Luxembourg lights up the Reeperbahn

By Patrick Cameron

Friday night saw some of Luxembourg's finest bands showcase their talents alongside some of the most promising up and coming acts from around the world on Hamburg’s notorious Reeperbahn, where they have been holding the Reeperbahn music festival for the last 10 years.

It has grown from just a few shows and a couple of conferences to Germany’s biggest club festival and a music industry heavyweight, now with over 30,000 visitors and 600 events.

Music: LX, who promote Luxembourg music around the world, have been hosting “Luxembourg Sounds Like” a showcase of Luxembourg bands at the iconic Kaiserkeller-Grosse Freiheit 36 every Friday night during the festival for the last four years.

Keeping the same iconic venue and time slot has created a continuity, which has allowed the event to build in stature and become a mainstay of the festival's circuit. Another busy evening began with a whole host of delegates coming along to indulge in some Luxembourg wine and food generously provided by the Luxembourg embassy in Berlin.

First up on Friday night was the down tempo electronica of Monophona. With searing vocals cutting through their deep brooding beats, they were an ideal choice to open the event. They are a blend of two musical worlds coming together through trip hop and folk, with lead singer Claudine going from singer songwriter with the acoustic guitar, to bona fide frontwoman with real intensity when she abandons the acoustic. 

The drums add a real driving force to their sound whilst the intrigue comes from the samples and keys giving you the sure bet of influences from the likes of Portishead and Bjork. During festivals like these it’s hard to keep a crowd for a full set but Monophona managed that on Friday night.

Next up was Luxembourg’s favourite indie folk band Seed To Tree. Having packed out the club at Rockhal earlier in the year for their debut album launch STT have been building on that success. However, festival slots are an altogether different show, you have a short time to please an audience most of whom have never heard of you but that’s exactly what STT did on Friday night.

They manage to flirt between folk, indie and pop with consummate ease, the nuances in their melodies give you something more than just your everyday indie folk. Whilst the electric guitar created the meandering atmospheric foundations on “Wandering” before the rest of the band, including vocals and violin on this occasion, build the layers of the track. They ended with foot stomper “Take My Hand”, which resulted in the crowd dancing and clapping along whilst the violin came back in with real purpose to create quite the special crescendo to their set. 

Unfortunately, for third band on the bill When 'Airy Met Fairy the crowd had dissipated somewhat by the time they came on and it was up to Thorunn, the driving force behind WAMF, to hold the attention of the crowd with her wonderfully fragile vocals.

The stage lighting set the scene perfectly for their sound with fairly lights draped along the monitors in front, whilst both her drummer and bassist had fairy lights hanging from their collars. When the soft almost Kat Bush-esque delivery came from Thorunn you knew they understand the importance of the visual and musical aspects working in sync.

Their single, “Intoxicated”, was the highlight of the set with its minimalist beat accompanied by Thorunn’s vocals. Their sound revolves around the jarring synths and the delicate vocals which will work in certain situations but unfortunately late on a festival slot when many of the audience have already been on the go all day, I felt their sound was somewhat lost.

Closing off the evening was Say Yes Dog who are now based in Berlin and have recently released their debut album “Plastic Love” which probably explains the crowd they managed to draw. Their infectious electro synth pop is reminiscent of Hot Chip and Metronomy and seems to be exactly what the crowd are looking for on a Friday evening on the Reeperbahn.

There does seem to be some undertones of deep house mixed in with some funk bass which makes you feel they’d be as suited playing club nights as much as straight up gigs.

Overall a successful evening for everyone involved and a great advert for the Luxembourg music scene. It showed a good eclectic mix of acts and if anyone had any doubts of what they’d hear at a Luxembourg showcase, then I’m sure they’ll have left feeling this small nation can certainty punch well above its weight.

Take a read of Patrick Cameron's other reviews in his very own dossier:   Patrick's concert news & reviews 

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