Arrived in Berlin this week after a road trip through the Brenner Pass from Italy, via München. From the dry hot  peninsula to the sultry gritty end of summer northern city. On my first day in town I saw dachshund racing, had satay, caipirinha and a massage in thaipark, met a multilingual giant in a pub in Kreuzberg who had just won thousands of euros betting on the football and so must shout us rum, ate excellent african food and drank excellent bier with excellent people. Berlin, bless you. First to propaganda:

This Wednesday 5th September The Poetic Groove at the KingKongKlub, Brunnenstrasse 173. From 10pm, poetry art and music with Robert Grant and Lady Gaby, songwriter Chris Glen from Aberdeen in the North-East of Scotland, Sean Hunter Williams (Berlin), and The Petty thefts (Berlin). With Lapkat filling your head in the breaks.

Then Thursday 6th September I am guest DJ at Lovelite, Simplonstr. 38-40, A Headful of Bees label showcase - Featuring Berlin label/collective A Headful of Bees artists and friends including Nina Hynes (IE), MIss Kenichi (DE), Eric Eckhart (US), Wasp Summer (AU) and Ken Burke (IE). Really looking forward to playing here, and hearing these great artists live.

Some inspirations for these sets - a few recent discoveries during my travels:

Vitaliy Rybakin, musician and composer from Samara, Russia. Vitaliy works with many poets and musicians, this track is a collaboration with Diana Harmon Garnand, reading John Koethe's poem:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/56951786" iframe="true" /]

 

Quelques Promesses Sur Les Caresses Du Sable by Kinsâme, France, poetry by bissecta:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/53970631" iframe="true" /]

 

Also check out bissecta's poetry/beats track Come on good boy - good minimal and unusual production:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/56100561" iframe="true" /]

 

In English - Benin City out of London have a new album due 17 September - a couple of tracks via Soundcloud ...

...thick...

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/55360484" iframe="true" /]

 

...sparse...

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/51243676" iframe="true" /]

 

More about Benin City soon.

 

Lastly for today, I want to share some work of Gülbahar Kültür, German/Turkish music producer, author,  radio producer, multi-talented artist based in Bremen. Her speciality is music from Iran through Turkey, Morocco. The album United Color of Wordsis a special collaborative project with Gülbahar working with many artists and producers, musicians around the world. Interpretations of her own poetry, with musical beds ranging from Electro-Tango, through Balkant beats, klezmer, dub, Anatolian rock, latin house, classical.

Arda Kalan features the voice of Hasan Tomuk with music by Kerem Ülken: very beautiful.

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/57413943" iframe="true" /]

 

Karakutu is another lovely production heading into dub step territory - Music by Ezgi Özkan, vocals by Ayşe Düzkan.

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/45835755" iframe="true" /]

 

I will write more about this album when I have more time, and have absorbed it all. But I recommend you head to Gülbahar Kültür's Soundcloud page for more tastes of this really eclectic project.

... Or if you are in Berlin, come along this week where I'll be playing these artists live along with some other great sounds.

Tschüß from the capital!