From Mecklenburg-Pomerania to Berlin, from drug addiction and crime via rehab and therapy to a regular 40-hour working week. Escape has travelled an arduous path. But life on minus becomes life on zero, with the prospect of plus. His most recent career is full of confidence, thanks in part to fruitful musical collaborations and rising streaming figures.
We are more than happy that Berlin-based Rapper Yayo Kush is now part of the Freibank family.
We are happy to announce the first single 'Sippin' of many to come of our newly signed Artist Donskoy
After focusing on his acting career (The Crown, Barbarians, Vienna Game, and many more) in the last years, he is back producing music. For 'Sippin', Donskoy was joined by Platinum-certified songrwirter Julia Kautz and producer SAIN (Kelvin Jones, Trettman).
His first release in three years, Donskoy sounds completely reinvigorated on 'Sippin'. His voice combines provocative power and suave, seductive charm to topline a heady production which merges the instantaneous hooks of alt-pop with bass-heavy beats inspired by contemporary R&B. The track’s title suggests it’s a song to soundtrack bottle-poppin’ party moments, but it’s actually a metaphor for something far more sensual.
Donskoy says, “It feels so good to go back to what has always been my most real and raw form of expression. Music has always been there for me – in the good times when it feels like the sun is shining everyday through to the moments when you question your entire existence as an artist. Knowing that I’m back to sharing my songs with an audience fills me with joy. It’s about not wanting to stop or be stopped. To keep 'Sippin', on something or someone… I’ll leave that up to the listener’s imagination but it’s definitely a song that’s on the naughtier side. Sometimes all you need is one more sip.”
Love Command0 is the name that Irish duo James and Bex Fox have chosen for their electronic and club pop project. James Fox has previously worked as an indie musician and rocker in projects such as Soft Cuddly Toys and Fight Like Apes, but has now ventured a new musical start in DIY electronics after marrying his wife Bex and travelling to Berlin during the pandemic to record this debut album - on his honeymoon, so to speak. Despite the normative title of the work, it was not about political messages, but about combining - or rather integrating - the couple's musical preferences into a partly experimental club record. According to their own statement, these preferences include "Italo Disco, New York Mutant Disco and electronic freestyle from the 80s". So don't expect a hip, computer-generated Techno album with a contemporary attitude, but a playful retro-future adventure with psychedelically bent analogue retro synths, sequencers, drum computers and vocoders instead of programmed beats, samples, Garageband and autotune.
Not much in Kreuzberg today is as authentic as Fruchtmax. The rapper from Berlin remains true to himself and holds his own in underground rap as well as in the neighborhood. He has been active in the German hip-hop community for many years and has built up a stable fan base with his individual sound. His rap career began with a hit: WKMSNSHG. The track went viral and is rightly part of the official Spotify Deutschrap 2016 playlist. The most streamed Fruchtmax track now has almost 10 million Sportify clicks and was released on Proletik, Frauenarzt's label. In his lyrics, Fruchtmax mixes borrowings from gangsta and street rap and his name stands for hard and explicit verses - although not every word should be taken at face value. For the successful balancing act of artistic freedom and for the fact that Fruchtmax cannot be pigeonholed into any marketing category. In addition to releases with Nura, Haiyti, 102 Boyz, Money Boy, Soho Bani and KDM Shey, Fruchtmax regularly works with producers such as Broke Boys, Bobby San, YuPanther and DJ Reckless. Max is not short of breath live either, which is why he has played club gigs in Germany and Austria almost every month for three years and has, among other things, heated up a sold-out Columbiahalle as the support act for SXTN. What is completely new for him is the founding of his own publishing edition Macher Foundation at Freibank!
"Bring your cassette recorders onto the streets - you can't make a revolution with home organs!"
Klaus Maeck's memories and stories take us on a wild ride - from the bourgeois idyll of Hamburg's suburbs to the punk record shop in the Karoviertel, to his encounters with Einstürzende Neubauten and William S. Burroughs and the resulting films, as well as to sometimes surreal trips to Morocco, Latin America and China. The eleven texts in this book are only partly autobiographical, and the transitions to fiction are deliberately not always recognisable. The stories are illustrated with his own paintings and collages as well as a poem.
Who would have thought that K.I.Z. would become so sentimental and let us look deep into their own biographies. With 'Görlitzer Park', Maxim, Tarek and Nico strike an unusually subtle note; brutal punchlines that normally send listeners into a limbo between sarcasm and tastelessness are barely audible. But it's still deep, honest and painful. Because K.I.Z. show us a world in the middle of our society that the fun society is only too happy to close its eyes to and once again teach us not to always see everything in black and white. 'Görtlitzer Park' is co-produced by Freibank's Shuko and Basti Völkel!
Yishai Sweartz of Tomorrow’s Rain and Berlin-based singer/composer Mona Mur just released a new album via Soleilmoon Recordings. Titled 'Clouds Of War', the album is inspired by the life of Sweartz’s grandfather, Moshe Szniecki, a WWII Partisan. The music includes spoken word and experimental arrangements.
Yishai explains in the press release that 'Clouds Of War' emerged from the compelling stories in his grandfather’s diary. During WWII, Moshe left his hometown at 17 after his family was murdered. He survived by joining a Partisan group in the Belarusian forests. He later settled in Israel, living peacefully until his death at 94. Yishai explains further: “During World War II, 17-year-old Moshe Szniecki left his hometown when all other members of his family were murdered by Nazi hordes. In the depths of the Belarusian forests, Moshe joined a Partisan group and fought boldly. Guided by what he called ‘The Codes of the Woods,’ Moshe survived.” He made it to Israel, married, and had a family with his wife Hanna and two daughters. He died peacefully at 94, at ease with himself. He survived.”
“To me, music is a sacred art form. You can transmit and connect on a level of empathy. Violence, cruelty, greed, ego, hate, contempt, hostility dissolve for a fleeting moment that still might change things profoundly,” explains Mona Mur reflecting on the conceptual side of the collaboration that lead to the release of 'Clouds of War'. “What is the right look at the atrocities of war, holocaust, genocide ? Moshe Shnitzki, 17 years old, had to transform in a split second, in order to survive, from a pious teenage boy into a warrior. Fight back or die, head into the deep dark forest, leave a civilization that failed to rise up to its proper meaning. And survive. How does that feel, how does that sound ? This is what 'Clouds of War' is about.”