WunderBar - Initiative Musik

WUNDERBAR
GERMAN MUSIC AT SXSW 2010
Listen
to
Berlin
The Music Capital
Reeperbahn
Hamburg
discover Germany’s
most creative
NeighbourhoOd
NIOBE
The Sound
of Cologne
CD
Europe’s Heartbeat
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BadenWürttemberg
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Ge
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Discovering Chances!
+
Jazzahead!
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The best of Our
Southwest
02
Welcome
Statement
By the Parliamentary State Secretary Of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
This will be Germany’s first showcase at SXSW ever. For the
first time German music companies and music sponsors will
jointly present themselves at this important international conference, a platform that is of special interest for newcomers.
With this showcase we would like to draw your attention to
Germany as a music country, to the pop and rock music from
our country and to our talents. We can offer a great number of
talented and highly professional musicians.
Our pop and rock music doesn’t just have an important cultural and societal function. It also has an important economic
aspect. In 2008 the music business in Germany generated revenues of approximately EUR 5,4 billion. 11,300 companies and
36,000 employees work in the music industry. Germany was
also able to strengthen its position as the fourth biggest music
market in the world in 2008, following USA, Japan and Great
Britain.
The promotion of newcomers is at the heart of our interests.
We want to provide them with an opportunity to present themselves in an international environment. You are cordially invited to visit the German events of this festival, to stop by our conference booth and find out about the potential of German pop
and rock music and to make new contacts at our reception.
Hans-Joachim Otto
European Union
03
Greeting
by Prof. Dieter Gorny
“Wunderbar” (wonderful) is an old fashioned term from the 1950s.
It is also a play on words: In German it means fantastic, grandiose,
excellent—just like the music, which we will present. Consisting of
“Wunder” (miracle, marvel) and “bar” it is also a witty name for a
bar—after all, a bar is a marvelous place for wonders ...
This booklet provides a current and subjective glimpse into the
German rock and pop scene. The variety of the 16 German states
that make up Germany is shown in action here. Cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne show what they have to offer musicwise. The booklet also briefly introduces successful up-and-coming talents, and it provides the contacts of bookers, managers and
labels.
We, the Initiative Musik, stand by as the main contact, very
much like the international export bureaus. The Initiative Musik
is a new institution that promotes German rock, pop and jazz music. In the name of the Federal Ministry of Economics it is in charge
of the German presentation “Wunderbar” at SXSW. With support
from the Federal Government and the music industry the main
goals of Initiative Musik are the promotion of export and newcomers. Both of them coincide here at SXSW, the biggest newcomer
festival in the world.
We wish all visitors of the festival a wonderful time. There is so
much great music to discover—just like on the enclosed CD!
Best wishes from the German capital,
Prof. Dieter Gorny
Chairman of the board of directors Initiative Musik
IMPRESSUM
“Wunderbar”
A one-off publication
of Initiative Musik gGmbH
Print run: 14.000 Copies
Writers: Boris Fust, Arno
Raffeiner, Klaus Scheld, Christian
Steinbrink, Maurice Summen
Editorial Team: Thomas Venker
(V.i.S.d.P.), Wolfgang Frömberg,
Katharina Poblotzki
Project Management: Katja
Hermes, Thomas Venker
CD-Compilation: Dirk Völler
Print coordination: Christian
Schlage
Design: Holger Risse (und ich),
Martha Kowalik, Eike Wohlgemuth
Coverphoto: Tobias Vollmer
Print: Möller Druck, Berlin
Editorial and print processing:
Intro GmbH & Co. KG, Venloer Str.
241-245, 50823 Köln, Germany,
Tel. (02 21) 94 99 30, verlag@intro.de,
www.intro.de, Publisher: Matthias
Hörstmann
Publisher: Initiative Musik gGmbH,
Linienstraße 130, 10115 Berlin,
Germany, Tel. +49 (0)30 53 14 75 45 0,
mail@initiative-musik.de,
www.initiative-musik.de
Supported by the Federal Minister
of Economics and Technology on the
basis of a resolution passed by the
German Bundestag
04
CONTENT
The Big SXSW Talk
06
Christoph Ellinghaus (City Slang) meets Thomas Morr (Morr Music)
Wunderbar CD
Showcases
Music at SXSW
10
12
14
German Music for Austin
Kompakt, Tomlab & Karaoke Kalk
Benjamin Rose Band, Daveman, DJ Heidi, DJ Ipek, Dustin O’Halloran, Kilians,
Malente, Missincat, Nneka, Oy, Räuberhöhle, Suidakra
Austin
Germany
The German
Delegates
Lunch With
The Germans
18 Map My Trip
20 Map My Country
22 26 05
Bar 25 Is
Cooking Here
Cologne
Rhineland Legends
Hamburg
Hamburg
Bremen
Baden-Württemberg
Berlin Music Week
Open Airs
German Fashion
Initiative Musik
28 30 c/o pop & Sound of Cologne
33 Karlheinz Stockhausen, Can, Kraftwerk
34 Reeperbahn Festival & BBQ
36 Hamburg Music Scene & Wacken Open Air
38 jazzahead!
40 Nuclear Blast, Abby, The Rising Rocket
42 44 Rock am Ring / Rock im Park, Hurricane / Southside, Melt!, Nature One, Haldern Pop
48 50
06
City Slang / Morr Music
Deutschness Is All
You Need
Photos: Joachim Zimmermann
Christof Ellinghaus (City Slang) and Thomas
Morr (Morr Music) have been business leaders of the German indie music scene for many
years. These label guys from Berlin share a common denominator: the Weilheim group The
Notwist. Morr Music takes care of their
side projects Tied & Tickled Trio and Lali
Puna, while City Slang has helped The
Notwist to worldwide fame with their
album “Neon Golden”! We talked to
Ellinghaus and Morr about the import
and export of music.
07
When did you attend SXSW for the first time?
Ellinghaus: In 1992. The year before I had come to Austin for
the first time for Christmas. My sister lived there at the
time, and I wanted to surprise her. Then the city was
hit by a terrible storm, the city got flooded! I thought
I’d never come back to Texas! Well, I did, just one year
later. [laughs]
Morr: The first time I came as an A&R was just last
year. And then we actually signed a band.
E: Telekinesis?
M: Exactly! We had been eying them for a few
months already. But somehow we thought their
songs were too catchy, if one can even put it like
this ...
Too catchy? That made you skeptical?
M: Yes, indeed. That’s the kind of question you
have to deal with as an A&R person. But then I
saw them live at SXSW and all my doubts were
out the window. By the way, that was the second
time a band won me over with their live show!
The live performance of a band used to not be so
important to us at Morr. But nowadays it is getting
more and more valuable—just for marketing aspects alone! Even in our niche! In the olden days
we just released the albums we liked ...
And now you’ll check the live qualities of potential
bands at SXSW?
M: Sure, last year I checked out at least ten bands that we
were definitely interested in. But as I said: For me it’s a
08
Christof Ellinghaus’
personal City-SlangHighlights
Flaming Lips “In A Priest
Driven Ambulance”
The label wouldn’t exist without this album!
Hole “Pretty On The Inside”
A real door opener for City
Slang.
The Notwist “Neon Golden”
In a few words: best record
ever.
Contact City Slang
Dieffenbachstr. 33 /
2. Hinterhaus
10967 Berlin
Germany
www.cityslang.com
new thing to focus that much on the live qualities of a band.
Officially more than 1,000 live acts are scheduled at SXSW, and
one can only guess that there will be an additional 500 unofficial gigs ...
E: If you have never been to SXSW, it’s really hard to imagine the
development of the last few years. Not just in terms of how many
bands are playing. Once the industry was hit hard and the labels
had to lay off so many people, all those people formed their own
businesses. Now they try their luck as consultants or marketing
pros.
M: Or as “panelists” ...
E: And then somehow it became the norm for every company to
host unofficial events—in addition to the official ones. And by now
every magazine and radio station from different countries hold
their own parties, with bands that are scheduled to play later in
the evening anyway. Many bands play seven to ten times at this
festival! If you only have two gigs lined up, one can hardly take
you serious! [laughs] Each band used to only play just once. And
if you didn’t see them then, then you really missed them. That was
annoying, too ...
Thomas, you already mentioned that Telekinesis was a band
that was able to show you its qualities at SXSW. Christoph,
which bands did City Slang sign thanks to SXSW?
E: There are several. Off the top of my head I can think of Broken
Social Scene, who had their international breakthrough there
within one year. Unfortunately I wasn’t even in Austin that year,
but their show was so great, that a friend called me from there to
tell me about it!
It’s amazing that in the age of the internet an actual place can
have such a magnetism for an entire industry for a certain time,
and that it’s that sustainable.
E: Most of the festival conventions like this, such as Midem or
Eurosonic in Europe, all take place in the first few months of the
year. And strangely enough I receive most of the demos or concrete licensing offers in the winter. So then you check out the
bands at these conventions.
That begs the critical question: What came first, the artist, who
“happens” to have a finished record at the end of the year, or
the manager, who advises his client to have an album ready at
the end of the year?
M: Of course the timing is preceded by a whole lot of strategic
moves! All those decisions regarding the festival booking etc. are
made during exactly that time. After all, you have to wow all kind
of festival bookers! Or you try to convince the label people from
abroad to book your bands as a support act for their bands.
We just talked about the importing business, which makes up
09
a large portion of your work. But let’s talk about the export of
German bands. Have you made any experiences in this regard
at SXSW?
M: We generally “only” put SXSW on our bands’ tour plan, if
the worldwide release has been taken care of in advance. Múm
played there several times, as did Lali Puna. The band Seabear
will play there, as part of a tour along the east coast. As I said earlier: We at Morr Music now also focus on establishing a real live
career for the bands. That’s why we have to—concerning the live
market—include festivals such as SXSW or Eurosonic as a kind
of beacon events in our tour planning, just for PR reasons! We really work around these dates!
E: I can only think of one specific case, where we schlepped a
band across the ocean to SXSW. And that was To Rococo Rot.
And that was great! For some absurd reason they had been
booked to play in a fetish club, by that I mean a real Goth-EBMfetish-club. And the mixer was this real American rock type. Back
then To Rococo Rot played their “pling plang” sound, but thanks
to the mixer they sounded completely rocky. So they involuntarily
ended up playing a kind of stadium rock-set, and the Americans
loved it! That really boosted their international career. We were
able to license their next two albums to Mute-USA!
In your opinion, what is essential for a German band to have
any chance of success abroad?
E: “Deutschness”!
You mean be influenced by Krautrock?
M: Somehow yes. The Notwist or Lali Puna somehow sound
“krauty” too. In my opinion it makes no sense to even try to export a German band, if it tries to sound like an American or English indie rock band.
E: For that reason I only offered our act Get Well Soon a deal for
Germany. By now the band is also successful in France, but to
take them to the US would be absurd, even though his idea of romanticism is definitely very German.
Let’s get back to To Rococo Rot: Don’t they sound like they
should have been with Morr?
M: Definitely! But even in those days Christoph had more money
than us! [laughs]
E: That had nothing to do with it! Robert Lippok from To Rococo Rot used to live in my building—it just worked out that way.
That’s changed today—and where are they now? With Domino
Records! Don’t be upset, Thomas, they have always been a hot potato! [laughs]
Text: Maurice Summen
The author runs the Berlin label Staatsakt and raps for Die Türen.
Thomas Morr’s personal Morr-MusicHighlights
B.Fleischmann “Pop
Loops For Breakfast”
The first Morr release, our
debut.
Lali Puna “Scary World
Theory”
Our first real success.
Múm “Yesterday Was
Dramatic, Today Is Ok”
I am good friends with the
band. They came to us from
the major label Pias. One
of the songs from the record, “A Number Of Small
Things”, provided the name
for our single label and the
web store.”
Contact Morr Music
Raumerstr. 39
10437 Berlin
Germany
www.morrmusic.com
10
WUNDERBAR
The COMPILATION
A unique choice of hot new German acts, from melodic (indie)rock to emotional techno.
Please enjoy the Wunderbar cd, which you find on page 50 of this magazine. Here are some
short facts about the 14 acts.
Superpitcher “Rabbits In A Hurry”
Label: Kompakt
Publishing: Kompakt Musikverlag
Booking: Kompakt Booking
MySpace: myspace.com/superpitcher1
Contact: info@kompakt.fm
Aksel Schaufler is a resident at Total Confusion, the flagship of the Cologne Techno nights. He is one of the most
zealous world traveling DJs. In addition to various EPs he
has produced his own pop album “Here Comes Love”, and
together with Mayer he has founded Supermayer.
