Afrobeats Explosion

The Afrobeats scene has virtually exploded in recent years, which is also reflected in the lively party scene that has developed around this genre. At the forefront from the beginning: &quot;Afrobeats Explosion&quot; at Moods. From its origins with Fela Kuti in the 70s to Wizkid – get ready for a special kind of dance explosion!

The Zawose Queens

Flowing polyrhythms and the rapturous polyphonic singing of the Gogo people (also known as Wagogo) from central Tanzania: this is the music of Pendo and Leah Zawose, better known as The Zawose Queens. The most famous representative of this musical tradition is Hukwe Zawose (Pendo&#x27;s father and Leah&#x27;s grandfather), who died in 2004. With Maisha, their highly acclaimed debut album, women from this famous musical family take their place as lead singers and interpreters for the first time. There is spirit and fire in their music. There are the vibrations of the ancestors that can be heard on traditional instruments - the soaring chizeze fiddle, the humming thumb piano, the clattering ngoma drums - and the voices. There is a connection to nature and rituals; a mixture of the organic, the harmonic and modern electronics. The lyrics, in their mother tongue Kigogo, tell of their passion for music, of the wonders of life, of pride in the environment, in tradition and their East African roots.

Vocals

Percussion

Ilimba

Guitar

Bass

Electronics

Drum Kit

Božo Vrećo

Kultur Shock & Moods present

Božo Vrećo is an artist who breathes Sevdah, experiences it in a lively way, reinterprets it and embodies it. With the unmistakable voice of a lyrical tenor, he presents an impressive melange of duality, freedom, courage and love. International media such as El Periódico and the New York Times praise him as an avant-garde artist with a global voice who has become a symbol of freedom in the Balkans. They describe his voice as a voice that touches souls and opens wounded hearts. His concerts are an emotional catharsis and the embodiment of love, where he enchants his listeners with the song of an angel. This year sees the release of his seventh studio album Sevdahology. His first documentary film Maldita, produced in Spain and directed by Kanaki Film, won the prestigious Goya Award for best documentary film at the festival. Božo Vrećo is currently working on a book and touring festivals in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and the Balkan region.

Mario Peric

Warm Up & Afterparti

The BalkanEkstra Parti doesn&#x27;t stop at oriental sounds or Arabic rhythms - the main thing is to dance! rrWith the legendary concert and party series Kultur Shock, Mario Peric is one of the pioneers of the Balkan scene as an organizer, DJ and producer. He has been thrilling audiences for many years with his varied, explosive and crazy sounds. His musical spectrum cannot be pinned down to one direction. The main thing is that it rocks!

Trumpet

Accordion

Keyboards

Saxophon

Ganesh Geymeier Solo

Jonas Ruther – «deep dive» im Kunstraum Walcheturm

On his second Carte Blanche-evening, Jonas Ruther invites you to an interdisciplinary ‘deep dive’ in the Walcheturm with like-minded artists, in which music, text, acting and spatial design will transform time and space. A strong hui-gan is guaranteed. To operate in a continuous breath. The conversational and frictional breath of the collective. The more introspective one of individual and inner breathing. In all cases, to be one with the original drone of a world that we continue to survey, even when our cosmopolitan peregrinations are thwarted. The first lightning rod of the Lake Geneva collective L&#x27;Orage, Ganesh is also know for his thrillling solo performances with his albums ‘Wuji’ (Vinayaka, 2022) and ‘1:15:40’ (Vinayaka, 2022). Saxophone strapped to his backpack or to the memories archived on his Laptop, Ganesh Geymeier is sometimes Coltrane (Alice and John), sometimes Lomax (Alan) and Bowles (Paul), sometimes Parker (Charlie or Evan). Composer, improviser, documentary force: it is from this refusal to compartmentalise features that Ganesh Geymeier draws his power. Concert location: Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zürich

«Boah, das Meer»

Anna Papst has been working as an author of documentary theatre plays for around ten years. Since she invented the ‘reportage’ format for theatre in 2015, well over a hundred people have told her their stories. With her recording device, Anna Papst has sat opposite surrogate mothers, criminals, cyborgs and victims of violence, among others. Anna Papst condenses the recorded conversations into new texts, which she brings to the stage with actors as ‘enacted oral history’. In other words, a performance of various eyewitness accounts in which the eyewitnesses not only talk about the past, but also about the here and now. Anna Papst has already worked with the actress Chantal LeMoign on two projects. For this evening, she will restage a text from the documentary theatre piece ‘Da Da Da’, which deals with the connection between memory and music, for the Walcheturm. Concert location: Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zürich

