MINSKBAR 2025
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YELKA

The experimental Berlin post-rock trio YELKA offers an intimate, unconventional perspective on America. YELKA's music combines artistic elements from different genres and periods and is far from mainstream sounds.

The new album, In A Rose Hat, which will be released on April 11, 2025, continues this unique approach. It sounds like an electronic blues version from the old underground dives where musicians like Lou Reed or Television once left their mark.

With In A Rose Hat, YELKA concludes their America trilogy. The band's concept is further emphasized by Henrike Wissing’s artwork and the Diane Arbus-inspired cover—an artistic exploration of the American myth.

TARWATER 

Tarwater is a Berlin-based electronic pop duo formed in 1995 by Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram. Known for their unique sound, they blend electronic beats with indie pop, experimental textures, and poetic lyrics, cultivating a dedicated following. Their music is marked by a captivating mix of minimalist, hypnotic pop and intricate, layered arrangements.

Tarwater’s thirteenth album, Nuts of Ay, marks the Berlin duo’s first release in a decade. Building on their signature electronic pop sound, the album blends past influences with present-day innovation. The album continues Tarwater’s tradition of reshaping others’ lyrics, including contributions from Derek Jarman, Shane MacGowan, and John Lennon, alongside guest musicians like Schneider TM, Alva Noto, Masha Qrella, and Lars Rudolph. The result is an album that feels both organic and cohesive, where guitars and electronic textures twist together into a dreamlike, atmospheric pop experience.

MASHA QRELLA 

From post- and krautrock to American classics, from singer-songwriter albums to TV and film music, from literature adaptations to composing for film, theater, and radio plays: Since 2002, the versatile artist has released internationally acclaimed solo albums; composed for film, theater, and radio plays; and licensed her music for US series such as Grey's Anatomy, among others.

On her new album Songbook (Staatsakt, 2025), now her seventh release, the Berlin-based musician leads us once again through laconic, melancholic atmospheres with her unmistakable voice.

Following Woanders (2021) with lyrics by Thomas Brasch, the Berlin musician now presents an album with cover versions, collaborations, and work for film and theater. She blends baroque, indie pop, and covers with her own songs while staying true to her artistic signature. In a mix of indie, electronica, and experimental sounds, she brings the audience into her sonic worlds – naturally with nonchalant understatement and her head slightly tilted in contemplation – a trademark of Qrella's pop art since the beginning.

MIRA MANN

Mira Mann works transdisciplinarily in the fields of poetry, music, and performance. Her work engages with sex, illness, motherhood, and violence in a radically personal way. She explores conventional role clichés and societal attributions, challenging and reinterpreting them. Additionally, she creates connections between actors from a wide range of genres, deliberately crossing the boundaries between so-called high and subculture.

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SUN (Andi Haberl) w/ band

Berlin-based drummer and songwriter Andi Haberl, aka SUN, weaves his musical language from delicate layers of acoustic sounds, samples, and minimal rhythms—somewhere between „Gold Panda/Four Tet, Steve Reich, Krautrock, and film soundtracks.“ This sonic vocabulary also shapes "I Can See Our House From Here," SUN’s first solo release, which appeared in summer 2024.

Joined by a group of likeminded musicians, SUN brings this intricate sound to the stage: Isabelle Klemt (synth bass, sampler; also with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop), Mascha Juno (glockenspiel, keyboards; also with Agnes Obel), and Markus Rom on banjo (Oh No Noh) complete the live lineup alongside Haberl on drums and sampler.

FLORIAN ZIMMER

Florian Zimmer is a Berlin-based musician whose work explores the intersections of dub, electronica, and Krautrock. He is active in projects such as Saroos, Driftmachine, and Bella Wakame, with releases on labels including Alien Transistor, Umor Rex, and Morr Music. His bands have performed extensively at venues and festivals around the world.

In addition to his band work, Zimmer composes music for radio plays, in collaboration with Andy Ammer and as part of Driftmachine.

