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Serena Abrami



Serena Abrami, 1985, singer and songwriter, under contract with Sony music in 2009 and EMI music in 2010/2011//2012, after a lot of gigs in Italy she was chosen in 2009 for the second edition of the tv show "x factor" and after it she began a collaboration with the "master" of italian songwriters Ivano Fossati, who wrote a song for her and produced her first album. In 2011 she took part to the most important italian music gig, Sanremo Festival, where she got he 4th final place singing a song written to her by one of the most important italian singers, Niccolò Fabi. After it she started a lot of live and studio collaborations with famous italian artists as Max Gazzè, Subsonica, Luca Barbarossa, Simone Cristicchi. In these days she's working on new material for her next album, with a different band and sounds.

www.serenaabrami.it

Martin Klein



Der Singer-Songwriter Martin Klein vollbringt kleine Wunder: Mit wandlungsfähiger Stimme und souveränem Pianospiel gelingen ihm Songs, die einem in ihrer Schlichtheit und Brillanz den Atem rauben. Mit seinem aktuellen Album “Lass uns bleiben” kehrt er zu seinen Wurzeln zurück und widmet sich seinen Songs in schlichter Solobesetzung. Was dabei herauskommt, sind zeitlose Lieder mit Klavierbegleitung, die durch ihre Intensität und ihre Eigenständigkeit bestechen. Bayern 2 wählte “Lass und bleiben” zum Musik-Favoriten, FM4 schrieb von “einem nicht nur musikalisch, sondern auch menschlich beeindruckendem Werk” und das deutsche Fachmagazin Jazzthetik ortete “traumverlorene kleine Meisterwerke”. Der größte deutsche MP3 Blog Tonspion schrieb gar: “Wenn echtes Leben auf Traumwelten eines Poeten trifft. So muss Musik sein”.

www.martinklein.at

And The Golden Choir



"Neulich auf der Couch von TV Noir: Da berichtet Herr Tobias Siebert, bis dato als viel beschäftigter Berliner Indie-Produzent bekannt, wie er es schafft, selbst als One-Man-Band zu musizieren. Er könne, sagte Siebert da, eigentlich ja gar nicht wirklich spielen, mache aber alles über Empathie, sprich, er versetze sich mental in von ihm bewunderte Musiker hinein, wie zum Beispiel in diesen oder jenen erstklassigen Schlagzeuger, und rums, schon gehe das auch bei ihm. Einmalig. Dass wirklich etwas dran sein muss an Sieberts Telekinesetechnik, beweist das Projekt and the golden choir. Denn dieses Projekt ist ganz und gar Tobias Siebert, plus Dutzende hineinimaginierte Alter Egos. Die spielt er alle selbst im Studio ein, presst sie auf Vinyl und spielt das dann wunderbar knisternd und mächtig auf der Bühne ab. Statt einer Band. Wenn Siebert dann noch in die Klampfe greift und dazu einige seiner Texte intoniert, dann muss man nur die Augen schließen und wohnt schon einem großen, ergreifenden Konzert bei, irgendwo zwischen intimem Indie-Pop und bester Singer/Songwriter-Lyrik." - Kulturarena im Volksbad Jena.

www.andthegoldenchoir.com

Leonore Boulanger



"When Léonore Boulanger possesses the stage with her chamanic, nomad universe and bewitching chants and instruments, is it "chanson underground"? Might be, but this is for sure a nice experience that we are not used to".
This is a short bio: Léonore Boulanger grows up in the suburbs of the "Oulipo's poets" around Paris. She sings in French, German, improvises some unknown languages. The voice searches the lines and colors in an extra-European vegetation. Synesthesia. Impediment. Anomaly. Restart. Primitivism. She constantly travels to sing at street festivals, from Avignon to Ferrera to Friedrichshafen, until she eventually came to Hamburg in 2011 and started recording her album „Square Ouh La La“, which will be released on Clouds Hill in February 2013.

www.leonoreboulanger.com

Esben Svane



Crystal Clear Destillates
The songs by Danish songsmith Esben Svane come off as crystal clear destillates – the result of a young man’s tugging war with the downside of life in the fast lane.
The lyrics are fueled by the melancholy of reflection, knocking on the door after the tag ‘overnight sensation’ has completed its rampage through the mind. What is left standing must redefine itself and a world the singer can live in. Mistakes and shortcomings are dealt with honestly, and strength is found in admitting to be everything but perfect, since it has become painfully clear that nothing ever will be perfect. "When you jump off a chimney top, what kills you is the sudden stop – will never be the fall," as Esben Svane puts it in the title song of his new EP ‘The Sudden Stop.’ The fall doesn’t kill you. It’s the knock, the shock, when all energy is brought to a halt so abruptly that everything inside turns to mush.
Figuratively, this is the feeling the singer deals with when time has come to look life in the eye, and he realizes that, in the end, the only one looking back is himself...
Love is everything but easy, but the downsides must be faced and embraced. Also there is the beginning, necessary realization that the bottle has become something else than the friend it started out to be. Something has to give, if life is to ever become anything but endless shadow boxing against hung-over yesterdays and a vacant wasteland of wrecked love affairs. “I use songs to tell myself things I need to hear. As a kind of therapy, I guess. I see two versions of myself with different characteristics. These two guys are at it most of the time, constantly arguing. I kind of write songs so I can hear the words come back to me like anybody else,” says Esben Svane.
And this energy constitutes the mother lode for the songs on ‘The Sudden Stop.’ While tracks like ‘Girlfriends’ and ‘Anywhere in a paper boat’ testify to the fact that love, as this singer knows it, is like faring in an unsafe, fragile vessel in a sea as unpredictable as it is beautiful.

