, so generally ambient, but it’s Soap&Skin, so a potent mixture of the unsettling and the darkly uplifting. With the exception of a couple of tracks, her voice is mostly an equal partner in the ensemble (which by no means diminishes its eerie power). A shout-out to hurdy-gurdy virtuoso Matthias Loibner, whose unmistakably keening, trembling sound adds unique flavor.
- Soap&Skin – Des Teufels Bad Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, out now on Hoanzl.
We hope we’ve given you enough to think about (and act on!) until we return with more highlights in mid-April. Until then, in the words of the immortal Casey Kasem: keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars. – Philip Yaeger