Matias Aguayo “Menta Latte”
Label: Kompakt
Publishing: Kompakt Musikverlag
Booking: Kompakt Booking
MySpace: myspace.com/musicacomeme
Contact: info@kompakt.fm
The native Chilean Matias Aguayo may tirelessly jet between countries and continents, but his musical home is
in Cologne. It’s where he refined his sound over the years,
and where, after numerous and stylistically very diverse
projects, such as his own label Cómeme, he matured into a
DJ and producer of international reputation.
Chikinki “You Said”
Label: Weekender Records
Booking: SSC Booking
Website: chikinki.co.uk
MySpace: myspace.com/chikinki
Contact: desiree.vach@snowhite.de
Almost no other British band is as eclectic as Chikinki
from London; currently they live in Berlin. Their albums
“Lick Your Ticket” and “Brace, Brace” are a juxtaposition
of driving electropop, fuzzy rock songs and pensive folk
music. This has garnered them a loyal fan base, particularly on the European mainland. Fans that devotedly wait for
new songs—despite the band’s volatile label history.
Moderat “Rusty Nails”
Label: BPitch Control
Publishing: Random Noize Musick
Booking: Magnet // Flow.er
Website: moderat.fm
MySpace: myspace.com/moderat
Contact: office@bpitchcontrol.de
Cooperation is a tradition for Sascha Ring (a.k.a. Apparat). After making the album “Orchestra Of Bubbles” with
BPitch Control’s label boss Ellen Allien two years ago, he
now cooperates with label colleagues Modeselektor. The
project’s name is Moderat and brings an air of calm into
the hectic world of Modeselektor. Instead of the nervous
cut’n’break-techno of their regular records “Hello Mom!”
and “Happy Birthday!”, which landed them the opening
slot for Radiohead, “Moderat” is guided by longing ambient and playful pop electronic sounds.
It’s A Musical “Back On My Fead”
Label: Morr Music
Publishing: M+S Industries
Website: itsamusical.com
MySpace: myspace.com/itsamusicalberlin
Contact: contact@itsamusical.com
It’s A Musical are the ideal-typical offspring of the international creative scene in Berlin. Ella Blixt from Sweden
and Robert Kretzschmar from Germany found each other
amidst the German capital’s bohemian nightlife. Their
debut “The Music Makes Me Sick” sounds playful and
warming with its enchanting pop songs consisting of singalongs, subtle melodies and mix of charming and versatile
lo-fi instruments. Sweet and smart, yet not naive.
Abby “Evelyn”
Label: self-released
Publishing: Fairtravail Publishing
Booking: Karakter Live
Website: searchingforabby.com
MySpace: myspace.com/abbyband
Contact: m.graubner@miraphon.de
Abby were schooled at the Pop Academy Baden-Württemberg. They learned how to master their instruments and
compose saucy tunes and how to perform their songs with
soul. In the beginning they reminded us a bit of role models
such as Phoenix, but by now they have grown out of this
comparison. The audience at the renowned Iceland Airwaves Festival was able to find out for itself.
The Band On The Edge Of Forever “Shore
Leave”
Label: Gim Records
Publishing: Bug Music / Edition Skrotzki & Kempf
Booking: SSC Group
11
Schlachthofbronx “Mad Instrument”
Label: Disko B
Booking: Melt! Booking
Website: schlachthofbronx.ne
MySpace: myspace.de/schlachthofbronx
Contact: contact@schlachthofbronx.com
The style of Schlachthofbronx, a trio from Munich, can
currently be considered the most ambitious dance music
in Germany. Their fusion of rave, dub, punk and various
ethnic rhythms puzzles and thrills at the same time. They
themselves call their sound “Munich bass”. By playing all
over the continent they have infected fans all over Europe.
The Rising Rocket “Bright Lights”
Label: self-released
Booking: Magge Music
Website: therisingrocket.de
MySpace: myspace.com/therisingrocket
Contact: contact@magge-music.de
The Rising Rocket from Stuttgart are bona fide band competition pros—they already won two: the Emergenza
(2006) and the Coca-Cola Soundwave (2009). The decisive
moments were always their fabulous live shows, which
also garnered them opening spots for Razorlight and Silbermond as well as gigs at some big festivals. For those
who like Franz Ferdinand and Mando Diao.
rB
ar
Kilians “When will i ever get home”
Label: Vertigo / Universal
Publishing: Grand Hotel Van Cleef Verlag
Booking: Grand Hotel Van Cleef Booking
Website: the-kilians.de
MySpace: myspace.com/thekilians
Contact: kilians@liftboy-management.de
It is a good tradition in Germany that bold new rock music
comes from the countryside. Just think of the two northern
super
lights Tomte or Madsen. The Kilians are from Dinslaken in
musik!
the Ruhr area. With their second album “They Are Calling
Your Name” they finally got rid of their stigma as copycats Text: Chrisof the Strokes. Their songs are just too persuasive and
tian Steintheir shows just too boisterous.
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Sprout “Muse”
The author
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Label: self-released
NM
is freelancer
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Website: sprout-rockt.de
GER
writer of Intro
MySpace: myspace.com/sproutrockt
Magazine and
Contact: derdreitagebart@gmx.de
co-published reSprout continues the glorious tradition of stirring indie
bands from the Hamburg region (Blumfeld, Tocotronic,
cently “Echt! PopKettcar ...). Nimble footed melodies, schrammel guitars,
Protokolle aus dem
well thought out lyrics and an attitude that has apparently Ruhrgebiet“.
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Kuzio “Wer Hat Hier Den AllergröSSten”
Label: self-released
Website: www.kuzio.de
MySpace: myspace.com/christiankuzio
Contact: info@kuzio.de
Sometimes a solo project is a winner just because of its
newness and ease. Christian Kuzio is very busy as an instrumental pedagogue; he plays in various jazz ensembles
and composes for film and the theater. For that reason
Kuzio’s credo is the absolute negation of what’s expected.
The only thing that counts is his personal taste. At times
this might lead to electropop and NDW (new German
wave) or to lounge sounds and ambient.
Nneka “The Uncomfortable Truth”
Label: Yo Mama
Publishing: Bushqueen Music / Wintrup Musik
Booking: FKP Scorpio
Website: nnekaworld.com
MySpace: myspace.com/nnekaworld
Contact: mgmt@neverlandmusic.net
Nnneka Egbuna originally hails from Nigeria and now
lives in Hamburg. She is one of the few local artists that
have become an instant international success. Often
compared to Lauryn Hill the soul singer has successfully toured and played in Nigeria and the US, and she has
shared the stage with the likes of Seeed, Femi Kuti and
The Roots. The Sunday Times called her 2005 debut “the
year’s most criminally overlooked album”.
an
Talking To Turtles “Beam Me Up Scotty”
Label: DevilDuck Records
Booking: Kumpels & Friends
Website: talkingtoturtles.de
MySpace: myspace.com/talkingtoturtles
Contact: florian.sievers@gmx.net
The DIY aesthetics of Talking To Turtles, a duo from
Leipzig and Berlin, marks nothing less but an exit from the
crisis of the music industry. You can hear that their songs
were consciously created and recorded on a small scale.
That’s lo-fi-folk of picturesque beauty—creative, willful
and very much at home.
never been properly understood by punk. This will never
get old, it’ll always win.
er
Website: tboteof.com
MySpace: myspace.com/thebandontheedgeofforever
Contact: kempf@skrotzki-kempf.com
Despite their newcomer status TBOTEOF is not afraid
of grand gestures. That alone deserves our respect. The
band from Berlin at times sounds fragile, then dramatic,
with a broad palette of sounds and moods. They already
won the hearts of the MTV audience as well that of the audience from the Immergut Festival.
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12
Showcases
Emo’s
603 Red River St.
March 19
Kompakt & Pitchfork
& Windish Agency
Kompakt has been so much more than just a label for quite some
time. Years ago Michael Mayer, Jürgen Paape, Wolfgang Voigt and
Reinhard Voigt founded Kompakt as a record label. Today it is
also active as publishing company, booking agency and distribution company, and of course there is the adjacent record shop. It
didn’t just expand, the brand Kompakt also established itself internationally as a label full of nuances between trance, minimal
techno and pop ambient. Especially Michael Mayer and Superpitcher have been frequently touring the USA over the last few
years, both as DJs and as pop-project Supermayer. Several artists will make the trek from Cologne to the Promised Land—the
USA—in 2010. Matias Aguayo makes the start at SXSW, as part
of a mini-festival that will take place at the legendary Emo’s. The
festival is curated by the website Pitchfork and the Windish Agency, both from Chicago.
Aguayo will do a live presentation / performance of his current album “Ay Ay Ay”, which was released at the end of last year.
He generated all the sounds with his own mouth—literally. What
may appear like a folklore-joke from Southern Germany actually
sounds irritatingly like contemporary electronic music—if only
other folks should be this creative! The live gigs of this Chilean
artist aren’t to be coughed at either: You have to be pretty white
not to shake your booty to his singing and dancing!
13
Tomlab, Asthmatic
Kitty, K-Records &
Sounds Familyre
This about tops what you can get out of a club visit: Four leading
indie labels will present twelve bands back to back. The Cologne
label Tomlab is sending the following artists to Austin: Niobe (the
cover star of this publication), the Canadian Mantler—a wonderful one-man-soul-jazz-revue—and Munch Munch from England, a
lovely indie-pop band whose tunes oscillate between playful and
excited. Jan Lankisch, the label’s DJ, rounds up the program. The
highlight of the evening will be (not just from a German point of
view) the performance by Yvonne Cornelius, the woman behind
project Niobe. After switching from the Mouse On Mars label Sonig she released her current album “Blackbird’s Echo” on Tomlab.
Cornelius portrays a dark and quirky world, whose hospitality
you have to earn, but then you’ll never want to leave again.
Karaoke Kalk
The Berlin based label Karaoke Kalk is known for its rather liberal definition of what constitutes an electronic music label. They
don’t exclusively focus on ambient sound research and crude
sound futurism, as many other labels do. Instead their label roster also features ethereal poppy sketches or jazz improvisations.
The Düsseldorf pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka) is a representative of the latter category. Bertelmann is one
of the most important contemporary figures of the national and
international avant-garde music scene. His work is characterized
by a radical journey through the possibilities of prepared
piano music. He makes references to composers such
as Erik Satie and John Cage. The results so far
have been released as five solo albums on the
labels Karaoke Kalk and FatCat. Besides
this more academical approach in his work,
Bertelmann is also a member of the band
projects Tonetraeger and Music A.M.
Beauty Bar
617 East 7th St.
March 17 (Niobe, 10 p.m.)
Central Presbyterian
Church
200 East 8th Street
March 17
9 p.m.
14
THE ACTS
With so many bands and so many choices it’s so easy to forget
something. Here are all the German acts at SXSW this year.
Malente
After spending his youth doing hip hop
and pop and achieving positive feedback under the name of Gautsch, Malente
turned towards electronic music – with lasting success. Some of his tracks and remixes
already made it to the top of the German club
charts. Malente released five albums on the
Düsseldorf based label Unique, his last one was
„Whow“ in 2007. Most recently Fatboy Slim got
interested in the tracks of this guy from Essen and
decided to release the EP „Bring That Lead Back“ on his
label Southern Fried.
Speakeasy Kabaret, 412D Congress Ave, March 20
Nneka
The Hip Hop/Soul artist Nneka, who originally hails from Nigeria and
now resides in Hamburg,
is often compared to Lauryn Hill. She has successfully toured and played in
Nigeria and the US, and
she has shared the stage
with the likes of Seeed,
Femi Kuti and the Roots.
Cedar Street Courtyard,
208 West 4th St. March 19,
11 p.m.
Missincat
The Berlin based Italian
songwriter Caterina Barbieri released her debut
album “Back On My Feet”
in 2009. The folksongs
with their minimal arrangements were an instant hit with the critics
and Amy Winehouse invited her to open her German tour.
18th Floor at Hilton Garden Innn, 500 North IH 35,
March 20
15
Matias
Aguayo
The native Chilean Matias Aguayo is a child of the Cologne
elektro-scene, where he earned his first stripes as a DJ in the
legendary Liquid Sky-Club. Since then the Cologne label
Kompakt released several of his EPs and remixes, as well
as his two albums „Are You Really Lost“ and „Ay Ay Ay“ –
Aguayo is bringing some hip-swing into the techno scene, experiments with off-beats and voice effects. Today he commutes
between Cologne, Buenos Aires and Paris, even though he seems to be
mostly on the road in South America with his label Cómeme organizing wild street parties named „Bumbumbox.“
Emo’s, 603 Red River St, March 19, 1 a.m.
