Nobody else does what Monika Roscher does.
With her 18-piece Munich big band, Monika Roscher builds an original bridge between psychedelic pop/rock vocals, electronics and orchestral jazz. As a singer – with a timeless indie rock girl’s voice – and as an electric guitarist, she herself is usually at the center of the action. Other soloists on the new album include wind players John-Dennis Renken, Vincent Eberle, Lukas Bamesreiter, Julian Schunter, Sebastian Nagler and pianist Josef Reßle. Witchy Activities is the third album by the band collective founded in 2011.
This time, production took three years because corona kept getting in the way – “it all felt like a witches’ curse”, says the band leader. Witchcraft is also the motto of the album: “I read everything I could get my hands on about witches.” The psychedelic music therefore repeatedly drifts into a supernatural-diabolic vision, turning into witches’ sabbaths and necromancy sessions. “Minimal phrases that sound like witches’ laughter” are combined with insistent motor skills, crazy tone sequences and hard patterns. Roscher speaks of “syrupy slowness and sweetness”. This grandiose music is mathematicized prog metal, electro-acoustic orchestral jazz and brilliant avant-pop in equal measure. Incidentally, the witches’ brew also includes an old keyboard, a didgeridoo and even a vocal number in German (“Unbewegte Sternenmeere”).
Monika Roscher Bigband – Witchy Activities And The Maple Death
Label: Zenna
Format: CD, 2LP