MOJO CLUB - 21:30-22:30
09/20/2024 - SPIELBUDE - 13:45 – 14:15 ‍

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Pop /Indie

Benjamin Amaru's musical repertoire revolves around the desire for constant development. Money, fame, trends - none of this matters to the travelling troubadour from Switzerland. As he says himself, he spent ten years seeking his sound. When his debut single "Water Falls" hit the airwaves in 2018, Amaru already had the defiant honesty to openly explain the development of his own art to his listeners. Without a label, with no PR agency behind him, just relying on word of mouth, the singer-songwriter has transformed himself over the last few years into a poet, mastering soulful ballads as well as subtle folk excursions and euphoric summer pop. The very personal and the universally relevant often intertwine in his songs, gaining in meaning and yet shedding their heaviness. This is another factor explaining his deft touch for unusual arrangements, melodic swings or stylistically confident changes that turn every release into a new step in a never-ending transformation. It is rare for art and artists to merge as openly and honestly as is the case here.

SPIELBUDE - 14:55 – 15:25
STAGE 15 - 23:15 – 00:15

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Pop / Indie

From 2021's impressive "Gun To My Head" to last year's follow-up single "Love The Game", a lot's b has happened in Leila's life. She joined Bern-based pop band Jeans For Jesus as a bassist, picking up experience and building her on-stage confidence. Live concerts followed, where she also created new versions of her own songs. Pop and punk go hand in hand in both projects. In November last year, the first EP "Burnout" was released, which sees Leila hit the nail on the head with her attitude to life for the new twenties. Another club tour followed and the single "Blue" convinced even the remaining doubters that here we have an independent artist with a well-formulated sound design who has no need to use clichés to make her mark on the local music scene. Her premiere with us is the next step towards a promising future.

PRINZENBAR - 22:40 - 23:40
09/20/2024 - SPIELBUDE - 16:05 – 16:35

Electronic/Live - Hip-Hop/Rap

Nathalie Froehlich has found her way out of the haze of sweaty club nights and onto the big stages: She is now a master of ceremony, singing and rapping over house grooves and techno beats, breaking conventions and reckoning with the system. The business administration graduate gained experience in this respect not only at university, but also at her friends’ semi-legal raves, which socialised her both musically and politically. The autonomous music scene in Lausanne has been an anchor point for the Swiss artist ever since, with feminist and socially critical lyrics set to danceable rhythms via the chosen modus operandi. Tracks of the calibre of “Virtuosi” and “Alcool” impressively demonstrate that her music is more than just works – something completely new is being created here. When the techno rapper goes into full swing live, you’d better buckle up! Then, it’s lights out, rave on.

SPIELBUDE - 17:10 – 17:50

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Indie / Pop

A trio of art lovers from Switzerland redefining avant-pop: Monte Mai, aka singer Anaïs Schmidt, singer and guitar wizard Fabio Pinto and groove purveyor Fabio Besomi on bass. The threesome celebrate the marriage of transcultural song material between psychedelic rock, French electro, British trip-hop and assorted ingredients somewhere beyond all that - a creation that’s quite hard to grasp. The debut album "Eye Sea Double" (2023) was also adorned with unconventional production methods resulting in no two tracks sounding the same. Lascivious melodies snuggle up to raw drum tracks, seducing listeners with sparkling effects and the self-assurance of a band that has already found, established and formulated its style. Anyone still not convinced that one of the most exciting band projects from the picturesque Alpine country is stepping onto the European music scene should listen to their latest single "Japanese Girl" and then book a trip to Hamburg. The hype will come - trust us.

SPIELBUDE - 18:25 – 19:05

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Indie / Rock

The claims made in many places down the years about various rock styles were also true of shoegaze for a long time: the introverted, dreamy sub-genre from the 90s was thought by most to be slipping into a tired, smiling death. But those days are over, thanks partly to Moonpools. The five-piece band from Basel, Switzerland, are transcribing the intoxicating walls of sound by bands such as My Bloody Valentine and the surreal grace of the Cocteau Twins into the here and now. Musically streamlined, in other words stripped down to the essentials, the Moonpools endow their songs with all the ingredients needed for a modern shoegazy sound with dream-pop sprinkles. Yet they forgo over-the-top production quality so as to evoke an authentic, delicately washed-out, slightly rough mind movie in the audience’s heads. It's a recipe that worked brilliantly on the debut EP "Damaged Goods" (2022). With their second studio release "Hide And Seek" (2024) though, the band will be showing their creative energy even more impressively this year, including how to present it all live when they perform for us in September.

