Konrad Kuechenmeister is surely one of the most captivating artists of the contemporaryunderground music scene. While being live on stage he personifies the harmony oftraditional musician`s skills and the multimedia techniques of the new millenium.

How:

This multi-instrumentalist is composing, arranging, creating, mixing and does all that LIVEon stage. While doing so he uses traditional instruments like guitar, bass guitar,melodica, djembe, didgeridoo, Brasilian percussion and shakers which he plays andrecords with his loopstation. Then adding his vocals and some beatboxing with moderneffects the loopstation is converting all those several recordings into an „endless loop“.With this loopstation Konrad can easily re-arrange the order of the single loops and bydoing that creates a sound that you would usually expect to be played by a band.

Konrad Kuechenmeister`s music completely goes without pre-fabricated samples butinstead creates sounds in a rather abstract way using bottles, pots, bowls, spoons, cake-tins, milk frothers and other unusual „instruments“. By leaving enough space forimprovisations every single show is unique and special.

Where:

Konrad started his career as a street musician in Berlin and since those days he playedmore than 700 shows in Europe, the US, China and Brasil where he was supporting ManuChao at the Arena in Brasilia.

What:

All the impressions and inspirations he was subject to during his touring culminated in thisvery unique style which is as well-rounded as concise. His music is a very owninterpretaion of styles like Drum`nBass, Reggae, Dancehall, Dub, House, HipHop, LatinMusic, Ska and Breakbeat and is the reason why each of his shows is and unforgettableexperience.

Bio:

In 1982 Konrad Kuechenmeister was born in Dresden/ Germany. At the age of 4 he gotaddicted to music already. His dad is musician and had a room packed with instruments –a room that turned into Konrad`s playground.

At the age of 22 he had the chance to join the American band „Regatta69“ as keyboardplayer and toured Europe, the US, England and Switzerland with the band.

Konrad really enjoyed performing with the guys but pretty soon felt himself limited to playjust one instrument. He wanted more than that. And there was more....

In spring of 2006 he suddenly discovered the Loopstation (initially the RC20XL). Equippedwith a car battery, an amplifier, his loopstation and several instruments he gigged aroundBerlin as a street musician.

Then out of his improvisations he developed songs and set up a show. And pretty soonafterwards he got the chance to perform on a stage. And a few days later a radio station(RadioFritz) took notice of his skills and by that he had his first radio interview and also hisfirst solo show in the summer of 2006. In autumn then the TV show of XEN.ON shot adocumentary about him and his show which was broadcasted by 17 other channels inGermany like RBB, OKB and OKR (and sometimes is still broadcasted).

After he had played a lot of shows – sometimes in tiny little in-scene venues andsometimes on bigger festival stages – this draw „SPUR1-MUSIC“`s interest on him. Theindie label offered him to record and release an album, which was pressed in a strictlylimited version of just 500 pieces. In spring of 2008 „Loopool“ his first album was releasedand was sold out within the next three months. „Battery Street“ the successing album isnot a limited edition was released in summer of 2009.

Surely one of the most impressive highlight of his career as a solo musician was histouring with „BerlinLoopBrasil“in the summer of 2008. The German Embassy invited thecollective to perform 2 months in Brasil within the framework of the „German Culture Fest“supported by the „Goethe Institute“. „BerlinLoopBrasil“ is a collective of Konrad, severaldancers, a film artist as well as a light artist of Berlin`s „Haus der Kulturen der Welt“, whichis is a place for international contemporary arts and a forum for current developments anddiscourse.

Due to the huge media coverage the local shows were massively packed with people andthe artists performed in front of up to 5000 people. Even the first show at the famous„Teatro Caixa Cultural“ was sold out. While touring Brasil Konrad got in touch with a lot ofmusicians who were introduced to looping by him. Pretty soon some of those local artistsjoined the German collective and became part of the collective. The tour of„BerlinLoopBrasil“ suddenly turned into the project of „BerlinLoopBrasil“ and due to thegrowing demand he toured again three times with the project in Brasil and it was anhonour for him to warm up for ManuChao as his official support act in the „Arena Brasila“

In 2009 Konrad was constantly touring Germany, playing more than 100 shows in differentvenues and festivals.

In spring 2010, Konrad was invited to play five concerts in Shanghai / China at the WorldExibition “EXPO 2010”. Around this five shows, he played in “Mao Live Club China” and infront of the German President “Horst Köhler”. The great success of the shows in Chinaand the positive feedback of the Chinese press and fans Konrad was invited again in fall2010 for seven more concerts in Shanghai.

In Winter 2010, Konrad flew again to China to play his first show in Chengdu.

Beginning of 2011, Konrad played his first concert in Dubai. Back in Europe, he playedshows in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France and Germany, before he went on tour in Brazilin September. Right after this tour, Konrad flew from Brazil to North America, to tour thestates with "King Django" and local loop artists from the United States. The tour was fullypacked with 25 concerts, played within 25 days in 25 cities.

Konrad's first live DVD "Konrad Kuechenmeister Live" was published in Dezember 2011.

In 2012, Konrad played shows in Germany, Austria and Italy and got booked by theGerman abassy, to tour Brazil again together with BerlinLoopBrasil 2012.

2012 Konrad played many concerts in Germany, Austria and Italy.

From July to August 2012, the German Embassy in Brazil invited Konrad perform in Brazilagain together with BerlinLoopBrasil.. This tour is focused on the show at “CenaContemporania Brasilia”, one of the most famous contemporary art festivals in Brazil...With almost 4000 people infront of Konrads stage, more than 20 ballet dancers from Brazilon his stage and two visual artists next to his stage, this show was another highlight of hismusical career.

In October 2012, Konrad won the “Fritznacht der Talente 2012 Award” in the sold outAdmiral Palast in Berlin.

In the last months, Konrad toured for the second time in Macedonia, was "Looptrainer" atthe Echo Awards, and were two times on the television channels ARD and KIKA. At themoment, Konrad records his new album together with Spur1-music in Berlin and Dresden.He will play on many festivals in Germany and Italy in summer 2013...

To be continued ...