Odd Beholder

In the organizer's words:

Odd Beholder is the electro wave / indie pop project of Swiss musician Daniela Weinmann, with which she precisely and laconically records the oddities, shadows and misunderstandings of our time. Weinmann tells of alienation and escapism, of emancipation and the view of a possible better world. Her version of embracing, dark pop music deals with unpleasant truths in order to offer comfort at the same time.

On their debut album "All Reality Is Virtual", everything revolves around digitalization - unconditional accessibility and merciless transparency with simultaneous isolation - and how we can still find ourselves and each other. On her second album "Sunny Bay", Weinmann again addresses the topic of nature and the romantic notions and existential fears that we project into nature. Prior to this, Odd Beholder released two EPs - "Lighting" (2016) and "Atlas" (2017). 2018 also saw the release of the EP "Remixes", to which artists such as The/Das, Fejka and Hundreds contributed their work.

On Odd Beholder's third album "Feel Better" (Dec. 2023), Weinmann deals with mental health and coming to terms with her own family history. She talks about inherited traumas and growing up within uninspiring perspectives and conservative gender role models. "Feel Better" is an album about having the courage to explore your own dark spaces in order to finally move on and live life on your own terms.

The collab EP "Lost in Communication", which Weinmann recorded together with songwriter Long Tall Jefferson and which is supported by ProHelvetia as part of a Covid scholarship, will be released in spring 2023. The two invite various Swiss songwriters (Zeal & Ardor, Evelinn Trouble, Leoni Leoni, Phil Hayes etc.) to document current Swiss songwriting and help the various approaches to gain more attention in the associated joint podcast.

Odd Beholder is always looking to get closer to film; for Weinmann, visual expression is an essential component. The video clip for the single "Landscape Escape", shot by Berlin filmmakers Grambow & Kirchknopf in collaboration with the Azerbaijani Social & Modern Dance Association, won the jury prize for the "Best Swiss Video Clip" award in 2017. In 2019, Weinmann filmed with the performance artist Ernestyna Orlowska and the interdisciplinary Belgian-Swiss dancer and choreographer Annalena Fröhlich. Conversely, music from Odd Beholder's songs is often used in films. The song "Landscape Escape", for example, plays a central role in the film "Mario" by Marcel Gisler, which deals with the complicated handling of homosexuality in the world of soccer.

Odd Beholder is invited to important festivals such as Great Escape (UK), Eurosonic (NL) or Reeperbahn Festival (DE), tours in China, Italy, Germany and Switzerland and is explicitly requested as support by the Hamburg pop duo Hundreds and the Berliners Bodi Bill to accompany their respective tours.

Weinmann is a co-founder of Music Declares Emergency Switzerland, a politically independent initiative made up of artists and people working in the music industry in general, which campaigns for climate protection in the industry and develops responses to the climate emergency. In 2023, Weinmann is directing a documentary that examines the sense and nonsense of various sustainability measures taken by Swiss festivals.