Berlin Gumbo... the very latest and most ancient magic soup from Lower Potamia is a homage to freedom and the courage of intuition. Ingredients from the Berlin-Moscow-Haifa triangle become gumbo, a quasi-solyanka from New Orleans. The small album cauldron practically overflows with incredible ingredients, images, stories, grooves, melodies, and echoes of harmonies. Breathtaking and beguiling.
Berlin Gumbo, overwhelming and intoxicating, a dance on the volcano. Snorre Schwarz is a free-roaming drummer, composer, neighborhood philosopher, and wordsmith from Berlin.
Originally from Göttingen, he went from children's choir and school band fame in the late 80s touring with Die Fremden (punk) and out into the world, appearing on Bravo, the early VIVA and the David Volksmund Studio in Fresenhagen (Ton Steine Scherben). In 1994 he moved to Berlin, where he immersed himself in the world music scene (Di Grine Kuzine) and developed a unique stand-up drum kit into the driving force behind 5 albums and 1500 concerts. Since 2011 he has been on a polka mission with Polkaholix, constantly touring Europe. As a guest drummer, he has played with Maximilian Hecker on two tours in Europe and Asia, Katharina Frank and Rotfront Emigrantski Raggamuffin, among others.
He's always written lyrics for his bands, and in the 90s, he found a strict mentor in Heiner Maaß (Wenzel & Mensching), to whom he had to submit new poems weekly. All for the sake of art. Since 2009, Snorre has also been performing as a solo artist. He slenderly forges his own path somewhere between punk, two Udo's, Dada Da, Schlager, Die Neubauten, Heinrich von Kleist, Gustav Mahler, Stan Laurel, Sesame Street, Bruce Springsteen, Dr. John, Bukowski, Captain Beefheart, and Tom Waits...
That sounds like the Decathlon of Bermuda. Big poses and breaks here and there, chatty tones and flashes of inspiration, insight and entertainment. Simple, banal, and with poignant power. Berlin Gumbo is his third album after "Petit Berlinois" (2009) and "Piepen & Zinnober" (2014). It was produced in close collaboration with Bastian Ernicke at the Peter Miese Studio in Berlin Buchholz.
01 room in the house
02 Could be
03 Berlin Gumbo
04 Night Kiss
05 Monkey Business
06 Schniek, the Thief