Mark Mulholland
The Scottish singer-songwriter is an inventive,
melodic guitarist with
a warm and expressive
singing voice, which reminds a bit of Bob Dylan.
Recently he released the
album „The Devil on the
Stairs“. Mulholland is also
a member of the band
Two Dollar Bash.
Suidakra
Suidakra come from
outside of Düsseldorf
and have carried on the
tradition of heavy metal
in Germany for more
than 15 years. Headed by the charismatic
Arkadius Antonik the
band turns to Celtic mythology and folklore for
inspiration.
Red 7, 611 East 7th St,
March 17, 12 a.m.
Oy
The native Ghanaian Joy
Frempong writes songs
that fuse elements from
hip hop, electro and soul
music with more freespirited elements and unorthodox trash-sounds.
The album “First Box
Then Talk” is both unsettling and appealing to the
ears.
Prague, 422 Congress Avenue, March 20, 12:00 a.m.
16
DJ
Heidi
Photo Heidi: Tobias Vollmer
Heidi Vanden Amstel grew up
in Ontario in Canada. Only
a river separates this town
from Detroit, the birthplace of techno. She
currently calls Berlin
her home, where she is
also a producer for Get
Physical. By now she has made
it into the premier DJ league, at
least since she has been hosting
a monthly radio show on Radio 1
(BBC).
Park Side, 301 East 6th Street,
March 18, 12 p.m.
HauscHka
Volker Bertelmann last
work „Snowflakes And
Carwrecks“ came out in
2009. He is also a member
of the band projects Tonetraeger and Music A.M.
Hauschka gained a lot of attention by performing with
a prepared piano, where
the sound is altered by
means of various objects.
Central Presbyterian
Church, 200 East 8th St.,
March 17, 11:15 p.m.
Dustin O’Halloran
A native Los Angelino,
the pianist and composer
O’Halloran has been living in Berlin for quite some
time. His compositions
vacillate between romanticism and neoclassicism.
In addition to writing film
scores he has released piano albums on the British
label Bella Union.
Central Presbyterian
Church, 200 East 8th
St.,March 17, 10:15 p.m.
Räuberhöhle
A puppet theater accompanied by electro-punk
and cheapo Casio-sounds.
Räuberhöhle’s show is
shrill, colorful and exciting. Their current album
“Deep In The Forest”,
which was released on
their own label Megapeng, gives you a taste. The
full force of Räuberhöhle
has to be experienced live.
Club 115, 115 San Jacinto
Blvd., March 17, 10 p.m.
DJ Ipek
The ethnically Turkish
Berliner is one of the most
renowned DJs between
the poles of worldbeat
and electro. The label
Trikont asked her to put
together two samplers.
The first sampler “Beyond
Istanbul—Underground
Grooves Of Turkey” became a favorite among
German critics.
Speakeasy Kabaret, 412D
Congress Ave, March 18
17
Kilians
The Kilians from Dinslaken are one of
Germany’s biggest indie-rock talents.
Tomte singer Thees Uhlmann, who also
runs the label Grand Hotel Van Cleef,
discovered them when he heard one of
their early demo tapes. Their debut “Kill
The Kilians” followed soon, garnering
them a decent following as well as opening spots for Wir Sind Helden, Babyshambles and Beatsteaks. The quintet took the
next step with the release of their second
album “They Are Calling Your Name”. The
sophisticated arrangements and the big,
fat sound of the album certainly had the desired effect: The doors of the bigger concert
venues have opened up to them.
Texas Embassy ( formerly Habana),
709 East 6th Street, March 20, 2p.m..
Daveman
Daveman was born and
raised in Nigeria. Following the torch of the German bands Seeed and
Culcha Candela he continues the successful tradition of popular reggae
acts from his new hometown Berlin. His debut EP
“Good Morning Dread”
was released in 2006.
Flamingo Cantina, 515 East
6th St., March 20
Benjamin Rose Band
Benjamin Rose is blessed
with one of the freshest
soul voices in Germany.
The native Osnabrücker
with South African roots
is still at the beginning of
his career. He has been
performing his music that
vacillates between rock,
pop and soul for quite
some time.
18th Floor at Hilton Garden Innn, 500 North IH 35,
March 17
Niobe
Yvonne Cornelius has
been an inherent member
of the international experimental music scene
for 15 years. Her style is
marked by a free-spirited
interplay of classic and
popular set pieces, which
she combines with a wide
range of samples in associative and imaginative
skits and collages.
Beauty Bar, 617 East 7th St,
March 17, 10 p.m.
18
Map
My Trip
6th Street
Seven blocks between Congress
and IH35 are the most famous
blocks in the state of Texas. It’s
the college town’s center of entertainment: bar upon bar, restaurant
upon restaurant, venue upon
venue. A regular Saturday night
is crazy here, and during SXSW it
comes to resemble Times Square
on New Year’s Eve.
Waterloo
Katz’s Deli & Bar
You won’t regret heading north on
Lamar Blvd across the bridge. The
neighborhood boasts a plethora
of good restaurants, hip boutiques
and cafes. The Waterloo record
store offers a broad range from
sophisticated jazz to the latest
indie trend.
www.waterloorecords.com
600 A North Lamar
Are you up for the good old American tradition of the 24-hour-restaurant? Katz’ never closes for even a minute. This deli can totally keep up
with its New York mothers.
www.katzneverkloses.com
618 West 6th Street
End of an Ear
The owners of this record store
don’t want to be anything less than
what their customers have always
dreamed of. The inventory covers
every genre that one should have:
indie, pop, soul, funk, punk, reggae,
hiphop, techno ...
www.endofanear.com
2209 South 1st Street
19
Emo’s Austin
The club in Austin. With its three
stages Emo’s is a legend in the
American club scenery. Every
band—emphasis on every—has
played here on their way to the top.
And even after they hit it big they
like to come back for a surprise
performance.
www.emosaustin.com
603 Red River Street
Park Side / Lunch
With The Germans
The German SXSW delegation
invites you to a relaxed meeting
in the midst of the hubbub of 6th
Street. The chefs of the legendary
Bar 25 in Berlin provide original
German cuisine, and Dj Heidi,
Tobias Thomas and Matias Aguayo
provide the right sound. Definitely
stop by on March 18 at noon—don’t
forget to register in advance:
www.initiative-musik.de/sxsw.
www.parkside-austin.com
301 East 6th Street
Austin Museum of Art
Austin’s museum for modern art. If you have a
little time on your hands you can see interesting
exhibits. You can also watch a movie, have coffee
or even get active in one of their numerous classes.
www.amoa.org
823 Congress Avenue
Austin Convention Center
The nerve center of the SXSW festival. It’s not just the place where you
come to get your accreditation and hip bags: hundreds of national and
international brands set up their booths, bands play showcases and a poster
fair takes place here as well.
www.austinconventioncenter.com
500 East Cesar Chavez Street
Beauty Bar While Emo’s earned its status in
the late 80s and early 90s, Beauty
Bar is something like the trendy
offspring. The bar is owned by folks
from the circle around the Texas
noiseband And You Will Know Us
By The Trail Of Dead. The two
floors host concerts as well techno
club nights and nu rave parties.
www.beautybar.com
617 East 7th Street
Koriente
If you are looking for lighter fare,
then Koriente is the right place for
you. Modern Asian cuisine beckons.
www.koriente.com
621 East 7th Street
Texas Embassy
(Former Habana)
On 3/20 the Hamburg Reeperbahn
Festival will host an event between
2–5 p.m. Central topic: “What do
music professionals truly need?”
And the answer: “An excellent
BBQ!” And music. Live music is
provided by the Nigerian Nneka
who now lives in Hamburg and
the Kilians from Dinslaken. Please
note: by invitation only.
For additional info:
www.reeperbahnfestival.com.
www.texasembassyaustin.com
709 East 6th Street
20
MAP MY
COUNTRY
08
06
02
07
05
01
04
03
21
09
10
01 Adidas
Founded 1949 in Herzogenaurach in Franconia.
Initially the brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler
worked as a team. After a falling out Rudolf
founded the competition Puma. As the official
outfitter of the German national soccer team,
which won the World Cup in 1954, Adidas became more than just a brand. In the 70s and 80s
Adidas shoes and other products reached cult
status. Not only Run DMC were dressed head to
toe in Adidas.
02 Christkindlesmarkt
The Christkindlesmarkt is a Christmas market
that takes place in the historic center of Nuremberg. It is located on the Hauptmarkt and the
adjacent streets and plazas. The approximately
2 million visitors make it one of the biggest
Christmas markets in the world. The Nürnberger Rostbratwurst is a local specialty. This
sausage is slimmer than other sausages and it
has a distinctive taste thanks to the Marjorie
spice mix.
03 Siegfried and Roy
Siegfried Fischbacher was born in Rosenheim
in the south of Germany in 1939, and Roy Uwe
Ludwig Horn was born in 1944 in Nordenham
in the north of Germany. The two GermanAmerican artists are famous for their magic
and illusion. Their glamorous performances
with white tigers and lions is known all over the
world. An injury in October of 2003 put an end
to their stage career.
04 Daimler Benz
Stuttgart is not just home to a happening hip
hop scene. The famous automaker also hails
from here. From 1934 to 1939 Daimler Benz made
motor sports history with its “Silver Arrows”
racecar. The success story really got its start in
1926, when the two automobile pioneers Gottlieb
Daimler and Carl Friedrich Benz merged their
companies. A Mercedes sedan is still a status
symbol. Young people still enjoy ripping the
famous Mercedes stars off the hoods.
05 Nico
The Velvet Underground was probably the first
band with a female drummer—Mo Tucker. They
probably were also the first band with a female
singer from Cologne, whose voice, aura and
early death made her world famous. Nico, the
voice from the VU debut “Velvet Underground
& Nico”, was born as Christa Päffgen in Cologne
in 1938. She died in 1988 in Ibiza after a bicycle
accident. Nico also worked as an actress and
model.
06 Kraftwerk
Were founded in 1970 in the city of Düsseldorf,
near Cologne. Kraftwerk are still considered
electronic pioneers, and Düsseldorf is still
considered to be the center of German krautrock—besides Cologne. They are also called the
inventors of house and techno.
07 Cologne Cathedral
Complete mayhem is the order of the day during
carnival season in the Rhineland, but especially
in the city of Cologne. This city is also blessed
with: a great number of electronic musicians,
who maintain the “sound of Cologne”; a soccer
team with a billy goat as a mascot and a beer
called Kölsch that goes down with such ease
that you hardly notice when you had too much.
The gothic cathedral is located in the city
center. It took hundreds of years to complete
this building, and over the years the white
stonework has taken on a black coloration. The
dozens of spotlights give the cathedral a spooky
appearance at dusk.
08 Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn is a street in the Hamburg
entertainment and red light district of St.
Pauli. The Reeperbahn’s sights of interest are
(in addition to the many nightclubs, bars and
clubs): the Grosse Freiheit street, Hans-AlbersPlaza and the Davidwache, the Spielbudenplatz
with its Panoptikum, the St. Pauli Theater, the
Schmidt Theater and Schmidt’s Tivoli and the
Operettenhaus.
There is much more to discover in the lively
neighbourhood like loads of hip restaurants,
nice shops and cosy cafes.
09 Berlin Wall
“The wall is gone, but something’s lost”, Iggy
Pop sang in the 90s on his album “American
Caesar”. In the late 70s he and his buddy David
Bowie were out and about to record his legendary albums “The Idiot” and “Lust For Life” in
the Cold War capital, which was still separated
at that time. It seems that the 90s made him miss
the Berlin Wall as well as the old glory days.
Some fragments of the wall are still
standing, as a sort of memorial. For 28 years
it served as a border that was hard to pass,
along a 1378 km long route that separated the
Federal Republic of Germany from the German
Democratic Republic, from August 13, 1961 to
November 9, 1989.
10 Bauhaus Dessau
The Bauhaus Dessau is a group of buildings
in the East-German Dessau-Rosslau. This
building, which revolutionized modern
architecture, was built between 1925 and 1926,
following the plans and designs of Walter
Gropius. It became the new home for the art,
design and architecture school Bauhaus. In
1996 the building became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Every July the Melt! Festival takes
place in the nearby Ferropolis in Gräfenhainichen. As you see, there are two good reasons
to visit the region.
22
The German
Delegates
88tc88.com UG
Berlin
Content Aggregator
www.88tc88.com
88tc88.com is a web based
service that helps bands, artists
and musicians to translate their
names, band names, songs and
album titles into Chinese so they
can sell their music in Greater
China. The service offers to
arrange official approval by
the Chinese authorities for the
material to be released.
