SOUNDGARDEN Festival

For the first time, we’re hosting a mini-festival in the monastery garden of the Kartäuserkirche and presenting four young female musicians: CARA from Cologne and the indie-folk trio ANIMAT from Paderborn. 

CARA

CARA’s songs are like diary entries: inspired by self-discovery, relationships, family, city life, and music.
With her distinctive voice, CARA tells raw and poetic stories—emotional and unvarnished—about closeness, distance, love, and loss. CARA is the alias of 23-year-old Cologne-based musician Cara Luisa Bäumer, whom she uses as an outlet and a mirror for her inner worlds.
On her debut EP, she processes her experience with a close relative struggling with alcoholism through the single “Weißweinen.” The track “Verbind die Lider” captures the feeling of insomnia and nightmares through poetic imagery, while “Heiliger Abend” reflects on home and coming of age.
“Wann und Wo” describes the desire to be with a loved one at any cost, and in “Dritte Chance,” CARA explores the end of a relationship.
Finally, “Für Mama” is an intimate, almost disarmingly simple declaration of love to her mother. Each song is stripped down to the essentials and moves between singer-songwriter vibes and modern pop aesthetics. The Cologne-based artist achieved her first successes with placements on playlists such as POPLAND and fresh finds GSA.
The songs are created in collaboration with her writing partner and producer Noah Dröge, who has helped weave the common thread throughout her sound. The two are inseparable and, while maintaining their own unique style, let influences from Schmyt, Paula Hartmann, and Trettmann shine through—yet they still prove that CARA has an unmistakably distinctive sound of her own.

ANIMAT

“I guess I saw the world with eyes closed.” This line from the title track of “Slowwalker,” the debut EP by the up-and-coming indie-folk trio animat, touches on so many themes: growing up, past reserve, and new hope. It also almost seems as though the trio is explaining that forming the band has added something essential for the three musicians—both in their music-making and in life in general.
Anna Meier, Tabea Niewerth, Milena Wagner—these are the names of the three animat members. Their harmonized vocals define the songs on “Slowwalker”; each musician has her own unique timbre, and when combined, they create pure magic. That’s exactly what makes the “Slowwalker” EP so captivating. As you listen, you feel like part of the group and open your eyes alongside them. Great music shouldn’t draw attention to itself—or to the people who created it—but rather to the world around it. That’s exactly what the title track of “Slowwalker” is about: moving forward with an open mind. And not just hoping, but knowing that tomorrow is a new day. A good day.

Please note: Bringing your own drinks and bringing animals are not permitted.