Ghostpoet (UK) / Eartheater (USA) / Jungstötter (DE)

20:00 Jungstötter
21:15 Eartheater
22:15 Ghostpoet
after: Kia Mann (DJ Set)

Ghostpoet is the London musician and singer Obaro Ejimiwe. Accompanied by a four-piece band, he generates striking, often dramatically driving pop with broken drum beats, hypnotic guitar patterns, hip-hop reminiscences and electronic gimmicks. The most important element, however, is his unmistakable singing – or rather his melodic narrative voice, which carries, complements and drives the groove. The heaviness and density of single songs may remind you of Tricky, but Ghostpoet names Aphex Twin and Squarepusher as his influences. Of his four albums to date, two were nominated for the Mercury Price. He has played in Bern once before, at the short-lived En Vogue Festival within the walls of Dampfzentrale, where he gave a performance that many described as the concert of the year.

Eartheater is the solo project of Alexandra Drewchin from Queens. On her current album «IRISIRI» (Pan), she invigorates us with abstract pop, electronica, her three octaves vocal range, modular synthesiser and harp sounds. The trained composer with a penchant for performative live shows has created her own place in recent years in a field that is difficult to classify, somewhere between unusual experimental electronics and noisy pop songs interspersed with classical instruments. During her appearance at Dampfzentrale in October 2018, it soon became clear that sooner or later she would be heard on the Saint Ghetto stage. Great that it’s going to happen now, sooner rather than later.

Jungstötter, who is actually called Fabian Altstötter, was lead singer of the German indie pop band Sizarr. With his new project, he has been able to reach previously undreamed-of depths. Vocally the late twenty-something has matured as if 20 years had passed since the band broke up; Nick Cave, Scott Walker, David Sylvian and Anohni can clearly be recognised in his voice. The fact that he was taken along by Soap&Skin as a support act on this year’s tour gives an idea of the melancholic spheres in which his heavyhearted ballads, which he will perform with band in Bern, move. A real discovery!