Thomas Reemer
President
thomas.reemer@88tc88.com
Steven Handelmann-Ritter
Legal Consultant
info@88tc88.com
Christoph Martius
Managing Director
christoph.martius@88tc88.com
AFM Records
GmbH
Hamburg
Label Metal/Rock
www.soulfood-music.de
Jochen Richert
Owner
jochen@soulfood-music.de
Aupeo GmbH
Berlin
Online Radio
www.aupeo.com
With just a few clicks you can
create your own personalized
music station or receive recommendations for a station that fits
your current mood. Aupeo was
founded in 2008 and offers its
users the opportunity to discover
new music—and the almost
unlimited choice is, of course,
brought to you in best sound
quality. The Aupeo program not
only runs on home computers
but also on many internet radio
devices, thanks to the company’s
cooperation with different
hardware manufacturers.
Steffen Holly
VP Product Development
steffen@aupeo.com
all2gethernow
e. V.
Berlin
Convention
www.a-2-n.com
gemse@berlin-musiccommission.de
management and promoting
local concerts in Berlin.
Nadine Riede
Project Manager
nadine@berlin-musiccommission.de
Christian Böhm
Head of Business
boehm-booking@gmx.net
Bingo Merch
Berlin
Merchandise
www.bingomerch.com
Cannery Row
Records
Berlin
Label
www.canneryrowrecords.com
Andrea Goetzke
Management
ago@newthinking.de
Bingo Merch was started in
March 2006 by Keith Nealy to
help bands get great quality
and affordable shirts and to
help plan and coordinate merchandising for their European
tours. So far Bingo has been
proud to have worked with
Animal Collective, Patti Smith,
Bright Eyes, Vampire Weekend,
Dinosaur Jr, Grizzly Bear, Band
Of Horses, Yeasayer, Lucinda
Williams, Yoko Ono, Explosions
In The Sky, Iron & Wine, St.
Vincent and many others. The
webshop “Frock Steady” (www.
frocksteady.com) should be up
and running by March, 2010.
The Berlin label Cannery Row
Records and its associated
publishing company Palace
Flophouse Music have a
very international outlook,
embedded in a global structure
of distribution and publishing
partners. Fueled by a network
of musicians, professionals
and fans around the world,
built up over two decades, the
driving force is always fueled
by creative artists, who sing
and play from the heart. Their
releases celebrate “handmade”
music of timeless quality,
including folk, country, calypso
and garage rock.
Berlin Music
Commission eG
Keith Nealy
Head of Business
keith@bingomerch.com
Mark Mulholland
Manager
mark.m@canneryrowrecords.
com
all2gethernow (a2n) is a platform and participatory event
for all those interested in music,
creativity and culture and the
environments enabling their
production, distribution and
consumption. The a2n brings
the various parties that are
involved in music together for a
joint constructive dialogue on
future oriented music strategies.
The a2n 2010 will be part of the
Berlin Music Week.
Berlin
Music Business Network
berlin-music-commission.de
The Berlin Music Commission is
a local creative industry network
and your one-stop shop to music
in Berlin. Their network of successful small and mediumsized
music companies joined together
to develop new and existing
markets for music from the
German capital. They organize
network activities, collectively
represent the members vis-à-vis
public authorities and connect
local and international business
partners.
Olaf Kretschmar
Cluster Manager
böhm booking
Berlin
Booking
www.boehm-booking.net
böhm booking is a Berlin-based
music agency run by Christian
Böhm. Its musical focus is on
americana, roots rock, singer/
songwriter, country and folk.
They book international
acts—full bands as well as solo/
duo artists. The company’s aim
is to be a gate for artists and
for music businesses to enter
key segments of the European
music market. böhm booking
provides tour/festival-booking in
most European countries, tour
Cargo Records
GmbH
Wuppertal
Distribution, Publishing,
Manufacturing, Logistic
www.cargo-records.de
Since 1998, Cargo Records
established itself as one of the
top players for independent
music distribution. Cargo
takes care of labels such as Sub
Pop, SST, Secretly Canadian,
SideOneDummy, Fierce Panda
and lots more. Cargo is offering
full service for these labels,
besides distribution they also do
promotion, marketing, packe-
23
ting, logistics, licensing, export
as well as online- and mobile
distribution. To sum it up in four
words: They deliver the goods.
Michael Schuster
General Manager
info@cargo-records.de
City Slang
Berlin
Label
www.cityslang.com
City Slang is an independent label
formed by former booking agent
Christof Ellinghaus. Started in
1990 it became, almost by chance,
a label for US bands that needed
a home in Europe, initially for
artists like Flaming Lips and Yo
La Tengo followed by others like
Calexico, Lambchop, Stars or
Nada Surf. Recently they have
released more and more European
artists like The Notwist or Get Well
Soon. The label celebrates its 20th
birthday this year.
Christof Ellinghaus
CEO
christof@cityslang.com
c/o pop
Cologne
Festival, Convention
www.c-o-pop.de
c/o pop has been taking place
anually in Cologne since 2004.
The programme of the festival is
dedicated to contemporary pop
culture in all its variety. Parallel
to the festival, c/o pop hosts a
business forum known as the c/o
pop convention which is directed
to professionals from the creative industries. The convention
focusses on networking between
the different creative industries.
Another major c/o pop project is
“Europareise”, a network of 70
festivals which helps to connect
the festival scene from Europe
and beyond. 2009 c/o pop saw
over 30,000 visitors and 1,200
professionals from 30 countries.
Ralph Christoph
Head of Strategy
program@c-o-pop.de
Tobias Thomas
Head of Festival
music@c-o-pop.de
DevilDuck Records
Hamburg
Label, Label Management
www.devilduckrecords.de
DevilDuck Records is a little,
enthusiastic label that has been
releasing albums since 2004,
concentrating on good music
with artists from the US, UK,
Scandinavia and Germany. It
has a small but good structure
incl. physical (Indigo) and nonphysical (Finetunes) distribution.
After being in this business
for more than 16 years they
know their market. DevilDuck
also offers label & product
management.
Jörg Tresp
Owner
joerg@devilduckrecords.de
Four Artists
Booking
Agentur GmbH
Berlin
Booking
www.fourartists.com
German promoter for national
and international artists. Strong
national roster.
Henning Ahrens
Booker
henning@fourartists.com
FKP Scorpio
Konzertproduktionen GmbH
Hamburg
Booking
www.fkpscorpio.com
FKP Scorpio is one of the leading
concert promoters in Europe,
based in Hamburg, Germany. The
company has organized tours
throughout Germany and Europe
for 20 years now. They are also
successfully established and still
manage six of the most popular
rock festivals in Germany (Hurricane, Southside, Highfield, Area4,
Mera Luna) and in Switzerland
(Greenfield Festival), which
attract more than 250,000 visitors
every year.
Bernie Schick
Head of Tourbooking
bernie@fkpscorpio.com
Grand Hotel Van
Cleef
Hamburg
Label
www.ghvc.de
German indie label from Hamburg with bands such as Kettcar,
Tomte, Death Cab For Cutie.
Rainer G. Ott
Manager
rainer@ghvc.de
Grand Hotel Van
Cleef Booking
Cologne
Booking
www.ghvc.de
GHVC Booking does not exclusively work with artists who release
albums on GHVC. They also work
with other selective domestic and
international artists.
Danny Simons
Booker
danny@ghvc.de
Hamburg
Marketing
Hamburg
City of Hamburg
www.marketing.hamburg.de
Hamburg Marketing develops,
steers and communicates the
brand “Hamburg”. Branches
like the creative industries and
events like Reeperbahn Festival
or Reeperbahn Campus form
an essential element of its communication mix. They make the
Hamburg brand something to be
experienced on a sustained basis.
Johannes Everke
Director Marketing Services
johannes.everke@marketing.
hamburg.de
Mario Stresow
Tourbooking
mario@fkpscorpio.com
Guido Neumann
Director Media Relations
guido.neumann@marketing.
hamburg.de
Silke Westera
Tourbooking
silke@fkpscorpio.com
Headquarter
Entertainment
Yan Mangels
Tourbooking
yan.mangels@fkpscorpio.com
Berlin
Booking
www.headquarterentertainment.de
Grace Helly
Graphics
Headquarter Entertainment is
more than a booking agency.
They understand the work involved in making a tour successful
and what it takes to make an
artist happy. After 13 years in the
business, the company’s roster
has grown to almost 90 artists
from around the world. Per year
they do around 400 international
shows, including their own shows
as promoters, ranging from small
clubs to major festivals.
Hamburg
Graphics, Design
www.gracehellygraphics.de
Graphic design for music:
silkscreenposter (gigposter),
cover, artworks, promotion,
advertisemts—design and
administration.
Antje Schröder
Director
antje@gracehellygraphics.de
Christian Morin
Agent, President
christian@headquarterentertainment.de
Initiative Musik
gGmbh
Berlin
Non Profit Organisation
www.initiative-musik.de
Initiative Musik gGmbH was founded in October of 2007. Its goal
is to promote musicians, people
with an immigrant background
and music businesses from the
genres rock, pop and jazz and
to disseminate popular German
acts all over the world. Initiative
Musik is a funding institution
that supports the German music
industry.
Katja Hermes
Project Management
katja.hermes@initiative-musik.
de
Jens Michow
supervisory board / president
idkv
idkv@idkv.com
Norbert Niclauss
supervisory board
mail@initiative-musik.de
Robert Schulz
Finance Management
robert.schulz@initiativemusik.de
Bernd-Wolfgang Weismann
supervisory board
mail@initiative-musik.de
King Georg
Cologne
Venue
www.kinggeorg.de
André Sauer
Head of Business
andre@kinggeorg.de
Konzertagentur
Berthold Seliger
Berlin
Booking
www.bseliger.de
Konzertagentur Berthold Seliger
is booking tours for almost 22
years. European agent for
American Music Club, Calexico,
Iron And Wine, Lambchop, Pere
Ubu, The Residents, Tortoise and
many others (and for Townes Van
Zandt during the last years of
his life). German tour promoter
for the likes of Bonnie “Prince”
Billy, Rosanne Cash, Herman
Dune, Kings Of Convenience, The
Magnetic Fields, Tift Merritt, Lou
Reed, Silver Jews, Patti Smith,
Television, Lucinda Williams and
many others.
Berthold Seliger
Owner
bs@bseliger.de
24
Kompakt
pdjekic@mufin.com
Cologne
Label, Booking, Agency,
Distribution
www.kompakt.fm
Boris Löhe
Business Development
borisloehe@mac.com
Jon Berry has been working
together with Kompakt for over
six years and now oversee’s the
Kompakt record label together
with Michael Mayer including
running a management company
within Kompakt.
Morr Music
Jon Berry
Label Manager
jon@kompakt.fm
Liftboy Management
Hamburg
Management
www.liftboy-management.de
Liftboy Management takes care of
the bands Kettcar, Tomte, Kilians.
Rainer G. Ott
Manager
rainer@ghvc.de
mightytunes
Berlin
Booking
www.mightytunes.de
mightytunes is a Berlin based
music agency run by Heiko
Wessels and Christian Böhm. The
agency’s aim is to be a gate for
both, artists and music businesses, so they can successfully enter
key segments of the European
music market. mightytunes provides tour/festival-booking in most
European countries, tourmanagement as well as promotion
for concerts in Berlin. It offers
professional PR for releases and
tours in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland.
Heiko Wessels
Head of Business
heiko@mightytunes.de
mufin GmbH
Berlin
Semantic Audio Technology
http://business.mufin.com
mufin is a music discovery platform that helps people find new
music they like on www.mufin.
com and through its partner sites
— including media companies,
online music stores and mobile
operators. Unlike traditional
music discovery platforms,
mufin’s music recommendations
are not based on popularity or
geographic regions but on the
sound of the music itself. Even
independent artists can be on top
of a recommendation list if their
music matches a listener’s taste.
Peter Djekic
Director Marketing
Berlin
Label
www.morrmusic.com
One of Berlin’s most influential
and well-loved imprints, Morr
Music has had such an impact
on the merging of electronic
and indie musical disciplines
that many consider the label to
have invented its own genre. Its
impressive roster is certainly
a testament to this fact—the
likes of Lali Puna, Múm, Isan,
Seabear, Radical Face, Sin Fang
Bous, The Wooden Birds, The
Clean, It’s A Musical, Surf City,
Ms. John Soda, Tied & Tickled
Trio, Electric President, The Go
Find and B.Fleischmann make
an impeccable roster.
Thomas Morr
Label Manager, A&R
thomas@morrmusic.com
Jürgen Söder
Licensing Manager
juergen@morrmusic.com
newthinking
communications
GmbH
concerts and tours for domestic
and international artists.
