Ich brauche eine Genie #23: w/ Bernadette La Hengst & Sofia Portanet spielen. Kersty Grether liest aus "Bravo Bar" (Roman). Ein Abend mit The Doctorella.

In the organizer's words:

27.06.2024: I need a genius #23 - pop culture, feminism, castles in the air & so on

Location: Kantine am Berghain, Berlin

Admission: 7.30 pm Start: 8.30 pm

VVK: 9 euros (rausgegangen), B.O.: 10 euros

Music:

Bernadette La Hengst (electro-pop, political clash, piano ballads) presents songs from her latest album "Visionäre Leere"

Sofia Portanet (NNDW, synth-pop, chanson) presents songs from her recently released album "Chasing Dreams"

Reading:

Kersty Grether reads in advance and exclusively from her new novel to be published in the fall."BRAVO BAR" is a pop, social, contemporary, hip-hop and episodic novel .(Ventil Verlag)

Musical accompaniment / An evening with...

The hosts Sandra and Kersty aka The Doctorella (Noise-Rock, Trap-Rock, Dreampop) play songs from their upcoming album "Mondscheinpsychose, Bordsteinrose" (release September 24) in a full band line-up to provide the musical backdrop.

Moderation: Kersty Grether & Sandra Grether

supported by the Musicboard Berlin GmbH

Sounds are air creatures, yes! In our summer edition of "I need a genie" with the motto "Building castles in the air", the most exciting female* dreamer acts of the moment will take flight!

Bernadette La Hengst, Sofia Portanet, The Doctorella and Kersty Grether build castles in the air with their sarcastic songs and books: on the one hand, because they can play with and entertain their inner child again and again and then let go. As Sofia Portanet sings in "Balloon": "Always wanted to go where the lights are, become like a butterfly, what I am, ooh ohh." On the other hand, because they all three chase dreams that are also political dreams; songs about climate, mental health, identity, patriarchy, you know, the topics that are currently in the air; but each time presented in a completely different dreamy splendor.

For example, when Bernadette La Hengst sings an auspicious piano ballad: "And she is like a utopia (like a queen) that doesn't even exist yet (only without a kingdom), she can rule herself and everyone becomes equal... The solidarity of all genders is tenderness."

So let's go, in the most beautiful air castle month of the year, when all hopes are still fresh, to the Berghain Kantine, when it says for the 23rd time: "I need a genius."

Music:

Bernadette La Hengst

Solidarity, empathy, rock'n'roll! "Bernadette La Hengst is considered by many to be a pioneer in female pop music." (NDR)

The singer, multi-instrumentalist and theater maker digs deep, asks questions, doesn't let up. She sings for women and the climate, against misanthropy and neoliberalism .Her poetic and often humorous lines are carried by cheerful and growling guitars, lively electropop and piano ballads. And the gifted guitarist plays songs about relationship disputes with an inviting bossa nova summer breeze feeling.

Because buryingher head in the sand is out of the question for the former frontwoman of Hamburg beat-punk girl band Die Braut haut ins Auge: "I'm always more in favor of celebrating diversity than lamenting the lack of it," she says .In this respect, she remains optimistic, building castles in the air included!

Give me back my future: Bernadette La Hengst (youtube.com)

Sofia Portanet

With blood-red painted lips, Sofia Portanet reinvents the new wave sound of the eighties for Generation Z and skillfully alternates between pop past and retro-modernity. The hypnotic, big pop melodies of the singer, who grew up in Paris and lives in Berlin, are reminiscent of French chansons and Neue Deutsche Welle. Her critically acclaimed debut "Freier Geist" was released four years ago, and on the recently released album "Chasing Dreams" she now shows a new, even more personal and vulnerable side of herself. "The record has a lot of anger, a lot of heartache, a lot of self-reflection."

And this record is also about childhood dreams, on which she sings in German, French, English and Spanish - the song "Lust" contains a duet with Tobias Bamborschke from Isolation Berlin. Despite the often serious themes, the songs are danceable, energetic and self-confident. Anyone whose musical inspiration is the synth-pop of the Eigthies and who also works with Lana Del Rey producer John Fortis can't be a bad person anyway - building castles in the air included!

Sofia Portanet - Balloon (youtube.com)

Reading:

Kersty Grether

"Bravo Bar" is the story of three soulmates facing outrageous challenges. Set to a soundtrack of German rap, the infernal trio experience an endless summer in which their emotions run wild. The only constant: the legendary Bravo Bar in Berlin's Torstraße as an anchor point. "Bravo Bar takes us on a love-stirring trip through Berlin, thanks to Grether's eloquent storytelling skills." Leonie Scholl aka "Die Supererbin" (musician & music journalist )

Kersty Grether is one of the most important voices of pop feminism in the German-speaking world. She became famous and notorious as an author for SPEX as a teenager. In 2004, she published the highly acclaimed novel "Zuckerbabys", followed by essay collections, an anthology about Madonna and the novel "An einem Tag für rote Schuhe". The FAZ calls her "the Susan Sontag of German pop criticism", Deutschlandfunk describes her as a total work of art.

Musical accompaniment:

The Doctorella play new songs:

Noise rock and trap rock, great melodies and luminous metaphors. You can look forward to the new album, which will be released in September!

THE DOCTORELLA - If we were dead - YouTube