The world has changed a lot in the last twenty years, and so has Austrian music. In this series, we’re checking in with artists chosen over the past two decades to take part in NASOM – The New Austrian Sound of Music – an initiative of the Austrian Foreign Ministry (BMEIA) to foster the international careers of young Austria-based musicians and groups. To kick off the series, we asked Vienna techno legends Elektro Guzzi about their experience as a NASOM act in 2012 and 2013…
Elektro Guzzi, founded in 2004 by Bernhard Hammer, Jakob Schneidewind, and Bernhard Breuer, pioneered the concept of live techno, adapting their Detroit-flavored style to the classic rock’n’roll guitar, bass, and drums format. After five years of rehearsing(!), they released their Patrick Pulsinger-produced debut album in 2010…and the rest, as they say, is history: over 500 concerts, 10 albums, and countless EPs, singles, and remixes later, the trio stays close to their roots while still seeking out new collaborations. Their latest project, Inner Scope, features sound artist Rojin Sharafi and a string quartet led by Phoebe Violet.
ELektro guzzi and Nasom
Where was Elektro Guzzi as a band when you joined the NASOM program? Was it helpful to your development?
Elektro Guzzi: When were accepted to the program in 2012, we had just released our second album. We had already toured internationally with the first album, so we already had a good network of contacts. The sponsorship allowed us to stay at that level; we were able to maintain our international contacts and also play concerts and festivals that weren’t willing or able to fly in a three-person band.
How were those two years for you? What concerts or locations were highlights of the period?
Elektro Guzzi: In our two years with NASOM, in addition to the concerts that our booking agency in Berlin organized, we received requests and played a lot of concerts in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forums – those were often coming from a different “scene”, they helped us to reach new audiences.
The highlights definitely include the concerts in Russia – impossible to imagine now – as well as our tours in Mexico, Japan, and the concerts at the Iceland Airwaves Festival.
- Elektro Guzzi will be performing at the Tanzcafé Arlberg music festival on April 13th and at Konzerthaus Wien on June 6th.
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