KCRW Berlin: Amplified

Brisbane-born Michael Brinkworth draws inspiration from Bob Dylan, Neil Young and from the city he now calls home, Berlin, “this weird halfway house that I ended up in.” The 33-year-old traveled the globe before settling down here six years ago. (Originally aired July 11, 2020)

We feature indie-rock musician Ian Tilling. The 35-year-old Brit moved to Berlin in 2016. After joining and leaving a number of bands, he started his solo project Grief Scene a year ago. Next month, Tilling will release his debut album titled "Bad Times." (Originally aired Oct. 17, 2020)

Martha Rose, a U.K.-born, Berlin-based musician, just released her second full-length album titled “Undress & Dive After.” The 33-year-old multi-instrumentalist talks with us about her songwriting process, what her grandparents have to do with it and what’s behind her intriguing album title. (Originally aired Aug. 8, 2020)

We spoke with Michael Culme-Seymour — aka Marlais — about his love of folk music and his life in Berlin. (Originally aired Sept. 28, 2020)

Musician and producer James Chatburn moved to Berlin in 2015. The 29-year-old toured with well-known alternative R&B artists like Jordan Rakei and the L.A. band The Internet. One of his big idols is American soul legend Donny Hathaway. We caught up with the Australian to talk about his debut release "Faible Teil 1."

In this episode of Leitmotifs, host Fredrika Brillembourg talks with pianist and conductor Benjamin Hochman. He has performed in major cities and festivals around the world, both as a soloist and chamber musician. Currently, Hochman is a research associate with Bard College Berlin and concert curator for the American Academy. Fredrika spoke with him about Mozart and Hochman's approach to music.

Jazzfest Berlin has a long tradition in the city. It's been a platform for musicians from around the world since 1964. This year, the four-day festival is scheduled to kick off on Nov. 5 with a focus on the jazz scenes in Berlin and New York. We spoke with Nadin Deventer, the artistic director of the festival about what to expect from this special pandemic edition of Jazzfest Berlin.

We feature indie-rock musician Ian Tilling. The 35-year-old Brit moved to Berlin in 2016. After joining and leaving a number of bands, he started his solo project Grief Scene a year ago. Next month, Tilling will release his debut album titled "Bad Times."

We spoke with Michael Culme-Seymour — aka Marlais — about his love of folk music and his life in Berlin.

Angelica Ranåsen and Jacob Fagerstål are the Swedish pop duo Juno Francis. They teamed up in Berlin a couple of years ago to work on their vision of psychedelic 60s and 80s pop.

Tricky just released his 14th studio album, “Fall To Pieces.” On most of the new tracks, the Berlin-based artist is joined by Marta Złakowska, a vocalist whom he discovered on a European tour.

hear now berlin is a chamber group that plays works by contemporary composers. Inspired by the music she loves playing and hearing, the sextet’s founder and flutist, Kelly Watson Woelffer, searched for five musicians who shared her vision: a violist from Australia, a cellist from New Zealand, and a trumpeter, violinist and clarinetist from Germany.

Candice Gordon is the new cultural officer at the Irish Embassy in Berlin. The musician is known well beyond Berlin’s music scene for her haunting voice and prolific lyrics.

Szabolcs Bognar, better known as Àbáse, is a Berlin-based producer and multi-instrumentalist who is playing at this year’s XJAZZ open air festival.

Martha Rose, a U.K.-born, Berlin-based musician, just released her second full-length album titled “Undress & Dive After.” The 33-year-old multi-instrumentalist talks with us about her songwriting process, what her grandparents have to do with it, and what’s behind her intriguing album title.

Back in March when all the music clubs closed in Berlin, big band leader Andrej Hermlin made a promise: to keep on performing as long as the coronavirus pandemic restricts our lives.

Berlin-based composer Sam Auinger describes himself as a “sonic thinker.” The 64-year-old Austrian has spent decades exploring sound and perception in public places. Auinger’s current project is a sound installation with his long-time collaborator Hannes Strobl.

Brisbane-born Michael Brinkworth draws inspiration from Bob Dylan, Neil Young and from the city he now calls home, Berlin, “this weird halfway house that I ended up in.” The 33-year-old traveled the globe before settling down here six years ago.

We caught up again with New Zealand-born soul singer and producer Noah Slee. The musician just released the single, “Here For It All.” It comes after his EP, “TWICE,” and his breakthrough debut album “Otherland.”

Derya Yildirim is a multi-instrumentalist, but her favorite is the Turkish lute called the “Bağlama.” Usually, the 26-year-old performs with her band, Grup Şimşek, but more recently, she’s played on her own. We caught up with the 26-year-old in France, where she is reuniting with her band to write new material.

Musician Finn Ronsdorf is releasing his first EP, “Odes,” on June 12. We talk with the 21-year-old singer-songwriter about his early musical influences and what it takes to write a love song. He says the key is “really just being very much in the moment.”

Brodie White loves to teach guitar and audio production to kids. So when the schools were closed, the 35-year-old had a lot of time on his hands, so he came up with a special lesson for his students: a hygiene rules rap for kids.

German-born Robot Koch is dropping his new record “The Next Billion Years” on May 29. Ahead of the release, we spoke to the L.A.-based artist, producer and composer about why late French conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteau inspired him to make the album.

With concerts and festivals canceled, artists are struggling to make ends meet.London-based label Ransom Note came up with a novel idea to generate some much needed cash for music makers. They invited a number of artists — among them, KCRW Berlin’s Moderna — to contribute to a compilation album by collaborating remotely on original tracks in just 10 days.