Christian Gerlach
Managing Director
christian.gerlach@neulandconcerts.com
Ralf Diemert
Booking Agent
ralf.diemert@neulandconcerts.com
Plankton-Media
Hamburg
PR
www.plankton-media.de
Detlef Schwarte
General Manager
schwarte@infernoevents.com
Matias Boem
reeperbahnfestival@planktonmedia.de
Katharina Thomsen
Project Manager
thomsen@infernoevents.com
Popcuts
Anne Hochstein
Project Manager
hochstein@infernoevents.com
Berlin
Online Music Store
www.popcuts.com
Popcuts is a download store,
where the buyer of a song shares
the future profits of that song. A
trendsetter is rewarded for discovering a hit. Fans are encouraged
to purchase exciting music in a
legal way as early as possible.
This merges the interests of artists
and consumers.
Hannes Hesse
Founder
hannes@popcuts.com
Berlin
Consulting Agency for Media,
Politics, Informations Technologies
www.newthinking.de
Popkomm GmbH
newthinking communications
is an agency for digital culture
and the digital society, based in
Berlin. It’s particularly interested
in social media, open source
approaches, creative commons
and new strategies for music
and culture in the digital age.
newthinking organizes and
curates events and workshops
like the all2gethernow or the
re:publica, provides online
communication consultancy and
web development. Thematic work:
research and analysis, content
production, project development
and management.
Popkomm has been based in
Berlin since 2004 and is now well
established as the world’s music
and entertainment business
meeting place incl. market place,
conference and festival. Popkomm
is synonymous for innovation and
trends and the best music business
platform in Germany to do
business, to exchange knowledge
and keep up to date on the latest
developments. Popkomm dates:
September 8–10, 2010. Venue:
Airport Berlin Tempelhof.
Andreas Gebhard
Head of Business
ag@newthinking
Deniz Kayacan
Exhibition Manager
kayacan@messe-berlin.de
Neuland Concerts / Warner
Music Group
Reeperbahn
Campus
Hamburg
Booking, Promotion
www.neuland-concerts.com
Neuland Concerts is a booking
agency located in Hamburg.
Neuland Concerts organizes
Unusual locations, interesting panels, new forms of cross-company
exchange and the international
club festival Reeperbahn Festival
make Reeperbahn Campus a new
fixture for all professionals of the
creative industries in northern
Europe. Hamburg is already looking forward to meeting visitors
from Germany and abroad from
September 23–25, 2010 during the
5th Reeperbahn Festival and the
2nd Reeperbahn Campus.
Berlin
Convention
www.popkomm.com
Mwase Tendayi
Exhibition Manager
mwase@messe-berlin.de
Hamburg
Conference
www.reeperbahncampus.com
Reeperbahn Campus is
Hamburg’s first professional event
to unleash creative energy: not
just putting it on the agenda!
Reeperbahn
Festival GbR
Hamburg
Festival
www.reeperbahncampus.com
The Reeperbahn Festival is a
unique European club festival.
On the last weekend of every
September dozens of new international bands meet an enthusiastic
audience in Germany’s music
metropolis Hamburg. Visitors not
only enjoy the exciting festival
program but also the matchless
setting. This year’s Reeperbahn
Festival will take place from
September 23–25, 2010.
Alexander Schulz
CEO
rfkontakt@reeperbahnfestival.
com
Moritz Meier
Head of Production
sponsoring@
reeperbahnfestival.com
Ann Forker
Head of PR/Arts/Cooperations
promotion@reeperbahnfestival.
com
Bjoern Pfarr
Head of Booking
booking@reeperbahnfestival.com
Mine Erguen
Booking
booking@reeperbahnfestival.com
Mona Kappmeyer
PR/Arts/Cooperations
promotion@reeperbahnfestival.
com
Revolver Promotion
Berlin
Promotion Agency
www.revolverpromotion.de
Founded as a promotion agency
in 2004, Revolver Promotion
25
turned into an all-inclusive service with label, promotion,
management and publishing.
With all their experience they
care for long-term and gradual
artist development.
All The Saints, Laura Gibson,
Musee Mecanique and Ramona
Falls. One big happy underground
family transmitting its signal
around the European globe.
Tom Weber
Managing Director
tom@revolverpromotion.de
Krista Schmidt
Label Manager
krista@
souterraintransmissions.com
R.D.S.
SSC Group GmbH
Berlin
Label
www.revolverpromotion.de
A department of Revolver
Promotion.
Matthias Kringe
Managing Director
matthias@revolverpromotion.de
Soulfood Music
Distribution
Hamburg
Music Distribution for Europe
www.soulfood-music.de
Jochen Richert
Owner
jochen@soulfood-music.de
Steve Gardner
Head of Label Management
steve@soulfood-music.de
SoundCloud
Berlin
Booking
www.ssc-group.net
SSC Group GmbH Concert &
Event Agency has offices in
Düsseldorf, Basel and Berlin.
Founded in 1998, SSC promotes
about 1200 shows a year and is
an associate of the annual “c/o
pop Cologne” music festival and
conference. SSC represents over
150 acts from various genres,
including artists like 2manydj’s,
Mr. Oizo, Hercules And Love
Affair, Ryuichi Sakamoto,
Soulwax, The Go! Team and
many more. As a major “music
consulting agency”, SSC works
with Levi’s, Sony Ericsson,
Vodafone etc.
Daniel Kempf
Agent
daniel.kempf@ssc-group.net
Berlin
Online Audio Platform
http://soundcloud.com
Sybille Koller
Agent
sybille.koller@ssc-group.net
SoundCloud is an online audio
platform catering to music professionals, enabling them to collaborate, promote and distribute
their music online in a simple,
accessible and feature-rich way.
SoundCloud allows music makers
to upload large audio files,
embed those tracks on websites
and blogs, share them publicly
(including via Twitter) or only
to specified contacts and gives
listeners the ability to comment
on specific parts of the recording
directly from the SoundCloud
player.
Manuel Schottmüller
Head of Booking
manuel.schottmueller@sscgroup.net
Alexander Ljung
CEO
alex@soundcloud.com
Souterrain
Transmissions
GmbH & Co. KG
Berlin
Label
souterraintransmissions.com
Krista Schmidt (Touch And Go
Records) and Christof Ellinghaus
(City Slang)—old friends meet, an
idea is born: Souterrain Transmissions. Based in Berlin, Souterrain
has become the European home
for many talented North American
musicians including Tweak Bird,
Hamed Shahi
Managing Director
hamed.shahi@ssc-group.net
Sweatshop
Agency
Berlin
Booking
sweatshopagency.wordpress.
com
Sweatshop was responsible for
bringing Mudhoney, Flaming
Lips and Yo La Tengo to Europe
in the late 80s and early 90s.
Today Sweatshop Agency is a
booking agency in its second
incarnation: They feel more like
a gang than a booking agency
and are happy to have a selected
roster of bands that are as close
to them as adopted kids to their
loving step parents (no real
kids, that would be silly). They’re
also proud to have a European
network of friends and partners
whom they trust and who share
their vision!
Severin Most
Head of Booking
severin@cityslang.com
tape.tv GmbH
Berlin
Online Music TV
www.tape.tv
tape.tv combines the simplicity
of television with all the internet
options, offering a visual domicile
to music videos as well as to the
artists and their fans. The principle: Your music finds you. No
matter if you are a music listener,
connoisseur or expert: Just lean
back and watch music 24/7. Or
lean forward and personalize
your music program with just one
click. tape.tv goes one step further
than any previous music formats
on the web: It is your very own
music television.
Dominik Grötz
Head of Editorial
groetz@tape.tv
The Subliminal
Society
Hamburg
PR
www.subliminalsociety.org
Felix Pace
felix@subliminalsociety.org
Tomlab
Cologne
Label
www.tomlab.com
Tomlab is a record label based
in Cologne, Germany. Over the
years Tomlab has developed from
a small electronic music label to
a company with a very diversified
international roster, widely recognised for its intimate selection
of outstanding independent pop
music. Tomlab has released the
debut albums of artists such as
The Books, Casiotone For The
Painfully Alone, Mantler, Niobe,
Owen Pallett and Patrick Wolf
to the wide acclaim from both,
press and audiences worldwide.
Tomlab is curated by Jan Lankisch
and Tom Steinle. They presently
focus on their new signings Munch
Munch, No Kids, Parenthetical
Girls, Simon Bookish and Skeletons for worldwide release, as well
as Mount Eerie and Why? for the
European market.
Jan Lankisch
A&R
jan@tomlab.com
Thomas Steinle
GM
tom@tomlab.com
Tracks & Fields
GmbH
Berlin
Online Music Production
Network
www.tracksandfields.com
Tracks & Fields connects musicians, producers and the music
industry for new projects. Artists
from all over the world can do
online collaborations with each
other. They find the right people
to write, produce or remix music
and share their ideas online
through dedicated tools. People
looking for talent tap into a
large network of artists, posting
requests such as remixes, film
and game scores or production
jobs, receiving custom-made
pitches and hiring professionals
with a few clicks.
Christian Mix-Linzer
CEO
mix-linzer@tracksandfields.
com
Konrad Sommermeyer
Marketing Director
sommermeyer@tracksandfields.
com
Wacken Open
Air / ICS Festival
Service GmbH
Hamburg
Festival Promoter, Booking,
Management Publishing
www.wacken.com
www.ics-int.com
Worldwide festival-, tour-,
local-show-promoter. Label,
ticketing, mailorder, publishing,
media service, web TV channel,
web radio, worldwide booking
agency.
Thomas Jensen
Managing Director
thomas@ics-woa.de
Miriam Hensel
Manager, Agent
miriam@ics-woa.de
Nick Hüper
Manager Online
Communication
nick@ics-woa.de
x-why-z
Konzertagentur
GmbH & Co. KG
Hamburg
Booking, Booking Agency
www.x-why-z.eu
Sasha Vadillo
Head of Business, Owner
sashav@x-why-z.eu
Photo: Tobia Vollmer
26
27
Lunch With
The Germans
The world is full of prejudice. A particularly
gruesome prejudice claims that Germans eat a
lot of kraut (cabbage)—which is why the English
yellow press tends to politely call us Krauts. We
would like to thwart this misunderstanding with
all our vigor.
At the Lunch With The Germans, hosted by the Initiative Musik
(see article on p. 51) and the German SXSW representatives from
Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne and financed by the German Ministry of Economics, we want to show you the stylistic range of
German cooking. In addition to the infamous home style dishes,
which used to be served in working class kitchens on a daily basis, you can taste the highlights of the modern German cuisine.
And since music is at the center of things, it won’t just be anybody
manning the stove, but Hayk Seirig and Phillip Patzig, the two
gourmet chefs from Berlin’s Bar 25. This outdoor venue in Berlin
is known all over the world: After all, it is one of a kind, having
merged after-hour-culture and gourmet cooking under one “roof”.
This culinary event will take place at the Parkside, a lovely
modern diner and nightclub on 6th Street in Austin, which will be
redecorated just for this. Tobias Thomas and Matias Aguayo, two
artists from the Cologne techno label Kompakt, will provide the
sound. Both artists have grown beyond their local borders and
have become jet-setting representatives of techno music. The native Chilean Aguayo is currently residing in Paris, Cologne and
Buenos Aires, and thanks to the great success of his new album
“Ay Ay Ay” he spends 50 weekends out of the year on the road.
DJ Heidi (photo left) currently calls Berlin her home, where she is
also a producer for Get Physical. By now she has made it into the
premier DJ league, at least since she has been hosting a monthly
radio show on Radio 1 (BBC). You can count on one or the other
world premiere this afternoon.
Meet the German music business delegates from all over Germany and get to know our artists.
Text: Thomas Venker
The author is editor in chief of Intro Magazine, the cultural magazine with Germany’s
highest circulation.
VENUE
Park Side
www.parkside-austin.com
301 East 6th Street
Wunderbar presents
“Lunch With The Germans—German Music At
SXSW 2010”
Food
Hayk Seirig and Phillip
Patzig (Bar 25)
Music
DJ Heidi, Tobias
Thomas (Kompakt) and
Matias Aguayo (Kompakt)
Time
Thursday, 3/18/2010,
12–3 p.m.
Register at
www.initiative-musik.de/
sxsw
28
Photo: Carolin Saage
Bar 25 Is Cooking Here
One last summer—just like every year. One more year of partying
at Bar 25, the unique stomping ground for scensters and birds of
paradise, right in the heart of Berlin. The guys behind the bar also
take the special legacy of „live and let live“ out into the world: by
means of delicacies from their kitchen. At SXSW they are cooking
it up at the German Luncheon.