www.esbensvane.com

Peter Piek



Leave Me Alone
leaves are fallin from the black birds branch
he said: this is my branch this is not your business
i want to share but i'm not able
you can have a seat on the electric cable
Leave Me Alone
do you imagine moments exist at all
every moment is gone forever
the future is our mind the past has passed
why does it make me sad
Leave Me Alone
whose time - is to stay
when all love - is flying away
leaves are falling winter will be soon
where are you - where - is my home
rain
for me
the tears i can't let fall

www.peterpiek.com

Bernhard Eder



Bernhard Eder grew up in a small farming village in the Austrian countryside. There he made up his first band wa:rum, formed with friends and playing at parties and small festivals in the region. As a consequence, in 1997 Bernhard moved to Vienna to study Audio Engineering and, in addition, jazz vocals at the Vienna Conservatory. Meanwhile, he released three records with wa:rum, and become popular on Austria's biggest alternative music radio station FM4.
In 2006, Bernhard moved on to Berlin for a new beginning in life and establishing his solo career. It leaded to the debut album »The Livingroom Sessions« (2007), introducing a dozen of lo-fi acoustic own songs and interpretations of Radiohead & Pet Shop Boys songs to his audience. The album was reviewed positively, and rewarded with airplay all over Germany and Austria.

www.bernhardeder.net

Hello Piedpiper



Hello Piedpiper lebt im Kölner Stadtteil Ehrenfeld, einem alternativen, von künstlerischer Aufbruchstimmung geprägten Bezirk. Mit ruhiger, warmer Stimme erzählt er seine Geschichten über Freiheit, Protest und Aufbruch, von den guten Tagen, und auch von denen dazwischen. Spielerisch leicht vermischen sich die Einflüsse von Folk, Indie, Singer-Songwriter und Country. Was Hello Piedpiper einzigartig macht, ist das liebevolle Songarrangement, welches neben seiner unverwechselbaren Stimme durch verschiedenste musikalische Nuancen wie fein gewählte Backing Vocals, dezente Melodica oder Bluesharp Arrangements, Pfeifen oder sein markantes Fingerpicking besticht. Alle diese Eigenschaften ergeben einen unverwechselbaren Charakter, der an Kings Of Convenience, Paul Simon oder Ferraby Lionheart erinnert. Hello Piedpiper`s musikalische Kleinoden verführen den Hörer zum Abschalten und Zurücklehnen und bringen dennoch Wände zum Einstürzen. Sie stehen für ehrliches Songwriting und ungeschminkte, atmosphärische Schönheit, die in dieser Form selten dagewesen waren. Als einer der zwei Frontmänner der Kölner Indie-Pop Band „Stereo Inn“ tummelte sich Fabio, wie Hello Piedpiper eigentlich heißt, zuvor bereits auf den Nebenbühnen großer Festivals wie Hurricane, Area 4 und Rock am Ring, sowie im Vorprogramm von Adam Green. Nun schickt er sich mit seinem Soloprojekt an, vor allem die kleinen, intimen Konzerte zu spielen. Das Publikum dankt es ihm.

www.hellopiedpiper.com

2012

Mute Swimmer - Guy Dale

Mute Swimmer by Hasha Tasterisk, click to download high resolution picture

Mute Swimmer is a musical project of artist Guy Dale. Using acoustic guitar, voice, percussion, elecro-acoustic drones and a changing cast of players Dale writes songs with the tactics of an artist. Tight poetic deconstructions meet minimalist hymns to love and doubt. Often his songs address the audience/listener directly and in the present tense. The music of Mute Swimmer is romantic, beguiling, ironic and unhinged by rapid turns and he has quickly earned a reputation as a compelling and unique performer. 
Song Against Itself/Some Examples was a single of the week in Rough Trade and Picadilly Records Stores. Other releases include Mute Swimmer (2010) on Woodland Recordings and the limited self-release Orientation (2011).
Mute Swimmer has performed alongside Stanley Brinks (Andre Herman Dune), David Thomas Broughton, Richard Youngs, Alistair Roberts, Carla Bozulich, The Great Park and She Keeps Bees performing widely in the UK and mainland Europe. He is currently based in Berlin.

