Swiss Music Prize 2019 Award Ceremony

Sponsored by the Bundesamt für Kultur und Musik, the Swiss government’s arts department, the Swiss Music Prize is Switzerland’s most prestigious music award, celebrating exceptional and innovative – though not necessarily commercially successful – work. Choosing from an extensive long-list of nominations, a jury of seven experts selects fourteen artists to receive CHF 25’000 each as well as one overall winner who walks away with a cheque for a cool CHF 100’000.- The award ceremony takes place on 20 September 2019 at the Kunstmuseum Basel.

This year’s overall winners are Cod.Act, aka brothers André and Michel Décosterd. Since their beginnings in 1997, Cod.Act have been creating pioneering work combining algorithmic and programmed composition with electronic sound and kinetic installations. Amongst many other awards, they have won the Golden Nica at Ars Elecronica Linz as well as three main awards at the Japan Media Arts Festival.

Amongst the other winners is an old SME favourite, rapper KT Gorique. Born in 1991 in Abidjan, she was already a keen rhymer when she arrived in Switzerland in 2002. Establishing herself as one of the most innovative, musically gifted and wittiest voices on the circuit, she became a household name in Swiss hip-hop when she was still a teenager. In 2012, she became the first woman and the first Swiss to win the “End of the Weak” rap battle in New York. Since then, she has toured the world, combining her musical skills with dance, theatre and film. Other winners are the ground-breaking veteran drummer/percussionist Pierre Favre, Les Reines Prochaines, a group of female multimedia artists in the experimental tradition of Recommended Records (Pipilotti Rist was an early member), and bassist/composer Björn Meyer, once part of Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin.

Swiss Music Prize
Swiss Music Prize Winners
Cod.Act
KT Gorique
Pierre Favre
Les Reines Prochaines
Björn Meyer