Bar 25 is not just an open-air-club. It is also a shiny adventurous space, a space of, which guests tell the wildest stories—if
they manage to remember at all what they were doing there on
a Monday noon. In 2003 the bar was conjured out of the dance
floor right by the riverbank of the Spree in Berlin, and slowly
but surely it grew into a self-determined temple of hedonism.
It boasts a cinema, a spa area, a label, a hostel and last but not
least a gourmet restaurant. How do these elements work together—spaced out from partying for days on end and refined indulgence of haute cuisine? Phillip Patzig’s credo is: „If you want to
dance well, you have to eat well.“ He goes on: „Guests can experience something that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.“ The
25 year old Berliner is the executive chef at Bar 25’s restaurant.
And now he and his chef de cuisine bring this philosophy to Aus-
29
tin. Phillip cherishes German specialties such as potato soup,
Weisswurst and Leberkäs because they are simple and good.
He describes his personal ideal idea of flavors as a constant antagonism between aromas and aggregate phases. „Sweetsour,
hotcold, softcrunchy“ should be an exciting dish. What comes to
mind is the famous swing that hangs off the bar’s ceiling: eating
(and of course partying) as a constant up and down of contrasts,
which, if everything works out fine, fuse into a harmonic overall
image. „Up and down, it’s all in the mixture“, Phillip says about
the hedonistic interplay between the strained body on the dance
floor and the delicacies presented on the plates, before, in between and after. By the Spree these things go hand in hand. His
colleague Hayk Seirig procured his position as the chef de cuisine by proclaiming that to him food was like good sex. Phillip on
the other hand sees himself more like a devoted service provider
who would do anything for his guests: „I am a chef, the guests
have to do the eating.“ Well then, bon appétit!
Text: Arno Raffeiner
The author is working in Berlin as a journalist, DJ and booker.
Chicken à la Bar 25
Stuff the chicken with cut
up lemons, oranges, dark
chocolate shavings and
chili peppers. Rub the
chicken with a sauce made
of oil, mustard, curry, salt,
pepper and garlic. Important: Massage in well,
so that the flavors can
absorb. Then cover the
chicken in a quarter inch
thick layer of clay and insert it into a hot cooking
pit, cover with dirt. Leave
it covered in the pit for 30
minutes, then take it out
and remove the clay with
a hammer. Add some rosemary and serve.
30
c/o pop
Sound
of Cologne
31
Schaffel, Kölsch and Polka-Techno: These are the
three cornerstones that stand steadfast in the
shadow of the Cologne Cathedral. A good base for
developments: the festival c/o pop and the musiccluster Sound of Cologne are proof. It’s the local
specialties that turn you into an international
attraction.
First, a quick stop by a Büdchen (deli that sells alcohol). An internal recap is best done when sitting in the summer sun by the
Rhine river with a cool Kölsch beer in your hand: the panel on
digital distributors was interesting, the analog purchase of records is done, your thirst has been quenched for now. So now:
open air concert or chilling at the festival headquarters until the
night really kicks off? When the c/o pop is in Cologne it is always
difficult to make a choice. But it’s not really possible to miss anything as the star of the festival is the city itself. Its special vibe
pulses through the streets.
In the year 2004 the c/o pop wrote a new chapter in the history of Cologne Pop. Its predecessor was the Popkomm, a festival
that had lost its lustre and which had moved from the city by the
Rhine to the capital Berlin.
In the shade of the famous Cologne Cathedral this had almost been forgotten. The c/o pop immediately filled the gap.
Once a year it radiates that special flair of several crazy music
filled days. 2010 marks the festival’s seventh anniversary and for
the first time it is scheduled in the beginning of summer, from
June 23–28.
c/o pop gets special points for taking advantage of the city’s
amenities: a great music tradition, particularly in the electronic
realm, a vital party scene in numerous small clubs, an affiliation
with design and the fine arts and last but not least the short distance between each concert venue and the next Büdchen or pub.
This way artists and fans, journalists and promoters are bound to
constantly bump into each other. It can’t get any cozier in dimen-
Top 3 International
Projects Sound of
Cologne
01 Global Groove—New
Delhi, India, Dec 2009
Two day conference plus a
two day music festival: the
c/o pop concept now also
exists as an Indian export.
02 Expo 2010—Shanghai,
China, May-Oct 2010
The human machines
from the Düsseldorf band
Kraftwerk provided the
soundtrack for the Expo
2000 in Hanover. Sound of
Cologne will oversee North
Rhine Westphalia’s official
pop performance in Shanghai.
03 Europe Trip—as part
of the c/o pop Cologne,
Germany, June 2010
Considering the c/o pop’s
international festival network it would be more appropriate to call it “world
trip”. In 2009 representatives from more than 70 festivals participated, hailing
from 27 countries, ranging
from Mexico to Vietnam.
32
c/o pop 2010
June 23–28,
several locations,
Cologne
www.c-o-pop.de
www.sound-of-cologne.com
sions such as these (considering there are 30,000 visitors every
year). Pop-cultural events pretty much take over the entire city
during the festival. In addition to concerts and long club nights
there are various fringe events, from designer markets and fashion nights to the second mainstay, the c/o pop convention. The
music business and theory convention lasts for several days and
increasingly attracts international participants. In 2009 it was
sold out for the first time. Such success stories remind some people of the glorious days of the 90s.
Back in those days some spin-doctors had labeled the city’s astonishing electronic output Sound of Cologne (by now this label is
deeply steeped in myths). Today this slogan does more than just
describe the musical diversity between the poles of Kompakt and
A-Musik: it is also the name of the cluster, that’s in charge of pop
music in the creative industries in North Rhine Westphalia. The
people behind c/o pop were instrumental in promoting the export
of this label, i.e. Rhineland pop-culture into the world (in addition
to the numerous local activities): Their goal is the growth of networks and business connections with local music specialties as
the lubricant.
They don’t just focus on the big names of the global festival circus but also on exciting new frontiers such as China, Vietnam or
India (see box). According to Ralph Christoph from Sound of Cologne these exports only make sense if the re-import from those
countries is guaranteed as well. And so we can probably expect
some dubstep beats from Peking at the c/o pop, in addition to all
those indie stars and local heroes.
We’ll have another Kölsch on that!
Text: Arno Raffeiner
The author works as a journalist, DJ and booker in Berlin.
33
RHINELAND
Music
Legends
Like a recording
studio stacked
with sinus generators in Cologne,
the Ratinger Hof in
Düsseldorf as the
nucleus of Punk
and Neue Deutsche
Welle (New German Wave) or the
following legendary musicians, the
Rhinelander has
an inclination for
music, cheerfulness and all things
local.
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Four helicopters circle each other in a radius of
four miles. Each of them holds a string player.
The audience is located down on the ground in
an auditorium with a telematic network. These
are the most essential elements of the score of
the “Helicopter String Quartet”, a small segment from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Licht” cycle. Stockhausen is considered one of the most
influential composers of the 20th century. His
extended concept of music with 7-day-operas
is legendary. The famous “studio for electronic
music”, which was founded in 1951 in Cologne by
the West-German Broadcasting Company, was
under Stockhausen’s leadership for many years.
Can, founded in 1968, doesn’t so much follow a
strictly serial, but rather a psychedelic organic
path. With the help of their drummer Jaki Liebezeit they perfect the work in a genre that has
been wantonly neglected by avant-pop: groove.
The rest is Krautrock history.
Kraftwerk
In 1970 Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider
founded Kraftwerk (photo) in Düsseldorf.
Even today this electronic band mesmerizes:
not just because of the incredible order in the
tonal department but also because of its de
facto power: Without Kraftwerk there would
be no synthesizer alchemy in pop, human machines would not play instruments, and “trans
Europa Express” would not be a blueprint to
Can
electro funk, hip hop, techno ... So it comes as
It is at the studio for electronic music that a
younger generation experienced its own awak- no surprise that today Ralf Hütter is mostly
focusing on the conservation of this Gesamtening. Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay, two
kunstwerk.
Stockhausen students, met here. Their band
34
Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg
This Must
Be The Place
For many years Hamburg has been home to a location that is perfect for an extraordinary
music festival: the Reeperbahn. The Reeperbahn Festival has been taking place on the “sinful mile” since 2006. In 2010 it will join SXSW for
the second time.
Photo: Arne Sattler
Deichkind
Reeperbahn Festival
2010
September 23–25,
several locations,
Hamburg
www.reeperbahnfestival.
com
The Reeperbahn Festival is part of Hamburg’s unique culture.
Hamburg is not just a metropolis, where a scene of young creative
people stimulates and inspires each other with many exciting and
trend setting ideas in the areas of fashion, design, architecture
and the fine arts, but in terms of music it is also one of the most
exciting places in the world. Its reputation as a stepping-stone for
the Beatles is legendary. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the
“Beatles in Hamburg”. Since the days of punk and new German
wave, the Reeperbahn has been home to the most exciting
music scenes within Germany. The scene is still alive—
with countless innovative bands, clubs and labels from
every genre. No chances are missed to maintain this
climate: The establishment of the Reeperbahn Festival in 2006 was the logical conclusion. After all,
what Hamburg was missing was a music festival
that would utilize the unique environment for its
own purposes. Thus it came as no surprise when
the Reeperbahn Festival came to life with generous funding from the city and took root over the
past three years. Music lovers from all over should
mark the end of September in their calendars. The
Reeperbahn Festival is neither limited to local nor national borders. The organizers have always gazed beyond their city limits to the international stage. They
never tire of mentioning the event’s international
aspect—after all, they see themselves as part of Europe’s wonderfully growing festival scene. Thinking outside the box doesn’t stop here. Inspired by
SXSW’s spirit, the Reeperbahn Festival came to
Austin, Texas for the first time in 2009. It garnered
some attraction by means of a clever guerillamarketing act. Portable street signs turned
every corner of Austin into a part of the
Reeperbahn Festival. The healthy self-consciousness comes from the success story
35
as reflected by the continuously growing resonance from industry
leaders, bands and last but not least the audience. The location
plays a decisive part. All over the world the Reeperbahn is known
as the “sinful mile”. On one hand, the red-light district is one of
the city’s major tourist attractions. On the other hand, it is the
center of many cultural activities and a stronghold of consistent
creativity. The nightclub district, ablaze with neon lights, more
or less symbolizes “sex, drugs & rock’n’roll”. However, during
the Reeperbahn Festival its appearance changes quite a bit. The
size of the audience increases, as does the international factor,
the cultural diversity and the entertainment value. The compelling parameters offer the festival guests—counting about 17,000 in
2009—at least two immense perks: one, there are countless cultural highlights and a whole range of entertainment in addition
to the official festival program. Second, all the clubs that participate in the festival—counting 25 in 2010, with more than 150 bands
ready to show their know-how—are in walking distance of each
other. You can easily change your location and still remain in the
hotspot. It’s not just the nightlife that is exciting. 2009 marked the
first successful integration of afternoon panels in the scope of the
conference Reeperbahn campus, dealing with current questions
in pop- and event culture. The feedback for these events was so
positive, that this section will be expanded. One of the moderators was MTV legend Ray Cokes. Regardless whether workshops,
discussion forums or unplugged gigs by festival bands, whether
in the theater, the club or some kind of off-location: the request for
“More of this!” shall be granted in 2010.
The Reeperbahn
Festival at the
SXSW 2010
Filter Party
Friday, 3/19/2010,
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
Cedar Street Courtyard
208 West 4th Street
BBQ And SHOWCASE
Saturday, 3/20/2010,
2-5 p.m.,
Texas Embassy ( formerly
Habana),
709 East 6th Street
Music
The Sunday Times had
declared hip hop / soul
artist Nneka’s 2006 debut
album “Victim Of Truth”
“the year’s most criminally
overlooked album”. Nneka
will prove her presence
at the Filter Party—cohosted by The Reeperbahn
Festival for two hours—as
well as at the Reeperbahn
BBQ. At the BBQ she will be
joined by Hamburg Band
The Killians.
Questions
Please contact Tracy
Mann (MG Limited, USA,
t.mann@mglimited.com)
or Ann Forker (Reeperbahn
Festival GbR, Germany,
a.forker@reeperbahn
festival.com)
36
Hamburg
Multi-PopCulturalism
The Hamburg music landscape is multifaceted:
Whether indie, metal, techno or hip hop: every
sound will find its audience.
Hamburg is one of the few German cities—aside from Berlin—
where independent music movements get into motion time and
again. In terms of live music Hamburg is certainly the number
one location in Northern Europe, right after London. This status
was reinforced in 2006 when the fascinating Reeperbahn Festival
made its debut in the heart of the city. In the 50s and 60s Hamburg’s contribution to the international history of rock’n’roll began and ended with the Star Club and the first Beatles concerts.
