Metonic Records is an independent music label based in Biel, founded in early 2005 by Manuel Engel in collaboration with the Trash Collective in Brooklyn, New York. Engel was and is always on the lookout for new collaborations, sounds and new musical constellations. Metonic Records promotes contemporary music and provides inspiration for those who are ready to expand and create change. On this evening, Metonic Records presents both new and established projects from the last 20 years.

FIRST ACT

Joy Frempong – Manuel Engel first met Joy Frempong a long time ago, either backstage at the Pod Ring Festival or at a Puts Marie concert in Lucerne, where she performed with Fredy Studer's band on the same evening. He congratulated her on her performance and immediately became a fan of her work.

Meta Marie Louise – A band that Manuel Engel founded with Kevin Chesham in 2010. Several collaborations followed, and this year the two are performing alongside Napoleon Maddox (Cincinnati) and Ana Igluka (Nantes). Maddox joined them on their last tour in 2024, impressing everyone with his ease, agility, and command of the English language. Igluka worked with Meta Marie Louise in 2015, and the musicians have been close friends ever since.

SECOND ACT

Annie Aries – Annie was brought to Engel's attention by an old friend from Everest Records. Engel was impressed by her attention to detail and minimalist compositional skills. The idea of pairing her with Lionel Friedli quickly took shape. Friedli's style fits perfectly with Aries'.

Engel first met Friedli when he was 15. Even back then, they shared a love of music. As teenagers, they learned jazz standards together and played in various ensembles. Looking back, both musicians are very grateful for this educational time spent together.

Henry Strongbox – Manuel Engel's 'alter ego' – loves building boxes that beep, screech, scratch and squeak. He also plays 'prepared piano' – adding screws, magnets, paper and other items to the strings. He performs alongside Doug Weiss, a world-class bassist and an important mentor during Engel's time in NYC. He is a source of inspiration for a whole generation of young double bassists exploring modern jazz. In early 2024, Engel and Weiss had the idea of forming a trio. Now, they have formed a quartet with two young, talented and dynamic drummers who are attracting attention on the European music scene. Romarna Campbell is from Birmingham, and Estefania Chamorro is from Barcelona.

Hervé Thiot (1973), alias AIRBIOS, is a Swiss painter, performer and musician of Mauritian origin living in Biel/ Bienne. His distinctive style and vision are nourished by contact with both underground scenes and established institutions, in a perpetual creative dynamic at the crossroads of artistic disciplines. In his cosmic biotope, humans and technology coexist harmoniously and reinvent a world torn between universal love and bitterness, declined in malicious futuristic visions. The artist with multiple lives conceives his work as an instrument of human encounter and exchange, which leads him to prestigious collaborations and multiple international tours, among others with urban art, dance and opera companies. He has created an astonishing number of murals, paintings, drawings, installations, videos, photographs, decorations, set designs, exhibitions, publications and performances. From the local bar to avant-garde festivals. And sometimes at social events. Like a graffitied aristocratic alley cat, from the aperitif to the opera.

The essence of his work lies in movement, vibration, the fragmentation of the gaze, the mixture of artistic disciplines and the exploration of constantly renewed mediums. His artistic career bears witness to an unquenchable thirst for human sharing, travel, innovation and freedom.