Jan Müller / Rasmus Engler / Robert Stadlober / Swutscher
Hamburg, 1994: »Vorglühen« auf St. Pauli – Harbour Front Sounds
Rock-Geschichten vom Kiez
In their first joint novel, »Vorglühen«, Jan Müller (Tocotronic) and Rasmus Engler (Herrenmagazin, Ludger, Little Whirls) carry us off to Hamburg in the mid-90s: to St.Pauli with its bars, concerts and clubs, and to a special flatshare. Albert Bremer has just moved from a provincial Rhineland backwater to Hamburg, and he finds himself in St. Pauli in the middle of a crazy night. He drinks apricot schnapps and countless beers, runs into a terrific woman and the wildest bunch of guys he has ever met. And in the space of a few hours he makes some new friends, finds a room in a flatshare and a band to play in. A Hamburg story, as intense as a night spent partying.
The sounds of the evening and humorous antitheses to the bourgeois milieu are supplied by Swutscher, a six-man band from the north of Germany: Jan Müller is a fan of theirs. He says of Swutscher and their guitarist and singer-songwriter Sascha Utech: »Their music is a really vivid mixture of indie, country, rock and folk. Sascha’s lyrics, which he sings with a voice sometimes rasping, sometimes fragile and soft, are either full of excess and appeals, or melancholy, or bitingly political.
Rasmus Engler plays percussion and the guitar in various bands (e.g. Herrenmagazin, Ludger). He was editor of the fanzine »Die tobende Mumie«, writes for several magazines, and works at »Uebel & Gefährlich«. Hamburg native Jan Müller has played the bass in the rock band Tocotronic since it was founded in 1993, and runs the popular interview podcast »Reflektor«.
Performers
Jan Müller reading
Rasmus Engler reading
Robert Stadlober talk
Swutscher band
Festival
Harbour Front Sounds