For some, the Rollingstone Beach Festival 2019 was a first opportunity to meet singer Fabian Altstötter. And what a. His stage presence alone is impressive: like a wolf prances in a cage, he staggers restlessly on stage. His gaze wanders aimlessly around the room. The desperation and melancholy of his wonderfully sonorous voice grips. Zack, one was addicted to the devotion, the elegance of this appearance. But the singer made himself scarce – and soon after that came the pandemic.
Altstötter started a decade and a half ago as the singer of Sizarr from Landau in the Palatinate province with Marc Ubel and Philipp Huelsenbeck. The debut of the indie rock pop electro band entered the German charts, after which the trio played at festivals throughout Europe. In 2018, the band broke up after two successful albums because the members developed differently musically – and they didn’t want to go under in the mainstream. Fabian Altstötter moved to Berlin and started his solo career with a joke: Altstötter became Jungstötter.
released in 2019 his acclaimed solo debut “Love is”. An intimate and timeless mix of glam rock, post-pop, new wave and jazzy avant-garde. Again and again the baritone of his languid, soft and warm crooner style is compared to Scott Walker or Tim Harding. Or with David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, David Sylvian from JapanThom Yorck, Mark Hollis von talk talk or Tuxedomoon. Because of the somberness of his songs and voice, he has been dubbed the “German Nick Cave”.
In common Podcast of the Goethe Institute and BR-Zündfunks, he said recently that he had no problems with it at all. After all, they are references from highly valued artists. “Infinitely many people” would have influenced him. At the top of the list: Nina Simone. Basically, the connecting element is not the genre affiliation, but touches him “the ability to express feelings in text and music”. With him it is certainly the thoughtfulness and melancholy inherent in him. When asked how he would describe his music, he once replied: “Very, very sad.”
In 2021 he slipped into a life crisis
Altstötter is with the Austrian musician Anja Plaschg, Soap & Skin, together, moved from Berlin to Vienna in 2019. She inspires him musically, he says in the podcast, but “not immediately” for his new album. But of course, as his partner, she “certainly has an influence” on his emotional world. And what isn’t could still happen: “Because I think we’re both so romantic that we think we still have a lot of time to make it happen.”
In 2021 he slipped into a life crisis, everything had become too much for him. The music for his second album “One Star”, which was released at the end of April, with which he is currently touring, was created afterwards. It’s clearly more orchestral, bombastic, but just as sad and full of heartache as its debut. The pressure one is under as an artist, he says in the podcast, is “enormous”. His new work also “left clear traces”. He could understand anyone who withdraws. For his fans, there is hope that this wolf will continue to shake his cage – and break out.
youngsterTuesday, May 16, 7 p.m. (admission), Ampere, www.muffatwerk.de