Eurosonic with Eight Acts from Switzerland! 11 – 14 January 2017, Groningen Netherlands
Is there a better way to celebrate the start of another great – we hope! – music year than a trip to the Netherlands and the Eurosonic conference/festival in Groningen? We at Swiss Music Export don’t think so. The Eurosonic is without a doubt the one of the most important event the European live music industry has to offer. And this time round, no fewer than eight Swiss acts will be partying with us. These are Buvette, Mario Batkovic, Ursina, Yes I’m Very Tired Now, Faber, FlexFab, Damian Lynn and Me + Marie.
With more than 350 showcase performances taking place in 42 venues and a conference attracting 4124 delegates and 424 international festivals from 40 countries to a programme of 175 panels, keynote speeches, workshops and networking events, last year’s 30th anniversary edition of Eurosonic was the most successful and productive yet. This year’s event promises to surpass even that high mark. As it is the first gathering of this sort in the year, it is the ideal shop window for professionals and artists alike to pick up markers for trends and artists who might achieve an international breakthrough in the following months. Ever ready with innovative concepts, the organisers for the first time this year have given over one whole day, the Saturday, to musicians, authors and composers to discuss their ideas in a series of dedicated panels and talks.
In its beginnings, the Noorderslag sought to provide a platform for bands from Holland and Belgium to reach an audience beyond the edges of their hometown. The festival went “European” in 1993, extending its reach at the same time by introducing a conference segment. A new name, Eurosonic, was introduced six years later when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) became involved. This year, 32 radio stations affiliated with the EBU will be broadcasting reports and live transmissions from Groningen. The radio stations involved from Switzerland are SRF3 (German) and Couleur 3 (French), both part of national public radio and television network. Each channel has selected one Swiss artist to help with a special support campaign. SRF3 is sponsoring the performance of Damian Lynn, and Couleur 3 that of FlexFab.
Not content with serving up a great festival, Eurosonic has launched a number of initiatives which have greatly improved communication between bands, promoters, festival organisers and other music business professionals across the whole of Europe. The most important such venture is the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), launched in 2003. Designed to facilitate communication about fresh acts in each territory ready to extend their feelers abroad, ETEP has generated 404 shows by 148 European artists from 27 different countries across the whole continent.
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Date: Wednesday 11 January
Venue: De Etage
Showtime: 20:45 – 21:30
Date: Thursday 12 January
Venue (new!): De Spieghel Upstairs
Showtime (new!): 20:00 – 20:45
Buvette – aka Cédric Streuli – released his second album of airily melodic electronica-based songs, “Elasticity”, in September. Channelling his early Brian Eno and Depeche Mode, Buvette’s songs combine a strong sense of melody with a fine ear for electronic textures and rhythms.
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Date: Wednesday 11 January
Venue: Der Aa-Kerk
Showtime: 23:00 – 23:45
Date: Thursday 12 January
Venue: Grand Theatre Up
Showtime: 23:45 – 00:25
The accordion is one of the most popular and yet misunderstood instruments in Switzerland. In recent years it has found its way in from a folkloric context into various other musical environments. Nobody plays the instrument quite like Mario Batkovic, however. Integrating clicks and breaths and other noises into his style, he refuses to acknowledge musical boxes. Performing in a variety of different line-ups (including Drü with the Reverend Beat Man!) and also composing music for film, Batkovic’s new solo album will be released in March by the Bristol-based Invada Records, run by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow.
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Date: Wednesday 11 January
Venue: Grand Theatre Up
Showtime: 23:45 – 00:25
Hailing from a village in the stunning mountains of Grisons in Eastern Switzerland, Ursina’s influences as a singer/songwriter range from Tom Waits to Efterklang, Feist and Ane Brun. If the mountains are also an influence, this might be reflected by the sense of calm and awe that her music exudes. Ursina performs with a four-piece band with herself on keyboards.
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Date: Thursday 12 January
Venue: De Spieghel (Up)
Showtime: 21:30 – 22:15
Yes I’m Very Tired Now is the brainchild of Marc Frischknecht from St. Gallen in the East of Switzerland. He writes and sings translucent and feather-light synth pop songs whose beautifully autumnal mood hangs in the air long after they have ended.
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Date: Thursday 12 January
Venue: USVA
Showtime: 22:00 – 22:40
No singer/songwriter from Switzerland since Sophie Hunger has captured the attention of audiences at home and abroad more swiftly than Faber. Still only 23 years old, he has already played far in excess of 300 shows both home and abroad. Faber’s strength are songs with lyrics that are full of unusual turns and twists, delivered with a soulfully rasping voice rarely heard in the context of acoustic guitars. His band, too, is unconventional, with its line-up of guitarist, bassist and a drumming trombonist.
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Date: Thursday 12 January
Venue: Mutua Fides
Showtime: 01:15 – 02:00
The turntable experimenter, beat maker, re-mixer and DJ FlexFab is a member of the Michigang hip-hop collective in Neuchatel as well as the Murmures Barbares music collective. Infused with a strong awareness of his music’s history, FlexFab’s pieces are located at a crossroad somewhere between electronica, deep house, beats and trap. His live shows, by the way, are utterly hypnotic in their intensity.
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Date: Friday 13 January
Venue: Praedinius Gymnasium
Showtime: 20:45 – 21:25
With his knack for writing catchy and yet thoughtful pop songs, Damian Lynn has gone from strength to strength ever since he abandoned the band he had grown up with and began to accompany himself with acoustic guitar and loops. His debut album, released in 2015, reached number 12 in the Swiss charts. A year later, Damian Lynn won the “Best Talent” award at the Swiss Music Awards.
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Date: Friday 13 January
Venue: USVA
Showtime: 22:00 – 22:40
Me + Marie are a kind of superduo consisting of drummer Maria Moling (aka Maria de Val of the South Tyrolian Ladin-chanson outfit Ganes) and guitarist Roland Scandella (aka Roland Vögtli from the Grisons-based rock band Nau). They rock – beautifully.
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Eurosonic
Buvette
Mario Batkovic
Ursina
Yes I’m Very Tired Now
Faber
FlexFab
Damian Lynn
Me + Marie
European Broadcasting Union
European Talent Exchange Programme
SRF3
Couleur 3
