from the sunset till the sunrise

THE PUSSYWARMERS is a Swiss band. I wrote some years ago about them

„The Pussywarmers is a band of a traveling circus. They play swing for the rope-dancers, blues for the knife thrower, tarantella for the lion tamer, dixieland for the magician, cha-cha-cha for the trapezists, tango for the bears, polka for the poodles, waltz for the monkeys and criss-cross for the clowns on four languages.”

They have recently released the Nightride EP under the name of THE PUSSYWARMERES  & RÉKA’S ELEKTRONISCHE ABTEILUNG via Annibale Records. And it is totally different than their previous recordings. So I have had to ask what is the story of this project?

Réka: At the beginning of the year we introduced „The Pussywarmers & Réka’s Jizz Ensemble” which represents our „Tropical Big Band”. For the new record we decided to strip down to a quartet: „Elektronische Abteilung” which means „Electronic Department”. It´s a concept for an „Alter Ego Band”. Inventing this band in a Band-Project lead to more freedom in the creative process of composing and recording.

We have a hideout in the mountains of Italy where we are only allowed to play in a low volume.  These situations forced us to play around with loops which we kept on sometimes for hours. This sounds and loops created sometimes states of hypnosis. In this new found state we also started to experiment with new sounds and instruments. For „Nightride” we wanted to capture those moods and used instruments that would reflect perfectly those nights. From the sunset till the sunrise.

„Nightride” is very cinematique, so a big influence – for this new way of writing and recording music – were definitely movies. In Zürich exists the Institute of Incoherent Cinematography. Pablo Assandri – the head of IOIC – organizes silent movie events to which he invites musicians to create new film scores for these movies in a live situation. He invited us a couple of times and we loved it. To compose music to images is a very different approach. Music can be created which would never arise in normal practicing situations. Characters and scenes of the movie can become your muses. For example we played for Fred Niblo’s film The Temptress (1926).

The event series is called „The Underworld in Silent Film”. Here is an old trailer just for the feeling

Next silent film event will be on 30 March. Marena Whitcher’s Shady Midnight Orchestra will play on the film Der Geisterzug (Ghost Train, Germany/UK, 1927) by Géza von Bolváry.

NEXT PUSSYWARMERS & RÉKA SHOWS

30.3.2017 / Geneve (CH) / Bongo Joe / NIGHTRIDE RELEASE TOUR
1.3.2017 / Basel (CH) / tba / NIGHTRIDE RELEASE TOUR
1.4.2017 / Zurich (CH) / Bundeshaus Residency 68 / NIGHTRIDE