By: Sebastian Hess & Henrik Wittgren (Organizers of Electronic Summer & Winter festivals in Gothenburg)
In the aftermath of Alt-Fest we wanted to share our thoughts about organizing events and festivals. Especially how high-risk festivals without proper funding jeopardize every other event and festival in the scene. [more...]
Rewind South – the 80s Festival – Henley, UK – August 15-17 2014 – report
Posted In Live Reviews and Photos,Slider
Release Magazine guest writer Sebastian Hess went to the Rewind Festival in Henley outside London to revel in 80:s pop music and to have a chat with icon Jimmy Somerville. Read about the meeting with Jimmy in an upcoming article.
Rewind Festival has become a big part of the UK festival Summer with 3 huge events attracting over 100 000 people in total. The concept is full on 80:s with bright colours all over and artists who will bring back memories of your youth in a flash. The line-up this year included a lot of artists with their roots in electronic music like Marc Almond, Holly Johnson, A Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins (well, Tom Bailey from Thompson Twins at least.) and Jimmy Somerville.
Sebastian put on one pink glove and dove in. [more...]
Release meets Jimmy Somerville
Posted In Interviews,Slider
Sebastian Hess met up with icon Jimmy Somerville backstage at the Rewind Festival in Henley outside London. Jimmy Somerville first became famous in Bronski Beat in the early 80:s, then he went on to start The Communards and has also released several solo albums. In early 2015 his new disco album will be released. [more...]
Release writer Sebastian Hess met up with Australian electronic pop act Parralox just as they were about to hit the stage and open for Erasure in London. Sebastian has followed the band very closely since their early days. He booked them for a concert in Sweden back in 2010 and also for the Electronic Summer festival in 2012. Being an avid supporter of hard working indie acts he couldn’t help feeling very happy seeing Parralox get a chance like this.
Release writer Sebastian Hess caught up with Alison Moyet about a week before the start of her 2015 tour. The tour kicks off in Malmö, Sweden on February 12 and takes her to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. “There will be Yazoo songs and it will be a show for the fans who love the electronic music”, she says.
The interview came to touch subjects as diverse as her thoughts on touring, her experiences of the music business – and why she hasn’t been to any Southend United FC games this year.
French electronic rock band Indochine has been active since the early eighties but while they are stars in their home country, Sweden is the only non French speaking country where they have had big hits. Release guest writer Henrik Wittgren met up with Indochine in Stockholm during the band’s recent mini club tour and our writer Sebastian Hess did some detective work, got hold of the people involved in the release of early Indochine records in Sweden and found out how a former coffee machine salesman helped make Indochine big in Sweden back in the days. [more...]
IAMX – Debaser Medis – Stockholm – February 20 2016 – report
Posted In Live Reviews and Photos,Slider
Release writer Sebastian Hess jumped on the train from Gothenburg to Stockholm to catch IAMX live. This is his report together with photos by Martin Wilson.
Swedish artist, remixer and producer Krister “Krycko” Petersson has passed away at the age of 41. He was one half of synthpop/ italo disco act Vision Talk and over the years he had several other projects like Chinese Theatre, Vz Vintage Project and SwedIT. [more...]
EBM tracks are known to be very direct and usually between 3 and 4 minutes long. Release writer Sebastian Hess decided to ambush Mattias Ziessow from Spark! for an interview as short as a track. The interview clocked in at 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
Photo by: Sebastian Hess (Release)
Release writer Sebastian Hess went to a ”hipster” festival to try to find some synthpop. He made it out alive with at least a few findings and feeling somewhat confused – but mostly just very privileged.