Tobias Ebert - Keiner EP (CD)

Tobias Ebert is the singer/songwriter's name; he lives in Berlin. We'll find out where exactly. Let's just finish listening to "Keiner," the title track of this debut EP. It's about the unknown person who always runs with us through life. The person who gives this collection of four songs its name. It's about "Keiner." That's the person who seems to come very close to the singing self and just as often seems to be able to distance himself far away. "Keiner" could be a song from Rio Reiser's solo years. Behind the very private lies a political past, and the thoughtful and sensitive also emerges in the form of a dynamic voice rebelling against something.
The private sphere is at the forefront of these four songs. In "Wonderyear," Tobias Ebert even allows himself to wax nostalgic, with flashbacks to diving from the 10-meter diving board in the outdoor pool and violins in the chorus. The scene: a summer of love, romantic sunshine, meetings in lovers' hideaways. It remains unclear whether the "Wonderyear" has continued, but the hope for a happy ending prevails.
At least Tobias Ebert lives in Berlin today, in Pankow, where the fox and the hare say "good night"—no, nonsense—to each other, and the neighbor and the neighbor say "good day." The accompanying song comes in over the drums, the nightlife within the classic rock instrumentation. Between beginning and end, a swan song for everything big and strenuous. A celebration of the small, the quiet, of face-to-face togetherness. It's in this milieu that we can seek out Tobias Ebert himself.
His songs sound as if, in another life, he had squatted houses or at least smoked pot in unrenovated attics in Prenzlauer Berg. Several, many years ago, several lifetimes ago. He accompanies himself on the piano, thus returning to his original instrument, after Tobias Ebert had relied on the electric guitar in his younger years. Currently (or when it's possible again), Tobias Ebert is on tour as the pianist for fellow singer/songwriter Florian Glässing. The small blond also performs on stage, giving solo performances at acoustic pop festivals. And as a tenor with the hkw choir, the soprano-alto-tenor-bass ensemble of the Berlin House of World Cultures.
Tobias Ebert has been around for a long time, since 2000. It seems like a record that he never wanted to release a solo album. Now it's finally here. With the song "Die Brüche" from this debut EP, produced by the aforementioned Florian Glässing, Ebert tells a story of growing up and adulthood, of contentment honed in the spectrum between pop youth and pop rebellion.
It's ideal, then, that “Pankow” ends with a Hammond organ burble; thus, on the organic whipped cream of rock instruments.
Christoph Braun

01 None
02 Wonderyear
03 The Fractures
04 Pankow