divr

In Jonas Ruther&#x27;s world, music is a form of communication based on the concept of deep listening. His playing follows less formatted rhythms or predetermined dramaturgy; he is much more concerned with flow, the direct transfer of energy - both kinetic and subtle - and the creation of synergetic connections with the other players and the audience. The separation between the musicians and the audience can and will dissolve. Synergy. Flow. Ruther describes the effect of his music as the experience of a deep Pu&#x27;er tea, in which the essence does not cling to the sensory perception. In Chinese, it is called hui-gan or ‘returning sweetness’: the subtle, persistent feeling that lingers and reverberates in the body. divr, a trio consisting of Philipp Eden, Raphael Walser and Jonas Ruther, is a post-jazz piano trio with a pop sensibility. Their sampling-inspired improvisations and electro-acoustic soundscapes unfold a magical pull - composed in real time and allowing the strengths and idiosyncrasies of each individual player to shine through. Concert location: Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zürich

MADAM

Jonas Ruther invited the collective MADAM, consisting of Marco Mercuzio Peron and Mara Miccichè, to design the space and the stages. MADAM is a collaborative platform for site-specific happenings and productions, curating interdisciplinary formats such as &#x27;Il Circolo del Frattempo&#x27;, as well as soundtracks and sound design for film and installations. In 2024 they curated the world premiere of &#x27;CASCADE&#x27;, a new composition by Terry Riley and Gyan Riley, as part of the curatorship for the &#x27;Bäderkultur&#x27; project in Baden. Concert location: Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zürich

Zimmermann x Troller

Tizia Zimmermann

Zurich accordionist Tizia Zimmermann and Lucerne guitarist Manuel Troller have worked together in a variety of contexts and constellations, and as part of Zimmermann&#x27;s Carte Blanche series this will the first time they perform as a duo. Both are interested in the perception and understanding of time, in slowly developing musical material, in long-form improvisation that attempts to suspend time and can patiently expand in all possible directions and depths. Accordion and electric guitar - a combination with which Troller and Zimmermann search for new sonic worlds with their shared fascination for ambiguity, for harmonic fields that generate warmth and are at the same time subtly broken again and again, for fragility as well as power.

Neon Dilemma (Landfermann, Stemeseder, Berger)

Using acoustic and electronic instruments, the three protagonists of jazz-based improvised music develop a discourse on the possibilities of contemporary interplay in historical instrumentation. Concepts and ideas from different geographical and temporal origins are transformed into new organising principles that enable the ensemble to harmonise seemingly disparate musical elements. Delicate counterpoint and prancing polyrhythms sound effortlessly alongside raw towers of sound, vehement chord clusters and simple vocalism.

JazzBaragge Wednesday Jam

The JazzBaragge Wednesday Jam offers an important platform for the Swiss jazz jam scene. After the musical opening of the jam band, lively and exciting sound conversations begin between musicians who spontaneously meet on stage, reflecting the diversity of jazz in all its facets. The JazzBaragge Wednesday Jam is supported by the non-profit association JazzBaragge. There is no presale for JazzBaragge, only box office.

Violin

Piano

Stucky – Doran – Tacuma: Spacecake

Erika Stucky sees clear parallels between a live concert and a bank robbery! Really? Yes! It&#x27;s about a coup. Every time it has to be prepared precisely, the right accomplices have to be found so that the element of surprise succeeds. Into the concert hall - a performance at full throttle and with the power of persuasion - off on the bus - back to home base. She needs specialists for such a musical adventure: A pyrotechnician, a code breaker, a driver, a ticket reader. In other words, a team that understands each other perfectly every second and harmonizes precisely with each other. With “Spacecake”, Stucky has gathered two of her oldest accomplices around her again. For a good two decades, she has repeatedly relied on the outstanding qualities of Christy Doran and Jamaaladeen Tacuma, internationally recognized masters of their craft. Christy is known as a guitarist who completely absorbed the Jimi Hendrix magic at a very young age without losing his own musical personality and style. Few can do that. And Jamaaladeen received his accolades in the band of the legendary Ornette Coleman. A giant on the bass. What new ideas, tricks and feats this familiar trio will come up with this time, of course, remains a mystery for the time being. Likewise, which musical favorites from recent years will be revived. One thing is certain: Erika tells of dragonflies, hippie poetry, Big Sur and Marfa. This coup will undoubtedly succeed. And instead of gold bars, hearts will be stolen. Peacefully and purely acoustically, of course. Come unarmed.

E-Gitarre

Schrödingers Katze

Album Release «Unscharf»

Galactic Rhodes sounds and booming Moog basses, driving drum beats, and it doesn&#x27;t really matter whether it&#x27;s jazz, rock or electronic music. Under the name Schrödingers Katze, Simon Althaus and Manuel Pasquinelli - two musical border crossers without stylistic blinkers - play science fiction pop for a lost but somehow still beautiful world. And so the band will take us on a playful, atmospheric and above all groovy musical journey from which there is no escape.

