Joel Sarakula (Support: PlayaPlaya)

In the organizer's words:

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Imagine if Ray Manzarek was the frontman of the Bee Gees...

This is a pretty visual introduction to Joel Sarakula, an Australian artist living in the UK and Spain who writes, produces and sings soulful pop and looks at the world today through vintage glasses, vintage clothes and long blonde hair. His music is based on a rich, 1970s-inspired palette, drawing on soft rock, funk and disco influences: sunny uptempo jams for darker times. He's self-aware that he looks and occasionally sounds like a descendant of the Doors keyboardist and the Gibb brothers, but his self-deprecating humor is always on the sidelines.

Sydney-born, internationally-minded Sarakula is a songwriter who has traveled the world in search of his muse, experiencing everything from being the victim of Caribbean carjackings to performing in the remote fishing villages of Norway, before finally establishing his career in the UK and Europe. Since then, he has released albums such as 'Island Time' (2023), 'Companionship' (2020), 'Love Club' (2018) and 'The Imposter' (2015), which have been on rotation across UK and European radio stations and have been mentioned by the New York Times, the Independent (UK), the Irish Times, Rolling Stone Germany, El Pais (Spain) and the Sydney Morning Herald. He has been favorably compared to fellow Australians Parcels and Donny Benet as well as Prep, Benny Sings and Young Gun Silver Fox.

It's been a long road to his current cult status, having started at a young age on the piano in a Sydney suburb, writing and singing songs when he was a teenager and taking to the stage at sixteen playing jazz standards at his local golf club. I come from humble beginnings, it's best not to mention that," he sings in his 70s boogie-influenced song "I'm Still Winning" with echoes of formative musical influences such as Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Todd Rundgren and Sly Stone.

Joel Sarakula is a fixture on the festival and club scene and has performed at SXSW, Primavera Sound and Glastonbury Festival. As an internationalist, he often tours with pick-up bands from the country he is performing in: a band from Barcelona for Spain, one from Berlin for Germany and so on. This cross-cultural exchange is another echo of the 1970s, when soul and pop artists from the USA traveled around the world, and guarantees that his live shows remain fresh, exciting and absolutely contemporary.

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"Soft Focus" is the new album from Joel Sarakula. Produced by Sarakula himself and two tracks produced by Shawn Lee, it contains twelve new tracks based on a wide range of influences from the golden age of soft rock and the disco era. "Soft Focus" includes the singles "I'll Get By Without You", "Loved Up" and "King Of Spain".

"Soft Focus" documents the middle of his career and brings together many influences and genres, including soft rock, funk and indie pop, under the umbrella of his gentle gaze and "soft" aesthetic. "Soft Focus" is also the name of a photographic technique that results from a spherical deviation of the lens, where the image is somewhat blurred and out of focus: this effect is both flattering and forgiving to the subject. It's an apt title. As a longtime wearer of (vintage) glasses, Sarakula knows a lot about spherical aberrations. He may even have produced the twelve new songs on "Soft Focus" without glasses, as they are abstract and warm vignettes.

Highlights include one of the two Shawn Lee-produced tracks "I'll Get By Without You" and "Telephone Calls", the rockier, Iberian beat of "King Of Spain", the soulful affirmation of "Back For Your Love" and the psychedelic-tinged "Bird Of Paradise" and "Microdosing". "Soft Focus" is a lovingly crafted album, polished and it feels like the culmination of Sarakula's adventures in soulful soft rock. While comparisons are drawn to contemporary projects such as Young Gun Silver Fox, Drugdealer, Benny Sings and Prep, there are also gentle echoes of soft rock icons Ned Doheny, Boz Scaggs, Todd Rundgren and Michael Franks throughout the album.

Support: PlayaPlaya(Instagram | Spotify)

Somewhere between psychedelic funk a la Khruangbin, polyphonic, poppy
pop hooks a la Jungle and danceable, catchy grooves, as we know them from Parcels,
lies the playa verse.

Created, developed and established by the three Leipzig beat designers and mood shifters
Noah Schulz (DE/Git.), Tom Bunzel (IL/Bass) and Felix Hempel (DE/Drums).
After two EPs, which the band recorded and produced on their own in Leipzig,
will be followed by their debut album on 10.10.2025: Recorded and produced by Janne Gruhn at
Studio Nord, in Bremen, the ten songs represent the trio's versatile sound in a very
sound like no other recording before.

Admission: 7.30 pm
Start: 8.15 pm