Hotel Rimini | Allein unter Möbel Tour 2024 | Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg

"October in Rimini" is not just an Italian film classic from the 70s. The three words are also the answer to the question of its origins. The origin of the wondrous, likeable and almost insanely accomplished band Hotel Rimini. In October in Rimini, six disabled musicians were working as hotel employees in a run-down vacation resort on the Adriatic coast. Julius and Paul worked as elevator boys in baggy uniforms, always taking the same route between upstairs and downstairs. Annegret was in charge of the hotel's volleyball team, which was more than respectable given her height of 1.58 meters. Jakob was responsible for the kitchen, Valentin worked as a pool attendant and Paula spruced up the rooms with routine meticulousness. They all shared a passion for music and the need to cross-finance their bohemian lifestyle. The dreary song of the off-season sang its same old refrain until it was abruptly interrupted by the autumnal lockdown. Tristesse virale, so to speak. The hotel closed its doors and the already few guests left the harbor of package tourism. In this mixture of empty rooms and growing inspiration, the six formed a band, moved into the presidential suite without further ado and developed their debut album "Allein unter Möbeln". Or was everything completely different? Let's stick with Werner Herzog, indulge in the ecstatic truth and concentrate on the essentials. In this case, the essentials are the 13 songs that Hotel Rimini recorded for their debut album, which is remarkable in its stylistic confidence and complexity. When you make timeless music, it's hard to be the band of the moment. And yet "Allein unter Möbeln" is a clear messenger of the present. This also has to do with the lyrics by singer Julius Forster, who accompanies the realities of our time with a raspy voice and astute observations. And everyone knows better, but no one knows exactly. Over two cups of espresso, we pull ourselves through the cocoa - from "Jubel Trubel Eitelkeit"

The song lines never slide into boring moralizing and always leave room for personal interpretation. Failure in the face of the brutalities of everyday life plays a greater role at Hotel Rimini than the political anyway. On the subject of "coming to terms with the past on public transport", for example, it says: "The crime scene investigators on TV are no longer what they used to be. And I want to pull you out of traffic, I'll flee from you on the train. Beautiful lyrics that meet sophisticated music. Drawn comparisons to Element Of Crime or Rio Reiser are very gallant, but fall short. Hotel Rimini's wide range of instruments between indie and chanson includes complex string arrangements as well as catchy guitar hooks. Sometimes an old Casio gets lost in a song, sometimes a French horn is used sporadically. A howling electric guitar or groovy, rumbling drums find their place just as much as a string trio reminiscent of Schubert. In "Hilde", the last song on the album, there is even a one-minute double bass solo that doesn't sound pretentious, but beautiful. The fact that the album's versatility makes it sound like a unified whole is also thanks to producer Sascha Hünermund, in whose charming studio in the west of Leipzig the Riminis recorded almost all the songs live. So you could say that "Allein unter Möbeln", which was released in the fall of 2023, is an excellent debut album that is now taking them on an extensive tour of German-speaking countries.