Fender-Rhodes E-Piano

Erb/Mayas/Hemingway Trio

Originally a live performance at Neubad Luzern, Erb, Mayas &amp; Hemingway&#x27;s long improvisation resulted in their latest record, Hour Music. This type of improvisation is of a sometimes ritualistic nature, mostly evolving across the twilight of rationality. The manifestation of this spiritual bond enhances the initiatives of pure creation that animate, even individually, the three traveling companions. Clearly, there is no necessity to raise one’s voice in order to be understood by equal interlocutors; the reciprocal consideration with which Erb, Mayas and Hemingway articulate the conversation substantiates this argument. Ultimately, they can be compared to a responsive stringed instrument played by the bow of intersubjective sympathy. It may require some patience, even dedication to let one&#x27;s ears grasp and invite the music to be enjoyed. Yet once that happens, we enter the trio&#x27;s universe.

James Brown Tribute Show

The same procedure as every year: the SoulVision Allstars are back with their James Brown Tribute Show! Since 2007 - shortly after James Brown left us for the big stage - this top-notch band of Swiss musicians has ensured that the works of the «Godfather of Soul» are not forgotten. Building on the hits and lesser-known pearls, and with boundless energy on stage, the band delivers a powerful mix of Funk, Soul, and Hip Hop. An evening not only for nostalgics and dyed-in-the-wool Funksters, but also generally for all of those who want to get those hips a-shaking to swing in the New Year.

Spruzzi (Monorecords)

Warm up & Afterparty

The man for funk in Zurich since four decades. Real funk for real people! Spruzzi is back at Moods! It&#x27;s gonna be funky!

Trombone

Orgel

Los Dos Engros

Los Dos En Gros, Tischhauser&#x27;s extended exhibition, drums into the mangrove forest - the rhythms disappear, vanish and never emerge from the quicksand holes. Unstoppable drums are aimed at the dancing legs. The piranhas hide trembling in the mud, the tapir family gallops into the undergrowth in search of shelter, the alligators lurk but don&#x27;t move when the swamp blues roller rattles along. Only high up in the treetops do the tamarin monkeys dance and scream wildly to the octet&#x27;s driving beat. The hummingbird hums softly, the jaguar hunts deadly, the mamba sways to the mambo, the orang-utan has a hat on. The assembled silverbacks are back, cooking in old pots. It smells of gumbo, jambalaya, beans and rice. Los Dos Engros is the melting pot of all kinds of formations around Zurich shouter, howler and guitar crooner Han Sue Lee Tischhauser. Swamp blues, zydecco twist, Hawaiian garage, waltz punk are just a few style drawers that serve as humus to reinvent their own music again and again. On the road since 1986, danceability of a special kind. Happy new year!

Herr Kurt

Afterparty

Following the Los Dos Engros concert, Mr. Kurt will be playing fresh tunes for the New Year. The audience can look forward to an intelligent dance experience between deep house and funky jazz.

Cello

SPECIAL: The President’s New Year’s Groove Jam 

The JazzBaragge Wednesday Jam provides an important platform for the Swiss jazz jam scene. As a musical prelude to the start of the year, the audience can expect hot grooves, rousing solos, catchy shout parts paired with a powerful, expressive voice. The raw playfulness with pulsating energy should inspire jam musicians on the first day of 2025 in a passionate, hypnotic and ecstatic manner. The JazzBaragge Wednesday Jam is supported by the non-profit organization JazzBaragge. There is no advance booking for JazzBaragge, only box office.

Silvester Bashment

Afrobeats Explosion & Dancehall Mood present

Afrobeats Explosion and Dancehall Mood are teaming up for this New Year&#x27;s Eve and presenting you with the best that the current Afrobeats, dancehall and reggae scene in Zurich has to offer. The entire spectrum of the local DJ scene and sound systems will come together at Moods to close out 2024. This promises an evening full of Afrobeats and dancehall hits as well as reggae rarities. Get ready for a dance explosion of a special kind!

Yellowjackets USA

Since 2017, we have been streaming some of the concerts and enabling the musicians to earn additional income - 70% of the subscription revenue goes directly to the musicians. With a subscription you get access to over 600 concerts and help to keep this project running.

Streaming

Over 700 video-on-demand and 40 live streams per year from jazz, global, blues, funk, soul and rap await you. Curated with playlists and recommendations from our program team. In addition, 70% of the subscription revenue goes directly to the musicians. With a subscription you support the artists and this project.