Despite the current tense situation, we are hopeful that the pandemic situation will have calmed down by spring and that the festival will be able to take place in physical formagain. In the meantime, all acts for the festival Thursday and Friday have been determined and can be viewed on our website – and at this point we will also tell you our absolute highlights:
Smart Birds & Bedroom Songs
The Festival Thursday
It starts with Buntspecht from Vienna. Assigning a genre to this music is virtually impossible. The sextet mixes numerous influences from swing, bossa nova, singer-songwriter, pop and Co., integrates several instruments, including classics as well as double bass, trumpet, melodica, flute and saxophone, like acoustically, but also amplifies and texts all this with smart thoughts, which, by the way, are performed completely Viennese-infamy-free. There is only one thing that helps: Look at it! Another highlight we expect from the performance of the singer Eugénie. The Frenchwoman has long since made a name for herself in the music industry – whether with her fascinating voice, her incredible stage presence or her exciting cover versions. Conclusion: Dancing! The project Smoothboi Ezra offers the exact counter-program to both acts: It oscillates somewhere between Phoebe Bridgers and Ariel Pink. The non-binary musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist writes super sweet bedroom pop songs that move musically and above all lyrically far away from the mainstream. Also new to the Thursday lineup are Keep Dancing Inc and Takeshi’s Cashew.
Also for the shows on Friday there are grandiose new confirmations: For example, fascinating neo-soul sounds of May The Muse somewhere between fragile and powerful. The songs of the Berlin-based artist, who has already worked with greats such as Chefket, Moderat, Robot Koch and Parra For Cuva, are sometimes accompanied by soft piano tones and then again wrapped in dark electric robes. The numerous live performances of L’Eclair from Geneva, on the other hand, transform even the most grumpy movement dyslexics into a dance-willing mob – thanks to cosmic future jazz psychedelic with borrowings from Krautrock! In addition, LEEPA, 24/7 Diva Heaven, M. Byrd, Roller Derby, Donkey Kid, WEZN, The Haunted Youth and Cosma Joyplay on the festival Friday.
The rapper, producer, label operator, author, restaurateur and entrepreneur XATAR is an integral part of the German rap game. His incredible life story from gangster to prisoner and rap superstar has just been filmed by Fatih Akin. In its keynote speech on the podium of the c/o pop Convention, XATAR also reports on its latest project: a creative factory called Goldmann Tower on Cologne’s Barbarossaplatz.
Also this year we are super happy to have competent cooperation partners on board for the convention with the VUT (Association of Independent Music Companies) and TINCON.
Finally, it gets sad again: The tickets for the opening concert of Bilderbuch in the Philharmonie were out of stock. But just have a look at the Thursday or Friday program on our brand new homepage – here you are guaranteed to find a worthy replacement concert!
