Künstler 2015: Lyrikmarkt

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird (c) Yoni Goldstein

Daniel Kahn was born in 1978 in Detroit. Since studying theatre and music he has lived and worked in New Orleans, Detroit, New York and Ann Arbor and has made a name for himself as a bar pianist, at bluegrass jams and punk circus parades, and as a director and actor.

In 2005 he formed the Klezmer band The Painted Bird in Berlin. The group has released four albums on the renowned Berlin label Oriente Musik. They play what Kahn calls “distorted Klezmer”, a mix of Klezmer, radical Yiddish songs, political cabaret and punk-folk. The texts are partly written by Kahn, but are often adaptations of poems and songs by Jewish writers. He sings in English, German and Yiddish, often mixing several languages within the same song.

“Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird are for Klezmer what the Pogues were for Folk. They ramp up the dance music of the Eastern European shtetl with a good dose of Punk,” as Volker Schmidt wrote on ZEIT.de. And, “He's like the Jewish Bob Dylan!”, one very old lady is supposed to have said at one of his concerts, and she should know.

Discography:
The Broken Tongue (2006, Chamsa Records; 2009, Oriente Musik)
Partisans & Parasites (2009, Oriente Musik)
Lost Causes (2010, Oriente Musik)
Bad Old Songs (2012, Oriente Musik)

Bernd Begemann & die Befreiung

Bernd Begemann & die Befreiung (c) Sven Sindt

Bernd Begemann is living proof that something exists in Germany that is neither Schlager nor Indie Rock, but both – and of course neither.

Begemann is, if you will, the outsider of the Hamburg School. He does not do discourse pop, but is a working man of Rock'n'Roll, a king of the underprivileged. His songs are seldom about glamour; one is tempted to say that they are populated by – real people. Deep pathos can arise for Begemann on the sofa in front of the TV, great love in a VW van between Hamburg Bergedorf and Hanover Langenhagen.

Bernd Begemann was born in 1962 in Bad Salzuflen, East Westphalia. He had his first successes with his band Die Antwort. Since that combo broke up he has been touring the German club scene as a one-man show and with his band Die Befreiung. Wonderful albums put in a regular appearance. Begemann has also presented TV shows and acted in films and reviews cinema productions in podcasts.

“No-one in this land makes his electric guitar sing and his Fender amp sound so good,” says Thees Uhlmann. “Bernd Begemann does not have Blues and Soul, Bernd Begemann IS Blues and Soul. … As long as this man is singing and performing, there is no way the world is lost.”


Discography (a selection):
Rezession, Baby – BERND BEGEMANN, 1993
Solange die Rasenmäher singen – BERND BEGEMANN, 1994
Sag Hallo zur Hölle – BERND BEGEMANN, 2000
Unsere Liebe ist ein Aufstand – BERND BEGEMANN & DIE BEFREIUNG, 2004
Ich werde sie finden – BERND BEGEMANN, 2006  
Glanz – BERND BEGEMANN & DIE BEFREIUNG, 2008
Ich erkläre diese Krise für beendet – BERND BEGEMANN & DIE BEFREIUNG, 2009  
So geht das jede Nacht – BERND BEGEMANN & DIRK DARMSTAEDTER, 2010
Wilde Brombeeren – BERND BEGEMANN & DIE BEFREIUNG, 2011
Der brennende Junge – Die beliebtesten Lieder aus 25 Jahren – BERND BEGEMANN, 2012

Dota Kehr

Dota (c) Sandra Ludewig

Dota Kehr comes from Berlin and is also known as the ‘Princess of Small Change’, a tag she brought back from travelling the world as a street musician. Her songs sound like Bossa Nova and pocket Swing, like Reggae and Surf-Rock, and her lyrics tell stories about social conditions in the glasshouse and love as a bonbon – sweet and constantly dissolving – with lightness and a witty way with words.

Dota’s first CD came out in 2003, self-produced and on her own label, Kleingeldprinzessin Records. It attracted some attention and appearances on radio and television followed. In 2011 she was awarded the German Cabaret Prize. In 2003 she recorded an album in Brazil with Danilo Guilherme. In 2006 she was invited by the Goethe Institute to go to Russia, in 2009 to New Zealand and in 2010 to Central Asia. Another CD followed, produced in 2007 in São Paulo, with a tour through Brazil, where a compilation was released on the label of musician Chico César.

“Dota sets criticism of consumerism and yearning to music with more poetry than almost anybody in the German-language music business,” wrote the ZEIT newspaper, “as tenderly, wittily and socially critical as Tucholsky in the Twenties.”

Dota will be appearing at the Poetry Market as a duo with her guitarist Jan Rohrbach.

Discography:
Die Kleingeldprinzessin (Berlin, 2003)
Mittelinselurlaub – Perto da Estrada (Fortaleza, 2003)
Taschentöne live (Berlin, 2004)
Blech und Plastik (Berlin, 2005)
Immer nur Rosinen (Berlin, 2006)
In anderen Räumen (Berlin, 2008)
Schall und Schatten – som e sombra (São Paulo, 2009)
Bis auf den Grund (Berlin 2010)
Dota solo live (Berlin 2011)
Das große Leuchten (Berlin 2011)
Wo soll ich suchen (Berlin 2013)