The provocative cabaret songs of the golden twenties are the source of inspiration for the 23-year-old Berlin singer Elisa Schmidt and her band. With her smoky voice, she gives the dry jazz-rock arrangements a sexy gangster charm, which she herself calls ‘Pop Noir’. The ‘pop’ part expressing an intoxicating lust for life and a mature swing vibe and modern urbanity, all in the same breath. The ‘noir’ part is provided by her voice and the dark, sensual enigmas she sings about. One of her greatest hits so far was the song ‘Heart Shaped Gun’, which climbed up the German charts as the title song of the German crime show ‘Tatort’.

The songs of young singer Kyla La Grange from the British town of Watford are far from melancholy. She is the daughter of two hippies: her mother is from South Africa and her father is from Zimbabwe, and she was shaped by the openness of world culture and self-discovery. It is not surprising that she wrote her first songs at the age of five, ten years before she was given her first guitar. Kyla La Grange talks about being very shy in her childhood. She finally found her audience at the University of Cambridge when she was studying philosophy. The campus was full of open mic sessions, which influenced her sound and her songwriting. Kyla’s appearance is fascinating. She looks like a top model, has a smoky voice which is not sexy and sweet, but rather mysterious and haunting. She lets her folk songs grow into dark stories that hang in your heart like bats on the rafters of a fairy tale castle steeped in legend.

She’s done it all. Aimee Mann first played in a punk band, then a new wave band, before she became a singer-songwriter influenced by country music. In 1993, she released her solo debut ‘Whatever’, after which she was celebrated by the critics as a new female Paul McCartney. This woman from Richmond has the same instinct for simple, yet profound pop songs as the ex-Beatles songwriter. Inspite of the critical acclaim, Aimee’s label wanted her to write nice little songs for the masses, so she left and started her label ‘SuperEgo’. The record company must have been quite irked when, soon after, Aimee received an Oscar® nomination for the magical song ‘Save Me’, the title song of the film ‘Magnolia’. Since then, Aimee has achieved a kind of iconic status: The woman, who could already play all of Neil Young’s songs as a teenager, has developed into Young’s female counterpart: rough around the edges, but loveable and above all, a brilliant songwriter.

As a singer of the rock band The Frames, Glen Hansard was highly regarded in the indie scene. In the meantime, he performed in the classic movie ‘The Commitments’ as the band’s guitarist. Then he was awarded an Oscar® for the film music for ‘Once’ with his then partner Marketa Irglová as The Swell Season and was suddenly famous. The former street musician with his modest beginnings was overwhelmed by all of this excitement. For two years, he hid out in the anonymity of New York before going back to his roots. Hansard was once called the ‘most Irish of all Irish singers’, by ‘Rolling Stone’. He is also an outspoken disciple of Van Morrison. Hansard came back home and released his first solo album last year: ‘Rhythm And Response’ is the work of a profound poet, who knows what he wants and what not.

Heather Nova was raised on a sailboat, where she spent years sailing the Atlantic with her parents. She would sit at the bow of the ship and contemplate the endless sea and the freedom of the birds while she sang and played her guitar. This enrapture continues to influence her poetic songs which seem as fragile as the delicate singer herself. When she sings of longing in her elven voice with her feet planted on solid ground, she does not sing of the sea, and yet, somehow, she is always in the middle of the sea. Fittingly, her 2011 album was called ‘300 Days At Sea’. It is about the Bermudas, where she was born and where she has been living again after years of commuting between Los Angeles, New York and London.