The Notwist

In the organizer's words:

News from Planet Zombie

With 'News from Planet Zombie', The Notwist return to focus after years of exploration and experimentation with an album that is as rich in melancholy as it is in positivity, sketched over a series of sweeping, passionately played pop songs. It's an album that reflects a chaotic world, but meets it with warmth and generosity to arrive at a creative and spiritual consolidation. Recorded in her native Munich, it draws on the security of the local to explore the problems of the global - a guiding impulse that runs through all eleven songs on the album. It is also the first studio album since "12" from 1995 that the band has recorded together in the studio with their extended live line-up.

A new album from The Notwist is always a curious endeavor; their musical language is as constant and resilient as the contexts for creativity are unpredictable and ever-changing. For "News from Planet Zombie", the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck opened themselves up to the diverse possibilities of collaborative songwriting by contributing pieces to the collective and then arranging, rehearsing and recording this material together live in the studio.

The result is an energetic album, completely in the here and now, with spectacular moments in which you can hear the magic that arises from the dynamic between the Acher brothers, Beck and the other band members Theresa Loibl, Max Punktezahl, Karl Ivar Refseth and Andi Haberl. While "Teeth" "News from Planet Zombie" begins calmly and thoughtfully, everyone is electrified by "X-Ray" at the latest, firing off future anthems with revved-up collective energy. The sparkling keys of "Propeller" glide over the surface of the instrumental like stones over bubbling water; "The Turning" rattles its way to one of the album's most heart-warming melodies.

"News from Planet Zombie" was recorded within a week at Import Export, a non-profit space for art and music. You can hear that too: there are some pleasingly rough edges here, as if The Notwist's pursuit of hazy perfection means they're simultaneously confident enough to allow the songs room to breathe and change in our ears. This openness to chance also includes guest appearances by friends from both local and international backgrounds - a reflection of cosmopolitan Munich: Enid Valu contributes vocals, Haruka Yoshizawa can be heard on taishōgoto and harmonium, Tianping Christoph Xiao on clarinet and Mathias Götz on trombone.

The Notwist are not necessarily known for cover versions, but "News from Planet Zombie" contains two of them: a beautiful version of Neil Young's "Red Sun" (from "Silver & Gold", 2000), which the group originally developed for a play staged by Jette Steckel, and an interpretation of "How the Story Ends" by the folk-pop group Lovers from Athens, Georgia. Both fit perfectly into the narrative of the album, nestling together like old friends and showing The Notwist as poetic interpreters. Played well, a cover version is both an acknowledgement of companions and an act of generosity - and The Notwist get both right here.

And this narrative, the course of the album? "News from Planet Zombie" recognizes the distress of our current geopolitical impasse while reminding us that there are collective ways forward. Filtered through the figure of the zombie, Markus Acher explores our fears: "In the title and in some of the lyrics I refer to B-movies and horror movies - as a reference to the crazy world right now, which feels like a really bad and unrealistic B-movie." But at the same time, it's a reminder not to lose the thread entirely - that these things too shall pass.

"The river here in Munich, where I often go, has always been there and will be there long after we're gone," reflects Acher, naming an important source of comfort for him: "Always the same and yet always changing. Very reassuring, but also always a reminder that - like this river - time only flows in one direction and you can't go back. Every moment is very precious."

Photos © Bernd Hofmann

Website press photo

Price information:

VVK 38 € plus fees B.O. 43 €