JONATHAN BREE - ROBBING MILLIONS - JOHN MOODS I Cancelled

The self-proclaimed master of misery performs behind masks and leans on pantomime and 1960s nostalgia. This is where lounge and mod cultures hook-up in a dance hall and bond over melancholic orchestral strings

Jonathan Bree is a musician from New Zealand, known for melodic compositions where he croons about modern life and love, over string parts that slide precariously between notes and dulcitones chimes. The end result is a musical palette one could describe as dark Disney. These elements are present in his breakthrough viral hit, ‘You’re So Cool,’ which currently has over 12 million views on YouTube.

His live shows have also gained him a cult following across the world. Masked band members in pioneering clothing are set against a backdrop of cinematic projections created specifically for each song. Unusual for an indie act, he also has two dancers who perform other-worldly choreographed routines along with the music. These performances have seen Jonathan Bree tour extensively across the globe. A reviewer from Time Out Australia was "mesmerized" by his "surreal and filmic" show at the Sydney Arts Festival.

His latest single ‘Waiting on the Moment’ is a break-up song you can dance to. It expresses the pain of revisiting places where a love you once knew had significance. In this case a karaoke bar. Rather than presented within a tearjerker ballad, the music gives another angle, one of celebration. There is an optimism in moving on, confronting and acting on your sense of loss. Many of Bree’s signature sounds are present - bendy strings, clicky bass, dulcitone and arpeggiated synth, but it's perhaps his most pop focused track to date.

ROBBING MILLIONS

Robbing Millions is back! After the release of a critically acclaimed eponymous debut album in late 2016 and appearances on many prestigious venues (Pitchfork Paris, Pukkelpop, Dour Festival, Eurosonic, Paleo Festival,etc) Lucien Fraipont's avant-pop has known a lull. The different members of the band each went their own way and Lucien went alone to Los Angeles where he found an ideal collaborator in Shags Chamberlain, cult figure of the indie scene known for his work with Ariel Pink, Drugdealer and Mac Demarco. Between these sessions, Lucien collaborated with Aksak Maboul as a sideman and produced the first EP of the surprising Judith Kiddo that he accompanies on stage. The duo worked on the album for eighteen months during different sessions in Brussels and Los Angeles. The result is a journey of 18 songs with surprising influences including Brazilian MPB, Wally Badarou, Italian progressive rock effluves, video game music and the weirdo pop of Ariel Pink and Gary Wilson. Scheduled for release in 2020!

John Moods

John Moods is the solo music project of Berlin native Jonathan J. (co-founder of the band Fenster. At the heart of these tenderly crafted pop songs is a desire to get up close and personal with nature and the infinite. His goal is to make healing pop music, to zoom out and explore what it means to live on a planet in the universe. To try and accept death and see the humour in existence. As life in the modern world has become incredibly fast and saturated, he believes it is time for a new, open, modern form of radical optimism and spirituality in music and beyond. John Moods' songs are full of intuitive melodies and silky smooth harmonies, creating a growing canon of contemporary soft rock hits with shimmering waves of psychedelia. He released his debut album "The Essential John Moods" largely composed and produced on an iphone while traveling in 2018 with the Berlin based label Mansions and Millions. His new album starts where the first one left off but explodes into various new directions, a bit more groovy, a bit more sad, a bit more happy and mostly both at the same time. If "The Essential John Moods" was a seed planted in the soil, the sophomore will be a delicate sprout bursting through the crusty layer of earth catching its first glimpse of sky. In June 2019 he released the single "I Wanted You" - a little taste of John Moods' second album that he's currently working on.