SPIELBUDE - 19:40 – 20:20

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Electronic/Live - Punk

Three years back, Rebecca Solari and Pascal Stoll tore through the Swiss music scene like a landslide, leaving a trail of smouldering devastation in their wake. As crème solaire, the duo from the Swiss town of Fribourg not only create superbly versatile club tracks that urge you to go wild and are as unpredictable as the mountain-peak weather. No, their signature sound is also consistent and high-energy, despite the manifold influences, making your limbs quiver and your head spin. It was one thing for them to pull off this feat with absurd precision track after track on their debut "Pannenstreifen ist ohne Pic-Nic" (2021). But even their most ardent fans never foresaw them perfecting their approach with this year's follow-up "Cemento" (2024) and cementing their reputation as consummate professionals of physical excess. Electroclash and synth-punk are fuelled, expanded and shot through a post-modern sound filter in the light of gabber, art pop and hard dance, making this duo an utterly unique live experience. Not to be missed.

SPIELBUDE - 20:55 – 21:35

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Singer-Songwriter / Rock

It’s a mixture of poetry and storytelling that turns Ella Ronen’s art into a kind of ceremony. The Zurich musician creates delicately arranged folk-pop with depth, sometimes with the will to deal with dark themes in an unconventional way. This is the case on her fourth studio album, “The Girl With No Skin”, which was released this year and once again proves Ronen to be a stylistically confident songwriter and singer with an unmistakable timbre. While she sings of a poet who became violent towards her in the song “Truth”, her song “I just want to see you” is about the state of a deep love affair that is about to end. With an extraordinary feel for the right words and melodies, for the interpersonal and the meaning between the lines, the Doctor of Literature traces worlds of thought that seem as intimate as they are universal. Her audiences have appreciated this for years, which is evident time and again at Ronen’s concerts.

SPIELBUDE - 22:10 – 22:50

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Indie / Pop

Unlike many of her peers, Tiffany Athena Limacher consciously draws inspiration from the past to analyse, reflect on and interpret the present in detail in her art. Lyrically and musically, she hits a nerve that few even realise exist. The singer with the elfin tones shows a distinct soft spot for string instruments of every persuasion, but also has an eye for social and personal topics beyond the mainstream. Raised in a family of violin makers, grown up with classical music as well as the synth sound of the 80s, she uses these eclectic artistic affinities to create an idiosyncratic style combining chamber pop, melancholic poetry, folk songwriting and lyrics in English and the Swiss-German dialect. With their latest album "The Movie" (2023), To Athena once again prove that their meticulously composed pieces sound as timeless as they do cinematic, while managing to successfully sidestep linguistic tangibility.

SOMMERSALON - 18:45 - 19:15

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Pop / Singer-Songwriter

With her guitar and voice, Melanie Danuser creates poetry for the turmoil of everyday life, often hitting notes that others search for in vain. The singer–songwriter from Graubünden is no stranger to the music scene in her homeland. And she’s been that way for years. She first appeared in 2021 as one-half of the electronic duo Mischgewebe, and together with bandmate Bill Bühler, she created dark, murmuring dream-pop songs that rise up between wafts of fog and machine rooms. She then brought her experiences from that time into her solo work, which is much more reduced and completely acoustic. Almost by chance, Mel D developed her qualities as a singer, songwriter, and poet who knows how to inspire her audience with an intimate performance full of life and passion. And because her solo premiere with us is sure to be nothing less than highly emotional, tissues are highly recommended.

BAHNHOF PAULI - 21:50 - 22:50
09/19/2024 - MOONDO - 19:50-20:50

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Pop /Indie

From her first appearances on The Voice Of Germany to singles such as “Good Girl Killer”, it’s been a wild ride for Paula Dalla Corte. She was signed to Universal in her early 20s and then moved to LA for a few months to find her own sound. Paula went wild, gained experience, and quickly realised that she didn’t want to always be “the girl from The Voice”. Her move to Berlin also changed her musical ambitions. Her new single, “Bite Me”, released in February 2024, is a shining example of this change and comes across as retro-romantic indie pop with a black and white aesthetic. Reminiscences of the artful releases of Lana Del Rey certainly don’t shimmer through the sound by chance, but Paula Dalla Corte is on her own path with her smoky and melodramatic style.

ANGIE'S - 00:15 - 01:00

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Pop /Indie

Edb knows all about the ups and downs of life. The singer–songwriter from Bern creates quasi-biographical narratives with his music, which can deal with the longing for love as well as with the major hurdles that lie on the path to self-acceptance. With his debut EP, “City Boy”, which was released this spring, the songwriter – also known to his peers as Eddy – delivers an enormously successful soundtrack for the coming-of-age film we call life. With the reassurance that everything is somehow all right the way it is, Edb provides comfort in an increasingly bleak world. Dialectical lyrics, danceable upbeat melodies, and genre collages of rock, rap, and pop come together with this thoroughbred musician and reveal parts of a soul that has a hell of a lot to tell.