Goethe Talents 2020

Dato Seiko is a 24 year old genre fluid Singer/songwriter from Botswana, with Bachelor of degree in Live Performance from AFDA, currently working on her first studio album. With her unique voice, Dato Seiko thrives not on duality but more on the quadruble threat. She is a dynamic performer on the theatrical stage, a talented visual/fine artist, a vocalist and guitarist. She also coaches music for young bands and choirs and, volunteers at the Ramotswa schoof of deaf and House of young as a show lead.

Djim Radé likes pushing limits. In his new album, the chadian songwriter, composer and performer invites you on an intellectual sound travel through the complex jazz harmonies added to traditional chadian spheres like Saï and banyan sonorities.

In opposite to his first EP “Toh Nal”, published in 2014, Djim Radé sings now in a groovy style, songs that touch the intimacy, the beauty of life or the complex relationship between human beings and also some engaged titles concerning his country – Chad.

After musicology studies in France he formed the jazz band “The Toh Nal Project” which brought him to perform in Europe and Japan. Back in Chad, he wouldn’t stop creating new concepts in the way of promoting jazz to people his native country. So he created the “Ronel Jazz Festival N’Djamena” to host jam session with Sao Couleur Jazz and The Mbassa Band Collective. He aims always the same: to amaze.

Dumama is a South African future folk performing artist, songwriter and cultural researcher. Inspired by issues around inequality and displacement, she experiments with notions of ancient sounds in a new world, with projects concerned with cultural preservation and the tension and harmonies present in intergenerational exchanges.

Reimagining folk music of ancestors, living and deceased, Dumama works with the voice, live loops, handmade bow instruments and distortions.

Dumama makes music that creates fertile foundations for the re-imagination and re-writing of our narratives. Her aim is to inspire transformation in African and global contexts around knowledge production, spirituality for disruption, reflection, and collective healing.

Cairo-born bass guitarist Mahmoud Fawzy comes from family of gifted musicians. His father was a singer in the 1970s in a well known choir. Thus, Mahmoud was raised in a house full of music. From a young age, he has been playing the bass guitar joining different bands and performing at multiple concerts, in and outside of Egypt. He now plays in two main bands, composes and arranges songs.

The bands are “Mazeek” a band mixing sounds of African beats and Nubian folklore music and “Meshwar” an Egyptian reggae music band.

Besides mastering the bass guitar, Mahmoud plays the Ukulele, the piano and percussions. As music teacher, he was one of the first to join the PASCH-choir, a project by Goethe-Institut Cairo and PASCH Egypt. Apart from building up the choir amongst other artists and teachers, he attended several workshops about conducting and leading a choir as well.

Fishdoll is a Beijing based alternative electronic music producer and singer. Deeply influenced by Jazz and other indie music, Fishdoll’s unique sound textures move fluidly between and amongst music styles, breaking the rules of genre and frames. While in New York she was also inspired by Hip-Hop and Soul music, and began exploring how she can freely express herself through sampling. In 2014 she started releasing personal projects on Soundcloud which drew the attention of local producers due to the lush vocals. After collaborating with some rising producers such as Froyo Ma, Softglas, Madison Mcferrin and Anna Wise, Fishdoll got attention from Brooklyn record labels “Youngbloods”, “Paxico records” and the Chinese electronic music label “Do hits”. In 2018, She released her debut album Noonsense through Paxico Records, very soon it got selected on the “Best Electronic New Album” of Bandcamp daily.

Born in México City in 1990. Self-taught musician and coder. Started making music at age 13. In 2015 released EP ‘Inner’ as Moonatic composing and recording guitar, backing and main vocals, bass and synth. In 2017 scored music for ‘WireLines’. In 2018 In 2018 released LP ‘Another Sky’ as Moonatic. In 2020 released EP ‘Jhula’ as Glitch Bird. As part of Moonatic has opened shows for The Album Leaf, Balmorhea and Low Roar. Glitch Bird blends evolving atmospheres, sticky basslines, hallucinating sequences, and simple yet captivating beats. His live presentations are closer to ambient and techno. The live set makes use of bass and beat sequences, as well as live improvisations and recordings of electronic and midi instruments. The use of long decaying delays and improvisation results in organic and unique live sets.

Joana Cid is a bass player, composer and producer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who was part of local Bands like Tipo Uísque performing on international stages such as SXSW (Austin, TX) and the Brazilian Film Festival in Australia. Currently, she plays the bass in Johnny Hooker’s band since 2015 and also with her own band called A Vana, a trio of experimental pop music, exploring polyrhythms, polytonality and a creative freedom mixing electronic elements with instrumental parts, soft tones and psychedelic atmospheres. Their first EP was released in June 2019 and is called “Saudade da Minha Ex” (in Portuguese it means “Missing Out My Ex”) as a joke with the latest democratically elected Brazilian president.
Her work as a producer comes with LALA (Lésbicas Assassinas de Los Angeles) a duo of music production formed by Naná Rizinni and Joana Cid which’s planning to be a record label for LGBTQIA+ artists in Brazil.

Lunate is a small, moon-shaped bone in the human hand, and a music project by Juan Manuel Cortés. Seeking to create musical compositions that carry the moody oscillations of Bogota, the Colombian artist explores sound inspired by the scenery, cycles and dynamics of the city. Since 2016 he released a tape on 100% Silk and various tracks on different electronic music labels.

In addition, 2018 saw the birth of Malviaje, an attempt to revisit Corteś Colombian musical ancestry. The research delved into Currulao, a traditional rhythm made in the Pacific region of the country with a time signature of 6/8. The result (to be released soon) is an exploration of rhythmic patterns that will make people move, but remain different to the traditional 4×4 approach: dance floor friendly music, that doesn’t exactly fit with contemporary dance music or with the traditional Colombian output.

Thanart Rasanon, aka Pete TR is a Bangkok born and based music producer and DJ. He has deep interests in art, culture, nature, psyche, social interaction, politics, new technology, and history. Additionally, he is always excited to collaborate with others and work in multi-disciplinary mediums. Currently, he runs “blozxom“, a project that exchanges and introduces friends from different towns in the world who create fascinating, charming or innovative things in music, art and culture. His latest work, ‘Memory Journey’ (2019), is a mini album with each track accompanied by a memoir relating to multiple personal experiences.
He premiered a live soundtrack for the 2010 Cannes Palme d’Or award-winning Thai film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2015 short film ‘Vapour’ at the 20th Busan Film Festival, in Busan, South Korea.
As a DJ he volunteers for Dublab, a non-profit radio station based in Los Angeles with a monthly show called “M.SEA Vibe” which explores, exchanges and connects the vibe of Southeast Asias mainland with innovative music from the rest of the planet. He performed DJ sets in the US and Japan as well.

Wooly and the Uke is an indie-folk project laced around the phantasmagoria that pours out of the singer and the songwriter, Janat Sohail Aziz. Her music is crafted upon satire and often, the disconnection with what lies within. Based on an ominous sound of the ukulele, the structures push and spill out of the preconceived boundaries.
Having remained a former member of Pakistan’s first all-female ensemble in Nescafe Basement, Janat Sohail Aziz introduced Wooly and the Uke in 2016. Her debut single called ‘Circus’ stirred a melancholy with its hollow atmosphere and soaring orchestration, pushing one into an enchanting fantasy. In 2020, she released a new single in collaboration with Poor Rich Boy, an indie-folk band based in Pakistan, called Watch – similar to Circus, it frames the struggles of humans and their weakening attempt at humanity.
Currently based in Tallinn, Estonia, Wooly and the Uke aims to release an EP in 2020.