DOORS 20:00
SHOW 20:30
PRESALE 15/13 (student) + presale fee
TICKETS AT THE DOORS 18/15 (student)
KESHAVARA (DE)
KESHAVARA evolves from a solo project by the German-Indian musician Keshav Purushotham. The initial spark comes from an artist residency organized by the Goethe Institute, leading him to his second home in South India in 2013. In search of his roots, the debut album "Keshavara" takes shape in Chennai, Pondicherry, and Auroville, and it is released in 2016 through Papercup Records, a label co-run with his partner Steddy.
The overwhelming response to the album leads to the formation of the ensemble KESHAVARA in 2017, featuring Keshav Purushotham (vocals, guitar), Niklas Schneider (drums, percussion), Benedikt Filleböck (keyboards), and Christopher Martin (bass). In 2020, Keshavara is honored with the prestigious popNRW Award in the category "Outstanding Artist" and introduces the "Kabinett der
Phantasie" (Cabinet of Fantasy) on stage for the first time. Here, they weave together music, acting, and choreography into a vaudeville-inspired, avant-garde spectacle. Alongside the cinematic realization of this "Peepshow through the Pop Kaleidoscope" (Deutschlandfunk), Keshav collaborates with Niklas Schneider on the eponymous album, released in 2021.
Numerous acclaimed performances follow, where Keshav, Niklas, Benedikt, and Christopher increasingly bond. While KESHAVARA's debut was initially a solo project and the successor "Kabinett der Phantasie" primarily a duo project, the third album simply titled "III" is a true band album. The savvy sound alchemists blend Kraut-pop informed by library compositions and psychedelic soundtracks, dub-not-dub excursions, and sweetly meandering melodies with the grooves of a rhythm section that could have felt at home in the funky studios of Beirut in the mid-seventies. The result is cocktails crowned with a surreal sugar edge, inducing the effect of a hallucinogenic Jell-O. Music that shimmers and flickers like a mirage in the desert.