But as early as the 70s a new generation of musicians worked
on giving Hamburg its own musical identity, first and foremost
Udo Lindenberg. As the punk explosion went off the appropriate
bands were formed. Thanks to the label ZickZack Records by music journalist Alfred Hilsberg, one of Germany’s first indie labels,
a flourishing underground was brewing as early as 1980: original
bands such as Abwärts, Palais Schaumburg and Geisterfahrer.
The Goldenen Zitronen was founded in the mid 80s.
Hamburg School
The “Goldies” mark the beginning of the movement “Hamburg
School”. The concept may and should bring to mind the “Frankfurt School” and its Critical Theory representatives. After all,
bands like Cpt. Kirk &., Kolossale Jugend, Blumfeld and Huah! are
not related by some homogeneous style. The Hamburg School is
defined by German lyrics, which in turn are influenced by critical
thinking, politics and postmodern theories. As a result it attracts
even more talented musicians (with or without a band) to the city
(and some, like Digitalism in 2008, to SXSW). But Hamburg is not
just known for its underground. Not too few acts mixed up the
pop mainstream: Nena, Scooter and last but not least Tokio Hotel.
Wacken
The Hamburg band Helloween causes an international splash in
the agile parallel universe of heavy metal. Hamburg has been and
still is home of the metal movement—from heavy to trash, death
and doom to the post-metal of the 90s and the new millennium.
And that’s not all: There is a small village called Wacken (population 1,800) located 50 km northwest of Hamburg. Every first week
37
Diversity
Musicians from numerous other styles are comfy and
active in Hamburg as well. From musique concrète (Asmus Tietchens) to reggae (Silly Walks
Soundsystem)—almost every sound will find its
audience. House, techno and more refined clubsounds define Hamburg’s party spirit, with
backup from a respectful number of international acts and DJs that range from
Alex Christensen to DJ Koze. Hamburg is
also a top address for hip hop fans: Fünf
Sterne Deluxe, Fischmob, Eins Zwo and
Beginner are some good examples. Talking of which, Jan Delay, who is Beginner’s other voice besides Denyo,
recently sang two successful duets with Udo Lindenberg. This
nicely rounds up the whole story—at least formally.
Text: Klaus Scheld
The author is working in Hamburg as a connoisseur of the art
C
OTRONI
TOC
of August this small community turns into one of the gates of hell.
The Wacken Open Air has attracted metal fans from all over the
world since 1990. Last year marked its 20th anniversary, which
was duly celebrated by 75,000 metal heads—making it the world’s
biggest metal bash. Two of the bands that are in the care of the
festival’s ICS booking section will play at this year’s SXSW:
Texas can expect its first Celtic invasion with the band Suidakra. The German pagan metal pioneers are known for
mesmerizing their audience with medieval elements. The
Israeli band Orphaned Land is just as peculiar, you may
know them from the award-winning documentary
“Global Metal”. In the film singer Kobi Farhi explains
why older Jews in Israel welcome Slayer’s “Angel Of
Death” as a kind of “memorial against forgetting”.
38
39
jazzahead! Bremen
All That
Jazz!
Once a year the city of Bremen, in the North of
Germany, transforms into an absolute jazz capital. jazzahead! features many concerts and an
important convention.
With a population of 650,000 Bremen is the smallest German
state. Regardless of its size, this city by the Weser river has been
a proud host of the big event jazzahead! for the past five years.
The festival takes place each April in the Congress Centre Bremen. In 2009 the festival attracted 232 exhibitors from 18 countries. More than 5,000 visitors swarmed the convention center,
with 2,000 professional attendees, attracted by the 40 concerts
that were performed by domestic and international stars. The Initiative Musik promotes the German Jazz Meeting as part of the
festival. It’s a great stepping stone for promising young German
jazz formations. Several exciting updates are planned for 2010:
For the first time concerts will also take place at live venues outside of the convention. Also artists from overseas will celebrate
their debut at jazzahead! So far the festival had focused on acts
from Germany and Europe. The impressive numbers from last
year are a good indicator: The convention itself is still the heart
of jazzahead! Musicians, labels, agencies, bookers, distributors,
associations and instrument makers utilize the convention as a
meeting point to swap ideas, to network and to stay in touch. The
informal atmosphere of Bremen, which remains intact despite the
ever-growing number of attendees, has led to many long-term
cooperations. The newly gained international status will manifest itself in the 2010 opening event of the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof where four bands from Canada and Asia are scheduled to
perform. The evening program won’t spare any expense either:
Among other class acts the jazz guitar legend John McLaughlin,
who has played with greats such as Miles Davis, will present his
latest work “Floating Point”. And as part of the third German Jazz
Meetings they have invited 12 domestic formations to introduce
themselves to the international representatives. Fans and experts
who want to get an overview of the quality of the European jazz
scene can enjoy a European-Late-Night-Program, which has been
handpicked by a prestigious jury.
Text: Wolfgang Frömberg
The author is editor of Intro Magazine, the cultural magazine with Germany’s highest
circulation.
jazzahead!
April 22–25,
several locations,
Bremen
www.jazzahead.de
40
Nuclear Blast / Abby / The Rising Rocket
The best
of our
southwest
Photo: Christoph Voy
In terms of music Baden-Württemberg plays in the a-league. No
matter whether you are talking about new or old heroes—the
movers and shakers behind the music branch from the southwest
of Germany always give their best. Among them you will find music lovers, strategists from the music industry and of course artists. Nuclear Blast, which is located near Stuttgart, is not just the
biggest German indie label but also the biggest independent metal label in the world. The indie bands Abby and The Rising Rocket are currently some of the best music exports from the state of
Baden-Württemberg.
Nuclear Blast
At the edge of the Swabian Albs you can find the small village
of Donzdorf, barely close enough to Mercedes’ and Porsche’s
hometown of Stuttgart to be considered part of its metropolitan region. The population of Donzdorf performs really hard
labor. No less than 110 employees work for Nuclear Blast.
They give their best for metal. The business that was founded by Markus Staiger in 1987 has grown
into Germany’s biggest indie label as
well as into the world’s biggest independently operated metal label. The in-house
mail order is also a world-wide leader.
It is so large and popular, that you can purchase
the catalogue with its editorials at every newspaper
stand in the state. If one were to find out the secret of
their success, then all roads would lead to the following
maxim: whatever you do, do it with abandon. In the beginning this was self evident. The machinist Staiger ran
the label as a kind of hobby and only released bands that
he somehow felt connected to. By now the former children’s
room project has become a million dollar company with offices in the US and Brazil. And no matter how big the company
grew, the spirit remained the same. In times where everyone
who has something to do with the release of music has nothing but complaints, Nuclear Blast still has a rosy outlook.
The complainers may view this as poetic justice. Only if you
love your artists the way Nuclear Blast does, do you deserve this success.
41
Abby
In terms of philosophy Abby and The Rising Rocket could be part
of this label. Just like Nuclear Blast these two bands represent the
state’s cultural goods. The five guys from Abby from Mannheim,
home to one of the largest talent pools in Baden-Württemberg,
even learned their lessons at the local pop-academy: They could
have called themselves The Abby, The Abbys or even The Abbies. But Abby are not some generic “The-band”. They are not
defined by their hairstyle and don’t want to be thought of as “the
new thing”. One of my colleagues put it in a nutshell: “This band
is good the way it is and doesn’t need any advice. They breathe
zeitgeist and capture the moment, which frees them from the urge
to deliberately sound cool.” Abby have already played with Trail
Of Dead from Austin/Texas. They proved that their music could
work in the US. They were also a big hit at the newcomer festival
Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavík. With their emotional and intricate
songs they mixed up the Pop-Up Convention in Leipzig, which is
a big German indie event. In cooperation with the public channel
SWR2 and the cultural TV channel arte they accompanied a poetry slam with subsequent concerts. They just did everything right.
The Rising Rocket
You can say the same about The Rising Rocket from Stuttgart.
2009 was a groundbreaking year for the four indie rockers. At the
beginning of the year they were still the opening act in one
of Stuttgart’s largest concert venues, and by summer the local music development office, Popbüro Region Stuttgart, sent them on
tour in Sweden. The highlight was when the four friendly guys
were finally able to play in front of the big audience they have always deserved: at the Coca-Cola Soundwave Discovery Tour, one
of the biggest and most important band competitions in the country. They played at the finale, which took place at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the German
unification. The jury promptly voted them newcomer band
2009. And by the way: The other two finalists were also from
the state of Baden-Württemberg. One million people cheered
for them and the rightful victors. How did that 80s song go
that was entirely free of irony: the future’s so bright,
you gotta wear shades! But as bona fide rock’n’roll
animals The Rising Rocket wear their shades anyway, perennially, day or night. After all, they
know what they owe us.
Text: Klaus Scheld
The author is working in Hamburg as a connoisseur of the art of living and journalist.
42
Berlin Music Week
&Tango
Techno
Berlin is about to get a music festival that is just like the city itself—decentralized. The first Berlin Music Week will take place from September
6–12. The festival is geared towards the audience and the industry. Olaf
Kretschmar, chairman of the organizational committee, provides some
information about the festival.
Berlin Music Week
September 06–12,
several locations,
Berlin
www.berlin-music-week.de
Berlin is considered the “nightlife capital of the world”. Why?
The founding myth goes back to the legendary 90s. In 1989 a wall
came down in Berlin, and suddenly two areas adjacent to the Soviet zone in the middle of the city were thrown together. The first
club pioneers conquered an uncultivated cityscape equipped with
an electric screwdriver and a roll of tape. In fact, the club owners
were already developing the metropolis when the public authorities were still busy taping the maps together. The first clubs were
named after previous tenants: Elektro, Frisör (hairsalon), WMF
or Blumenladen (florist). The cornerstone for the music capital
had been laid long before the major labels even heard anything
about innovative electronic music. There was a large supply of
weird, undefined spaces in Berlin. Creativity was of the utmost
importance, so you can imagine the audience. Basically it was this
mode that survived the commercialization of the underground
and the establishment of the scene as its own trade.
The club scene isn’t the only thing that has undergone tremendous change ever since. How does the Berlin Music Week reflect the current status?
Berlin stands for electronic music, excellent clubs and innovative
artists. Now a wild, stylistic spectrum has taken root in the city.
There is a variety of musical niche skills that aren’t really exploited but instead stick to themselves. It is them that represent the
actual potential for renewal. That’s innovation based on the coexistence of distinctions. For this reason the Berlin Music Week is
set up in a genre-comprehensive way. It communicates the wealth
of popular music, from techno to tango. We hope it will generate
creative impulses; the individual music genres often just simmer
about in their own juices. If we can manage to reduce the partitioning, a new sound can come to life.
The Berlin Music Week is equally geared towards the industry,
scene and the audience. How can you accommodate such different interest groups, topics and positions?
43
The music industry has been harboring
a horrible corral mentality for years—
conventional industry versus web 2.0,
indie versus major, entertainment music versus serious music. We need to
get rid of them. They are relishing in an
antagonism that blocks the development
of the entire industry. We have to learn
how to respect our differences and how to
combine them in a meaningful way. After
last year’s cancellation of the Popkomm
the Berlin Music Commission drafted a
concept for a genre- and camp-comprehensive music convention
“Berlin Music Week”. With the founding of the project team Berlin Music Week with a2n and club commission, it was obvious that
words were followed by deeds.
Which topics will be covered?
Some people feel that a change of system took place when the
internet was discovered as a means of production for the music
industry. Some merely saw a new technology, and others saw it
as an accessory to theft. Fact is: the coordinate system in which
music is produced, promoted and distributed has completely
changed. I don’t want to forestall the colleagues who are organizing the panels, but the range of topics will be rather broad: from
the management of rights to alternative paths of distribution, to
new strategies for artists, labels, media to the effective linking up
of traditional and avant-garde tools.
Can you tell us about the highlights of the Berlin
Music Week?
Barely half a year ago a liaison between the Berlin
Festival and the Popkomm was unthinkable, now it
will be a first highlight at airport Tempelhof. But this
is only the beginning: prepare to be surprised.
Berlin Music Week—
what is it?
The Berlin Music Week sees
itself as a music platform
for the industry, fans and
people behind the scenes.
It is the mutual umbrella
for concerts, club events,
panels, conventions and
workshops. The Berlin Music Week is organized by
the non-profit organization
Kulturprojekte Berlin, in
conjunction with the networks Berlin Music Commissions, Club Commission
and all2gethernow, the Berlin Festival, Popkomm and
the Berlin Senate.