We’ve all seen footage of people taking to their balconies to sing and play instruments together amid the coronavirus lockdown. But why is that?We’ve all seen footage of people taking to their balconies to sing and play instruments together amid the coronavirus lockdown. But why is that? Gunter Kreutz, who teaches at the University of Oldenburg, has published a book on the mental health benefits of singing, among other things.

Berlin’s clubs were forced to shut this month to help contain the coronavirus outbreak. With Berliners deprived of their beloved music venues, and clubs missing out on vital revenue, Clubcommission and Reclaim Club Culture launched the United We Stream platform.

This year marks 250 years since the birth of one of the most renowned composers of all time, Ludwig van Beethoven. Germany has poured 27 million euros into marking the occasion, and there are a number of events happening here in Berlin, including Labor Beethoven 2020, which is a contemporary reading of the work of Beethoven.

We sat down with Johnny “Jacho” Bottrop and Bene Diktator from Berlin punk band Acht Eimer Hühnerherzen, which translates to “eight buckets of chicken hearts.” They explained the meaning of their unusual band name and why coming up with song lyrics should take 30 minutes tops.

On Feb. 27, 1920, Berlin saw the premiere of the psychological thriller, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” Today, it’s considered a quintessential film of German Expressionism. But a century ago, a mismatched score nearly cost the film its audience.

Opera Lab Berlin’s upcoming premiere of “ODYSSEY: Dead Men Die” promises a “an apocalyptic journey” encompassing Homer, James Joyce and Hollywood.

Jackson Dyer is an Australian singer-songwriter and producer, based in Berlin. His debut album, “Inlet,” was released on November 15, 2019.

We met up with DJ and producer Shed, aka René Pawlowitz, following the November 29 release of his fifth studio album “Oderbruch” on Berghain’s label Ostgut Ton.

5K HD is a Vienna-based avant-garde electro pop band tired of sticking to musical conventions. We met up with lead singer Mira Lu Kovacs to find out about the band’s jazz influences and passion for experimenting with sound and improvisation.

Ishmael Ensemble is a Bristol-based ambient-jazz-electronica outfit that defies being pigeonholed into only one genre. We sat down with band leader Pete Cunningham and bassist Jake Spurgeon to talk about what inspires them musically and why they love playing in Berlin.

Berlin-based garage pop band Gurr write songs about anxiety, what it means to be a strong woman, and, of course, love.

We spoke with Keith Duncan and Johannes von Weizsäcker, two members of The Chap. The band, who has challenged themselves in recent years to release a series of concept albums which push them beyond their comfort zone, shares some thoughts on their tenure together.

The 21-year-old Berlin singer-songwriter Tara Nome-Doyle walks us through her songwriting process and the first song she wrote at the age of 11, the musical impact of growing up in a Norwegian-Irish family, and her first EP, “Milk and Honey” which was released in 2018.

German musician Delhia de France likes drawing from Greek mythology to create her music. She’s particularly fascinated with goddesses.

Rising Appalachia is a band founded by two sisters, Leah and Chloe Smith. With links to social and environmental activism, the folk duo from Atlanta, Georgia, look for harmony in the music they create and the places they go.

Thirty years ago today, the Loveparade started in Berlin with a couple handfuls of people dancing to acid house music along Kurfürstendamm. We caught up with the founder, Dr. Motte, to learn more.

We sat down with JJ Weihl, one of the founders of Berlin-based band Fenster, to talk about their latest album, “The Room,” and past projects. From creating a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist to tracking an entire album live while in the Tuscan countryside, Weihl gives us insight into the band’s creative process.

We spoke with soprano Christina Harslem to learn more about the rewards and challenges of performing as a street musician.

Maryama Luccioni is the founder of African Acid Is The Future, a Berlin-based music collective that hosts concerts and radio shows, and has put out an LP titled Ambiance I.

We caught up with musician Diane Weigmann. Born and raised in Berlin, Weigmann was once a member of the all-female pop band the Lemonbabies.

violinist Daniel Weltlinger’s latest album, “Szolnok,” tells the story of his grandfather — who fled Europe during the war, violin in tow, before ending up in Australia — and how Weltlinger came to own and play that violin decades later.

“The only good system is a sound system” is an adage known among music heads and audio nerds. It’s also the name of a festival in Berlin designed to explore the sounds and politics of bass music.

Artist February Montaine mysteriously disappeared from his Derbyshire, England home in 1991. He left behind a substantial collection of journals and homemade tapes, which became cherished by his stepdaughter Suzy. She passed her stepfather’s work onto Berlin-based musician and producer Sam Potter, who spent years weaving these remnants together.

Who are the buskers sharing their music on the streets of Berlin? We caught up with Ukrainian music students and violin and accordion duo Igor and Anton to find out more about their world.

It was August 2018 when Kelly Watson Woelffer, a Berlin-based flutist originally from the U.S., heard “Music in Circles” by American composer Andrew Norman and something in her ignited. From this inspiration, the chamber group hear now berlin, a sextet that challenges classical music paradigms, was born.

How should we care for sound archives in the digital age? It’s a question that Detlef Diederichsen, head of music and performing arts at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, has considered for more than 10 years — so much so that he created Find the File, a festival at the HKW, to explore big-picture questions about music digitalization.

Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra is made up of 18 musicians from a wide variety of musical backgrounds, who all share a dedication to experimentation. They typically meet to rehearse and improvise together about once every month.