www.guydale.com

Susie Asado

Susie Asado by A.Conrad, click to download high resolution picture

SUSIE ASADO ist eine eng mit der jungen Berliner und New-Yorker Folk-Szene verbundene Band um die Singer-/Songwriterin Josepha Conrad (CRAZY FOR JANE), die in Frankfurt am Main und Chicago aufgewachsen ist. Nach ihrem Debüt „Hello Antenna“ (2008, lolila), das noch stark durch DIY-Spontaneität geprägt war, hat SUSIE ASADO und haarklein an den Arrangements für ihr zweites Album mit dem Titel „Traffic Island“ (2011, kook) laboriert. Das ist zu hören, klingt aber nie verkrampft. Die schön spröde und um keinen virtuosen Winkelzug verlegene Instrumentierung von Tomi Simatupang (E-Gitarre), Marko Hefele (Violine) und Jason Levis (Percussions) fügt sich kongenial zu Conrads mal akrobatischen, mal intimen, immer aber glasklaren Sprechgesang – und die kleine Ukele hält alles zusammen. In ihren englisch- und deutschsprachigen, manchmal auch beide Sprachen vermischenden Chansons werden Wolkenkratzer autobiographisch, Knöpfe zu Preziosen und das Flugzeug zum Gefängnis. Unberechenbare Melodien ranken sich um verästelte Texttopographien, die die facettierten Begleitungen immer wieder brechen. Aus diesen Songirrgärten findet man nicht mehr heraus. Bin ich angekommen? Oder doch noch unterwegs? Einer von SUSIE ASADOs Songs heißt „Koffer auf Koffer zu“ – das ist Devise und Schicksal zugleich. Gertrude Stein, nach deren Gedicht die Band benannt ist, hätte das wohl gefallen.
SUSIE ASADO haben mehrere Tourneen durch Deutschland, Österreich, die Schweiz, durch die USA und durch Kanada geführt. Befreundete Bands, mit denen SUSIE ASADO auch immer wieder Abende teilt, sind Jeffrey Lewis, The Burning Hell, Veda Hille, Kat Frankie, Great Lake Swimmers, und Toby Goodshank (Moldy Peaches).

www.susieasado.com

The Woodwards


Peter Schuyff was born in the Netherlands in 1958 and left in 1967. His ambitions as an artist brought him to New York at age 18. During most of the eighties and nineties he lived at the Chelsea Hotel where his art was collected by Dennis Hopper and Sylvester Stallone amongst others; he is given high-profile commissions by Gianna Versace. His work can be seen at www.schuyff.com.
Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat are friends and colleagues. Herbert Hunke, Dee Dee Ramone and whatsisname, the guy who married Uma Thurman are friends and neighbors.
All this is still not enough and so after the turn of the new century, without ever having so much as warbled in the shower, he starts writing and singing songs. Peter says that these songs are the paintings he has always wanted to make. He moves Amsterdam and records his first album.
The Woodwards’ eponymous 2009 debut album was produced by Attie Bauw (Judas Priest, Bootsie Collins, Simple Minds) and featured Rob Kloet (The Nits) on drums, Gwen Cresens on bandonion, and Signe Tollefsen’s backing vocals. The single I wanna woman was released with an accompanying music video directed by Tycho van Zijderveld.
Since then The Woodwards have seen two new EP’s (Burn Everything, Twenty Toes), 2 changes of line-up, regular shows across the Netherlands, a tour in the US and 4 tours across Europe.

www.thewoodwards.nl

Nanna Schannong


www.nannaschannong.com

Paolo Saporiti


Paolo Saporiti is one of the most talented Italian folksingers who sing in English. Detailed sounds and depth of lyrics, evocative voices and harmonic melodies, tradition and experimentation, acoustic arpeggios and electronic tremors; all melt together to draw powerful and intense atmospheres, faithful to the mainstream folk tradition but, at the same time, opened to the delicate realism of the best contemporary lo-fi music scene Far from being a novice, Saporiti has already released five amazing albums, three published by the Milan-based Indie label Canebagnato, before his debut on a major with UNIVERSAL MUSIC and his latest move to Home Orange Records. The whole album brings the listener through multiple scenarios, short “crescendos” and a few small marches that scatter substance throughout the air. Meanwhile, the songs of the album formed with autobiographical truth lead us to a universal act of courage and dislike toward the state of how things are. This stands behind the choice of changing our passive condition, for that’s the only way for Man to find himself: passing through “L’ultimo ricatto”, the very first act of freedom. The previous album by Paolo Saporiti, “Alone” (Universal Music, 2010) was arranged by Teho Teardo, acclaimed movie soundtrack composer, who was recognized as the winner of the “David di Donatello 2009” award for the music of the film “il Divo” directed by Paolo Sorrentino. “Rotten Flowers”, included in “Alone” has won the Eiff award, as well as Best Video of 2010, directed by Virgilio Villoresi e Luca Barutta.

www.paolosaporiti.com

ENRIQUE VERGARA