Germany Showcasing Artists In Focus: Catnapp, Gurr, Moritz Simon Geist & More

December 13, 2018 Hayden Bagot

Each March, a new group of great artists from Germany make the journey to Austin to perform at SXSW, and this year will be no different. Although we’ve still got loads of artists to announce before March, the SXSW Music Festival has already added some great performers from Germany at SXSW 2019. Dive into our spotlight on 5 Showcasing Artists from Deutschland below. Prost!

Want to read more about some of the regional acts that are coming to SXSW? Check out these features highlighting artists from Canada, Spain, Japan, Australia, and the UK.

German Artists Spotlight

Gurr (Berlin, Germany)

Gurr - Photo by Rowan Allen

Between winning the IMPALA European Album of the Year Award, touring relentlessly, and writing their follow-up LP, Gurr has been very busy recently. Despite its bold title and seemingly warm connotations, recent single “Hot Summer” was conceived on a very grey day in London. The pair tried to capture “that feeling of despair when everyone around you is happy, but somehow you just don’t feel it” – the result is a no-nonsense, anti-summer anthem. The second single “She Says” off their upcoming LP will drop soon with the new record expected out in Spring of 2018.

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Laura Carbone (Berlin, Germany)

Laura Carbone - Photo courtesy of the Artist

Berlin-based Laura Carbone’s latest single, “The Flowers Beneath Your Feet”, saw her joining forces to duet with Kip Berman of NY’s The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart on a sparkling, noisy dream pop diamond-in-the-rough. On her second record Empty Sea, Carbone delves deeper into the intoxicating mix of dark reverb-laden pop melodies, searing rock riffs, and noisy feedback chaos hinted at on her debut album, Sirens. Written partly in the gray claustrophobia of the German winter and finished in the vast golden expanse of the California desert and the gritty glare of L.A., Empty Sea boldly oozes with confidence and swagger.

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Moritz Simon Geist (Dresden, Germany)

Moritz Simon Geist - Photo courtesy of the Artist

Moritz Simon Geist is a media artist, engineer, and robotic musician. Each sound in his mind-blowing performances is played by robots. Small motors beat on metal, 3D-printed robo-kalimbas vibrate with deep bass sounds, salvaged parts from old hard drives click and cut. Over several years Moritz Simon Geist committed to build, tweak, test and play all of his DIY robotic instruments. In 2018, Geist will release the first ever techno record made with only robots on his Label SRR with help from KOMPAKT.

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Gudrun Gut (Berlin, Germany)

Gudrun Gut - Photo by Mara von Kummer

Gudrun Gut’s story spans many years, scenes, and sounds, starting during the “ingenious dilettantes” subculture of early 1980’s Berlin as part of Mania D, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Malaria!, and continuing through her twilit industrial pop trio Matador into an expansive solo catalog of later work scoring films, videos, and radio plays. In addition to working as a musician, Gut has founded record labels, club nights, and experimental feminist collaborations. Gut also works extensively in the technical sector of the recording industry, as a producer. Recent projects have included collaborations with Antye Greie (AGF) and Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust, participating on the advisory committee for Musicboard Berlin, and performing at The Royal Albert Hall with me as part of an Innervisions label night.

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Catnapp (Berlin, Germany)

Catnapp - Photo by Lex Space

Catnapp is the guise of Argentinian artist Amparo Battaglia. The Berlin-based producer singer, rapper, and performer had already self-released records before joining Monkeytown Records. Battaglia cites musical influences like The Prodigy, Aphex Twin, OutKast or Beyoncé, and her productions also draw from today’s post-internet and post-rap sounds. In a recent interview, she elaborated, “On the one hand, I just want people to enjoy a nice fat beat. On the other, I also want them to receive the sensations I’m trying to transmit. Love, sadness, anger. I want them to get inside my story and make it theirs.“

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Discover More

Want to dive deeper into the acts performing at SXSW 2019? Stream our Apple Music and Spotify Playlists, surf our YouTube Music Video playlist, check out the SXSW Schedule, and tune into SXSWfm.

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Gurr – Photo by Rowan Allen Laura Carbone – Photo courtesy of the Artist Moritz Simon Geist – Photo courtesy of the Artist Gudrun Gut – Photo by Mara von Kummer Catnapp – Photo by Lex Space

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