Theoretically, depending on the occasion, twelve to twenty musicians could also perform in the event of a power failure. With vocals, bouzouki, ukulele, violin, accordion, musical saw, euphonium, trumpet, drums and mandolin – the classical instrument of the year 2023 – they do it 17 hippies also unstoppered mighty wind. Pure art, pure joie de vivre. All the more surprising is the path that the motley Berlin troupe is taking with their new album “9000 Nights”. This is only available as a data set, as a download and stream that would still be normal nowadays, but the work is tailored to a new form of administration: as an app.
The fan of the band, which was founded 25 years ago (which corresponds to about 9000 nights), first downloads the work from the App Store. It doesn’t cost anything, and the first three songs are already available for free. Now the question is whether you like this way, especially since everything only runs on Apple and because “in-app purchases” are already mentioned. Well, for all 17 songs together you would have to pay a moderate 9.99 euros; and although the album is a best-of with important works from the past 25 years, this experiment can be worth it.
The pop novelist Lady Gaga invented an app “Art-Pop” for her third album ten years ago. But “9000 Nights” isn’t just a companion app, although you get a few video snippets and can call up the English, German, French or mixed lyrics for each song, as well as other information. Whereby the fact that “Mad Bad Cat” appeared in the soundtrack to Andreas Dresen’s film “halbe stair” in 2001, in which they also acted, as well as later in the play “Kasimir und Karoline” and in the film “Whisky und Wodka” by the indie star director, and that this ultimately brought them widespread recognition, not just fans have known that for a long time.
A novelty, however, is that you can speed up and slow down the currently playing classic update versions of “Singapore”, “El Dorado” or “Flowers in the Grass” by moving a Krishna smiley sun and even completely transform them – into atmospheric ones Film sound by Klaus Wagner or a beat-heavy electro remix by DJ Agaric. This fits with earlier experiments like her electro project “Sexy Ambient Hippies” or her remix ping-pong with other artists entitled “Metamorphosis”.
The 17 hippies have always been versatile, surprising and creative: with their music books and playalongs to play along with, children’s albums and theater projects. It’s a good thing that from the very beginning – since their public rehearsals on a Berlin ship and a concert marathon to 19 venues in 24 hours – they have repeatedly shown where their greatest strength lies: their wild ride through the Balkans, Arabs and Gypsies -, country, chanson, jazz, pop and rock sounds on stage, with or without electricity.
17 Hippies, Sat., Feb. 25, 8 p.m., Munich, Werksviertel, Technikum