Ausverkauft: Week-End Fest

Dawuna / Laraaji / Dumbo Tracks / Bridget St John / Jessica Pratt / Nicky Siano

Over the past 13 years, the Cologne Week-End Fest has repeatedly provided all visitors with unforgettable experiences. International artists have performed at the boutique festival, which has become known for its lovingly curated program and the projects initiated especially for the event. Names such as The Sun Ra Arkestra, Arthur Verocai, Joyce Moreno, Nu Genea, Gilberto Gil, Mulatu Astatke, Caterina Barbieri, Suzanne Ciani and Laurel Halo have performed at the festival, and the list of other luminaries who have taken part is too long to list here.

Week-End Fest's forward-thinking program has always been good for surprises, and this year promises to be no exception. The festival takes place from October 31 to November 2 at the Stadtgarten in Cologne and is another date you should mark in your calendar immediately.

The name Ian Mugerwa aka Dawuna has spread through the grapevine since the release of his debut album. Fortunately the internet is fertile ground for such word-of-mouth propaganda, so news of “Glass Lit Dream”’s charismatic take on R&B got round quicker than talk of the next hip restaurant. Two years later the world could finally get its hands on a record, which secured even more new fans. Ever since, critics have agreed: this is someone who is really venturing into new territories. Dawuna sings super intimately, approachable, in warm embraces, over intricate tracks of collage-like samples, synthetic beats, mysterious synths and multifarious sounds. It booms, drones and stutters—Dawuna is THE great hope for R&B.

The haze of the 2010s patchouli revival may have dispersed, and many records have long since exceeded their half-life, but New Age is still alive and kicking. In any case, Laraaji Venus Nadabrahmananda has proven for over 40 years that it’s actually possible to create a cosy and warm place amongst shimmering psychedelic notes. Back then the New Yorker discovered an autoharp in a second-hand shop and became fascinated by its long sustained chords in open pentatonics—all in a natural flow. Whether on the harp, the zither or lamellophones, Laraaji has long been a legend of New Age and is proof that, in the right hands, psychedelic music is still radical and resistant!

Philipp Janzen is back on the Week-End stage—and that’s reason enough to celebrate. Twelve years ago he reimagined “Ege Bamyasi” with his band Von Spar and the indie god Stephen Malkmus. This time it’s all about his solo moniker, Dumbo Tracks. Although “solo” doesn’t really cut it. Janzen has once again invited a whole series of guests on board for his second LP as Dumbo Tracks, “Move With Intention.” Here, old acquaintances (Ada, Portable) and new friends (Smile singer Rubee Fegan and producer Julian Stetter) come together in order to make Janzen’s vision of ambitious and reference-rich pop music a reality.

The perfect discovery does exist: “The sweet spot between Nico, Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan” is what one Youtube user wrote ten years ago about a performance by the British singer-songwriter Bridget St John. References that are both tasteful and accurate: St John’s alto gives the songs, which she writes herself, the gravitas required for dark odes to the psychological and physical quality of love. This is folk that is far from traditional, but rather reminds us of the difficulty of life in the here and now. Despite being John Peel’s favourite singer, she was largely ignored in Germany: her performance at Week-End Fest will be St John’s first official concert here. She is also this year’s artist in residence.

Whether on a rainy Sunday in Cologne-Ehrenfeld or on the legendary stage of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—Jessica Pratt is never fazed. Quite the opposite: she captivates any audience with her unique and extraordinary timbre. We are drawn into her song cosmos, where she wraps us around her fingers, which then strum the strings of her guitar with nonchalance and warmth. Pratt’s songwriting is as reminiscent of Sibylle Baier’s rediscovered work as it is of Joni Mitchell and other icons between Los Angeles and New York. On her latest record, “Here in the Pitch,” she moves into the widescreen domain of the cinematic and theatrical for the first time—and of course it works wonderfully.

It’s beyond doubt: never again will a disco achieve a reputation like that of Studio 54. It was THE venue of excess and debauchery for New York high society. The music came from very special DJs who knew how to connect the Hi-NRG of New Year’s Eve with the sex of Donna Summer. While the others freshened up, “powdering their noses,” Nicky Siano spun the right sounds. And this wasn’t his first hit: at just 17 the New Yorker opened the equally legendary club “The Gallery,” where Grace Jones is believed to have begun her career and people such as Frankie Knuckles learnt to DJ from Siano. With his exclusive DJ set at Week-End Fest he will show us exactly what disco meant back then.