PHANTOM SONGS & the other end of the world

At the beginning of March we fly to Australia. We’re the first German band to be invited to play WOMADelaide. What a thrill! It takes 26 hours to whizz us from winter in Berlin to tropical Singapore, and from there to the dry heat of Australia. What a spectacular festival we get to be part of! Tens of thousands flock to the beautiful grounds to see local and international artists playing on a multitude of stages.

We play two concerts, and hang out with the crowds. It all ends with us teaming up with Reggae drummer Anthony "Drumtan" Ward as we back the all-star band feat. Jamaican legend Horace Andy, and Qawwali singer Faiz Ali Faiz from Pakistan among others. What a special mix of people!

Then the WOMAD circus moves on to play at the Taranaki festival in New Plymouth in New Zealand. The customary owner of the area, the Taranaki tribe with a Pōwhiri ceremony welcome us. What you basically do is, you stand face to face, shake hands, put your other hand on the others shoulder, touch forehead and nose, look one another in the eye, and say „How are you? Where are you from? How do you feel?“ Imagine us, 120 musicians from all over the world, lining up to rub noses with the entire tribe in a long-house. Intense!

Then we are all invited to sing a song from where we come from. In this way we spend a magical afternoon with all these people from all over the world: from Mongolia, England, Egypt, a girl from „the North Pole“, Mali, America, Pakistan, France, Berlin, and elsewhere … in fact we are all quite taken away. And so we all forget to take more pictures.

We fly back to Europe in 36 hours.

Here’s a video with pictures from NZL and elsewhere.

In May we take our new album on PHANTOM tour through Germany.

It’s always fascinating to find out how songs recorded in the studio change on stage. And how the audience becomes part of the way we rediscover our songs.
In summer we play festivals in France, Spain and England.

For the beginning of Ramadan we stage a special concert in the museum for Islamic Art in Berlin. Along with Wayang puppetier Bayu Herlambang Aji and the Indonesian gamalan player Aris Daryono we dive into the mythic world of Java.

Then in November we tour Germany again.

We also play in Switzerland and on the isle of Gran Canaria / Spain.