FASTMUSIC 

fastmusic is the project of Leipzig-based artist Bela Fast, blending fragile minimal pop with hypnotic precision. Released on the Berlin label Fun In The Church, fastmusic creates songs that linger between meditation and melody—equal parts intimacy and experiment.

The debut single wow appeared in early 2023 and quickly received recognition from German radio programs like ByteFM and Zündfunk. With sparse guitar lines inspired by desert blues and steady, vintage drum machines, fastmusic crafts a sound that recalls the understated soul of Shuggie Otis or the lo-fi poetry of Timmy Thomas. Bela Fast’s delicate falsetto drifts above it all—ethereal, disarming, and strange.

In October 2024, the debut album I want to love, and I love was released to critical praise. The project has since toured across Germany.

bandcamp

MASHA QRELLA 

From post- and krautrock to American classics, from singer-songwriter albums to TV and film music, from literature adaptations to composing for film, theater, and radio plays: Since 2002, the versatile artist has released internationally acclaimed solo albums; composed for film, theater, and radio plays; and licensed her music for US series such as Grey's Anatomy, among others.

On her new album Songbook (Staatsakt, 2025), now her seventh release, the Berlin-based musician leads us once again through laconic, melancholic atmospheres with her unmistakable voice.

Following Woanders (2021) with lyrics by Thomas Brasch, the Berlin musician now presents an album with cover versions, collaborations, and work for film and theater. She blends baroque, indie pop, and covers with her own songs while staying true to her artistic signature. In a mix of indie, electronica, and experimental sounds, she brings the audience into her sonic worlds – naturally with nonchalant understatement and her head slightly tilted in contemplation – a trademark of Qrella's pop art since the beginning.
 

GUDRUN GUT

Gudrun Gut lives and works in Berlin and the Uckermark. She has been active in the Berlin music scene and part of various bands and projects since 1979. She is a label maker (Monika and Moabit Musik), radio producer (together with Thomas Fehlmann “Ocean Club Radio” for Radio Eins Berlin 1997-2007) and curator (Marke B – Berliner Labelnächte, Um-Festival, Monika Werkstatt).

In 2019 she received the ‘Listen to Berlin Award’ for the promotion and development of the Berlin music scene. In 2021 she presented the mammoth project M_Dokumente Book and "M_Sessions Album – all about Mania D., Malaria!, Matador" with a large exhibition, concerts and talks in Berlin with Beate Bartel and Bettina Köster. In 2023 she played a leading role in the mini-documentary series GUT for ARD Mediathek (directed by Heiko Lange + Gudrun Gut).

In addition to all these activities, Gudrun Gut continues to perform on stage with a vibrant AV performance.

bandcamp

Mark Reeder is a Berlin-based music producer from Manchester, who moved to West-Berlin in the late 1970s. He became active in the Berlin underground music scene, serving first as Joy Division’s then Factory Records Man in Berlin. In the 1980s, he became the Manager and live-sound engineer for mädchenorchestra Malaria! and formed his own bands; Die Unbekannten and Shark Vegas.

Throughout the cold-war decade, he organised TV programmes about the city’s music scene and smuggled music into the East, culminating in two top-secret gigs for popular West-German punk band Die Toten Hosen in a Church, which subtly contributed to the cultural shifts that would eventually help initiate the fall of the Berlin Wall. He was classified as Subversiv-Dekadent by the East German State Security (Stasi).

In late 1989, Reeder was invited to produce what would become the last album of Communist East Germany (Torture by Die Vision) for the State-owned record label AMIGA, and therefore he became the first, last and consequently the only Westerner to ever have this opportunity.

In December of 1990, he started the first independent Techno-Trance record label in post-wall East Berlin; MFS (Masterminded For Success) launching the careers of Cosmic Baby, Ellen Allien, Mijk van Dijk or Paul van Dyk.

As a producer and composer of film music, he has scored movies such as Can Creativity Save the World? or Nekromantik2. As a remixer, he has worked with artists like New Order, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, John Foxx, Yello, or Die Toten Hosen, and has meanwhile become a respected figure in Berlin’s current underground music scene through the documentary film; B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin, which depicts his life in the city during the cold-war.