44
Open Airs
Germany,
A Summer
Tale
Photos: Lars Borges
Every year beginning in May a mass migration happens: 12 million people pack only
the essentials and leave their cozy homes.
They embark upon a journey to a land, where
milk and honey ferment until loose lips let everyone speak the same language: the language
of music. There must be around 800 festivals
in Germany—no one knows exactly, especially
since new festivals join the circuit every year.
But everyone has been to one of the five most
important ones.
45
Rock am Ring / Rock im Park
Let’s have a sober look at Rock am Ring, leaving out any exaggeration: It is the biggest festival in the country. It is the best.
The most perfect. It is the one with the most famous line-ups, the
smoothest organization and the most loyal visitors. Together with
partner-festival Rock im Park in Nuremberg the mammoth event
at the Nürburgring in the Eifel is the epicenter of the domestic
festival business. Not without a reason: Marek Lieberberg, the impresario per se, was the one who invented open-air festivals for
Germany. The follow up event to the British Rock Meetings took
place for the first time in 1985. The fans were overjoyed, the authorities were appalled, after all, they were not familiar with mass
events of this nature. And they all came to bestow their honor:
Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica—as well as
unknown acts such as INXS or Alanis Morisette, whose international career switched into a higher gear at Rock am Ring. This
year marks the festival’s 25th anniversary—Kiss and Rammstein
will be among the headliners. And Rock im Park is already celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Info
Date: June 4–6, 2010
Location: Eifel, Nürburgring / Nuremberg, Zeppelinfeld
Visitors: 80,000 / 60,000
Event Organizer: MLK
Contact: www.mlk.com
Hurricane / Southside
Northern Germans are grumpy and don’t know how to party—
that’s a common and popular prejudice in Germany. However,
since 1997 this assumption has been proven false again and again:
Every year the Hurricane Festival in Scheessel near Hamburg
shows how loud and fun things can be up north. In fact, so loud
and fun that they inspired the supposedly more affable Southern
Germans into having their own, smaller version of the Hurricane
Festival starting in 1999: the Southside Festival. The festival double has become a permanent feature in the open-air circuit. The
program fuses alternative, rock and pop in all different shapes
and sizes. The Beastie Boys have come, as have Coldplay, Pearl
Jam, Radiohead and Rammstein. But the spotlight doesn’t just focus on the big stars. Newcomers also enjoy the heat of the spotlight. And so this small state, where the boondocks abound, has
turned into a state where people definitely know how to party.
Info
Date: June 18–20, 2010
Location: Scheessel,
Eichenring / Neuhausen ob
Eck, Airport
Visitors: 70,000 / 50,000
Event Organizer: FKP
Scorpio
Contact:
www.fkpscorpio.com
46
Info
Date: July 16–18, 2010
Location: Gräfenhainichen,
Ferropolis
Visitors: 20,000
Event Organizer: Melt!
GmbH & Co. KG
Contact:
www.meltbooking.com
Melt!
What would the miners think, who once dug for brown coal in the
strip mine Golpa-Nord? Instead of the clattering noise from the
five gigantic excavators filling the air you can now hear the basses
pumping the night away. Waves of cheer surf across a crowd of
20,000 heads, guitar salvos cut through the night. Gone are the
helmet and protective goggles. Today the steel monsters emit lasers, as if trying to lure some aliens. Welcome to the “city of iron”,
as the industrial memorial Ferropolis is also called. This location—in the triangle of Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin—is so successful because of Melt! itself. This “interdisciplinary” indietronic
event started out as a one-day rave and has come to enjoy an excellent reputation. Melt! Festival offers something new every year:
The line-up is always very up to date and cleverly reconciles electronica and e-guitars: Even Noel and Liam from Oasis got along
during their gig—just one last time. It must have been the unique
Melt! spirit.
Info
Date: July 30 – August 1, 2010
Location: Kastellaun/Hunsrück, Raketenbasis Pydna
Visitors: 58,000
Event Organizer: I-Motion
Contact: www.i-motion.ag
Nature One
It’s best to imagine the landscape by thinking of a sequel from
“Lord Of The Rings”: The Hunsrück is situated peacefully like the
dreamy shire, and where the dark forces of Mordor once roamed
about cheery colorful elves are dancing and prancing. This is no
fantasy or fairy tale, but the sheer truth: Nature One goes wild in
a place where cruise missiles used to face east. The organizers
discovered this historic site with its former nuclear missile base
and turned it into an oasis of electronic dance music. These remnants from the Cold War have long since changed their appearance: 300 DJs, from Marusha to Carl Cox to Sven Väth—all the
big names have graced Nature One, and they continue to shake
up the floor of every bunker and open-air space. The line-up reflects trends and the tried and tested from the domestic and international scene. And sometime in the middle of the night the rockets make their way into the sky after all—with a bang! But not to
fret, these are fireworks—not nuclear missiles—and they do their
best to keep all evil at bay.
47
Haldern Pop
By the lower Rhine, right there in the middle of nowhere, you can
still encounter a native environment: The cows are virtual audiences at Haldern Pop. This festival doesn’t book to please the
masses—which they don’t want anyway—but only what pleases the ears of the organizers. After all, this is how it got started,
sometimes around 1981: 14 altar boys just would not accept the
fact that nothing ever happened in their village. Off they went to
look for a power outlet far away from any structure with a roof.
Little did they know that a decade later Sir Bob Geldof himself
would scream for a cup of herbal tea with a hoarse voice. Patti
Smith, Editors and Heather Nova would not be the only guests
that found their way to this middle of nowhere. But names, dates
and facts don’t mean anything in a spot that once was used for
riding horses. All one needs to know are some of the homemade
sayings that the folks in Haldern come up with every year. How
about this one: If you can see through life, you are not worth the
fairy tale!
Info
Date: August 12–14, 2010
Location: Rees-Haldern,
Alter Reitplatz
Visitors: 7,000
Event Organizer: Raum
3 Konzert und Veranstaltungs GmbH
Contact:
www.haldern-pop.de
48
01
ACH
TUN
IRONY
G,
!
07
Photo: Tobias Vollmer
02
05
04
03
06
German Fashion
Zeitgeist
How can you tell if you got a real German in front of you? Luckily, a real
Kraut is most likely to give himself away by sporting one or two fashion
features below, proclaiming extraordinary German fashion sense.
01 Dirndl
Apart from the die-hard Bavarian woman, the average
German girl only wears a
dirndl when heavily under the
influence at Munich’s annual
Oktoberfest. There, a lot of Blist celebrities and footballer’s
wives happily take the opportunity to inform the paparazzi about their cleavage in this
traditional costume of Alpine
peasants.
02 Leather trousers
What nowadays looks like a
regular fetish item from your
local gay bar, especially when
they come with those double
zippers and a nice pair of
leather suspenders, is actually
the number one in traditional
German menswear. Apparently, some funky Bavarians were
already showing off their sturdy calves in Lederhosen back
in the 15th century.
03 sandals
Here comes the prime example of how Germans (to put
it mildly) like to put function
before form when it comes to
clothing (or to tell the truth:
in favor of practicality, leave
all fashion sense behind). Ze
Krauts like it comfy when
they walk around and can
frequently be seen proudly
sporting this special kind of
footwear, an easy feature to
distinguish them from other Europeans. Oh, and yes,
things can get even worse ...
Tennis socks.
04 Tennis socks
It could get chilly. All kinds
of unpredictable things could
occur, anytime! Therefore, a
real German needs to prepare
himself, and that’s the only explanation why they often can
be seen wearing those sandals
with a nice pair of the infamous white tennis socks. Even
when in hotter climates or in
close proximity to a beach,
Germans like a bit of toweling
on their feet. Fair enough!
to the bourgeoisie, supporting
a German virtue: to turn fashion away from insanity and
back to understatement.
06 The turtleneck
Germans never wear loose-fitting turtlenecks, often you can
even still make out the outline of an undershirt underneath. Thus, if you’re planning
on this look in the long run,
you should cut down on those
yummy Bratwursts.
07 Tracksuit jacket
Rarely overdressed (this isn’t
Italy!), young Germans often
turn to a casual item paired
with a true German brand: the
Adidas training jacket. The
05 Horn-rimmed glasses young male who is into indie
Now that nerd fashion is back music (and maybe still hangs
on every style blog, even Lind- on to the 90s a little bit) often
say wears some horn-rimmed combines this look with a side
parting hairdo.
specs to add a brainy look to
her daily paparazzi fix. But
who brought intellectualism
Suspenders
back into fashion, even beCruel and tender: If you can refore every art director on this sist the urge to painfully snap
planet made heavy spectacles a German’s suspenders from
their signature accessory?
time to time, you’ll notice they
Yes. Ze Germans!
will firmly snuggle against his
body while performing their
duty, that is holding those
The undershirt
pleated trousers with style!
Minimalism to the max: Like
all good fashion trends, the
undershirt stems from the
Text: Katharina Poblotzki
working class, but has worked The author is editor for fashion and
its way up from the underdog photo editor of Intro Magazine.
49
50
Initiative Musik
Providing
Support For
Culture And
The Economy
It’s a virtue to not feel above taking on the idea of
others—as long as you don’t just copy them, but instead use it as an inspiration to turn it into something new. That’s exactly what happened in Germany
two years ago: The Initiative Musik was established
as a central office for the Support of rock, pop
and jazz music.
Photo: Sandra Stein
Contact:
Initiative Musik gGmbH
Linienstraße 130
10115 Berlin
Germany
T: +49 (0)30 – 531 475 45 – 0
F: +49 (0)30 – 531 475 45 – 9
mail@initiative-musik.de
www.initiative-musik.de
It was inspired by the groundbreaking activities of similar institutions in Canada, France and Scandinavia. The fruit of their long
hard labor showed and helped their artist get established in the international arena.
Founded in 2007 Initiative Musik is sponsored by the Federal
Government Commission for Culture and Media (BKM) on the basis of a resolution in the German parliament, with funding from the
GVL and GEMA. Within the first two years we were able to provide 4 million Euros to 160 artists and 40 infrastructure projects.
There are two ways to receive funding: In program 1 the artists
themselves can apply for grant aid for an album, a tour or marketing, with the artist already having the backup from a professional
structure such as a booking agency, a label or a music publishing
company. Program 2 provides infrastructure support, i.e. to companies and institutions from the music industry. Both programs focus
focuses on export, the promotion of new talent and the integration
of people with an immigrant background.
51
Artist
projects
Infrastructure projects
Henrik Schwarz
The Berliner Henrik Schwarz has spun his
way up into the a-league of DJs with his deep
house productions. He was influenced by the
Detroit techno school, by people such as Jeff
Mills, Juan Atkins and Theo Parrish. After releases on renowned labels such as Sundays
Best and Compost, !K7 Records asked him to
do a “DJ Kicks” compilation—which is kind of
a knightly accolade for a DJ.
Joint German Presentation at SXSW
In a federalist country like Germany it is important to reconcile the different activities of
the individual states. You can experience the
added value of such an undertaking for the first
time at this year’s SXSW. Rather than every
state presenting on its own they will join forces. The collective appearance will increase the
chances of getting noticed. In addition to the
joint event “Lunch With The Germans” (see p.
26) there will be a convention booth. The project is sponsored with funding from the Federal
Ministry of Economics and Technology.
Get Well Soon
Konstantin Gropper’s (photo) debut album “...
Get Well Soon” has caused a real hype. Rarely
does a new German artist receive such a warm
welcome from our European neighbours. His
upcoming sophomore album “Vexations”, with
funding from Initiative Musik, deals with Greek
philosophers, German film directors and the
topic of death.
Von Spar
This band, that was named after a tram stop
in Cologne, can look back at a lively history.
When the band was founded in 2003 its style
was molded after an eclectic electro punk as
perfected by the grand masters of German
punk, Die Goldenen Zitronen. But over time
the band began to follow the path of krautrock, but not without losing sight of dancegroove. They are currently putting on the
finishing touches on their new album, which
will be released on Berlin label Italic in April
of 2010.
Dialogue Forum China
This project is meant to tap into China as a future market for German artists and companies.
A first step was taken in 2008 and 2009, when
a number of German artists performed in cities
like Shanghai, Beijing or Wuhan. First positive
results: Licensing agreements with the Shanghai Synergy Culture and Entertainment Group.
European Music Office
The EMO is an international non-profit organization that represents the interests of European collecting societies and export offices in
Brussels. It mentors, initiates or supports various projects, among them the ETEP-European
Talent Exchange program and the European
Border Breaker Awards. Initiative Musik is one
of EMO’s members, along with 15 other export
offices: Dieter Grony, chairman of the Initiative
Musik, was appointed president of EMO.
Wunderbar
war es …
Watch out for German music
at SXSW 2011