The New Austrian Sound of Music – in short NASOM – is a long-term sponsorship program by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs (BMEIA), promoting young Austrian musicians for the fifth time in the two-year period 2016/2017.
The aim of NASOM is to offer support for international performances of promising young talents with the help of a global network of embassies, cultural forums and consulates.
A further objective of NASOM is to draw more attention to the fact that Austrian music creation – beyond the traditional – is as vibrant, modern and culturally diverse as ever.
The young artists accepted for this program were selected in cooperation with the organization mica – music information center austria and local music universities.
Here once again, young emerging musicians from the genres classical, jazz, world, contemporary and pop music were chosen to participate in this sponsorship program.
Among the 25 selected artists for the NASOM program:
Farewell Dear Ghost
According to his own words, bandleader Philipp Szalay originally had something else in mind for his band Farewell Dear Ghost. The intense and inspired work on his debut album brought up a lot of new ideas and directional changes, with the effect that the Styrian singer-songwriter ended up doing something else than initially intended – namely emotional and passionate indie pop with a lot of depth. Embedded in the warm overall sound of Szalay’s sound universe are delicate and lyrical melodies, as well as thoughtful and varied arrangements, which lead each song through tense twists and turns, before erupting into an atmospheric climax. The new EP Skin (ink music) also documents the band´s first China tour (2015) in impressive photographs. After touring Germany, Italy, Croatia and Switzerland in the past years, Farewell Dear Ghost will support Nada Surf on their European tour in spring 2016.
Farewell Dear Ghost are:
Philipp Szalay – guitar, vocals
Philipp Prückl – bass
Alex Hackl – guitar
Andreas Födinger – drums
Website: www.farewelldearghost.com
(Photo: Farewell Dear Ghost © Lena Prehal)
An initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs
