Kassiopeia is live in Junction Bar on the 19th July with support from Zazuka – if you like Tori Amos and Evanescence you’ll love Kassiopeia
Kassiopeia started as a band back in 2008, centred around singer and pianist Lina Farah, an Egyptian girl who’d grown up in Germany. The band rose to local prominence in a short time, playing a festival or two and setting themselves off on an extended tour. This wouldn’t last however, and when the band stopped touring and playing live to concentrate on writing and recording Cyclone, their first proper album, differences of opinion and personnel changes cropped up and eventually Lina decided to rebirth the band as a solo artist project – but she kept the band’s drummer, Till Menzer, who ended up studying jazz drumming in a school in Weimar.
Touches of frailty interspersed with moments of anger breaking through
Expecting that they would need to find others to perform live, after playing a few gigs as a two piece – piano, drums/percussion and voice – they realised that it just wasn’t necessary: the chemistry was right, and that’s always the hardest thing to find. And Lina’s full-bodied piano style, together with Till’s jazz-tinged percussive quests filled the sound up as much as the songs needed.
The focus of most of Kassiopeia pieces is Lina’s unique voice: at times anxious, a little frail, at times an anger breaking through. Unusual harmonic progressions combine with insistent melodies to provide moments of surprise and unexpected twists.
Playing in Junction Bar on the 19th, it’ll be the first Kassiopeia gig in Berlin as a duo, although both Lina and Till have played plenty of times with Mondo Mash Up Soundsystem, a very different band project that they’re involved with. Mondo Mashup is eleven frantic musicians playing upbeat and uptempo ska-esque songs.
Facebook Event Kassiopeia Live in Junction Bar 19.7
Sounds Like: Evanescence, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Dido.
Support is from Berlin-based Zazuka
Jordanian-born Zazuka (piano and vocals) is a Berlin-based songwriter and composer. Her songs in Arabic and English are stories of self-transformation and the coexistence of contradictions. She met the versatile Matthias Haffner (percussion) in Berlin, and together the duo plays on layering and interweaving their various cultural influences in dancing tapestries.
