Update & 2025 / Year in Review Pt. 1

Happy new year!

2025 was a fantastic year filled with a lot of quality music, unforgettable concerts and festivals, as well as meeting a lot of wonderful people! I would like to thank everyone that has read, enjoyed and participated in helping this blog grow. Without you, it wouldn’t be possible.

Update number one

In a couple of weeks time, there will be a big chance on a personal level as my son will be born on 21st January. It’s something that our family has been looking forward to a lot over the last few months and we can’t wait.

The blog will be a bit more relaxed than last year, I am still proud, of not only the blog being a year and a half old (I had a blog in Paris which fizzled out within a few weeks/months) but also of the output that I was able to maintain last year, with almost a post a week.

I would also be at a lot less concerts and festivals this year. However, I will be at the upcoming Alles Post- MusikFest! for its fourth edition at Dynamo/Werk 21 in Zurich on Saturday 30th May. Definitely a date to add to your calendars and hope to see you there.

And now onto the review of the first half of 2025:

January

January like this year seemed to start off very slowly. There seems to be something about the Winter break having a knock-on effect on the beginning of the year.

The first three posts were reviewing 2024 (part one, part two, part three) and trying to find my way back in to the groove. Around the same time, I received some excellent advice which was just to take a step back from the blog and then the inspiration would come flooding back. This also seems to be true so far this year.

There was also an interview with Lausanne-based, post-rock, post-metal band, Orso. It was great to find out about their approach to songwriting as well as their coffee that they made to coincide with the release of Caffè.

I also had the pleasure of seeing Zayk adding a live soundtrack to the 1922 silent film, Vanina, as part of the Institute of Incoherent Cinematography’s Silent Film Festival at Filmpodium in Zurich. It was great to see the band live again, I had seen the band in December 2017 at the Centre culturel suisse in Paris way before I had ever thought of moving to Switzerland. I still remember the ambiance and

February

February saw a lot of momentum come back to the blog - new ideas were coming in and I began to reach out to a lot more people about articles and collaborations.

There were two new editions of “Tell us about the music scene in…”. David Sallin (Nostalgie Plage, sound engineer, who was also at the controls to mix and master the latest Gans Sauvage EP, Guin Sauvage, background actor in LØRE’s Foucoupe session) gave me an insight into Fribourg, a town that won me over so quickly during my first visit in the summer of 2022. It really seems that everyone has made a band with someone at some point!

It was also fascinating to discover the music scene in Lucerne, a town that I have visited regularly to show friends and family coming to visit. Mario from High on the Sound gave a lot of good recommendations. I was always curious to know how it would work in a town which is very known for its tourism.

There were also two live interviews (one video and one in person) which took place during the month. I had learnt a lot from my interview with Radiana Basso - to avoid jumping from topic to topic and to shorten the length of the recordings.

The first interview was with Mario from High on the Sound as he came to visit me in Zurich. Such a relaxing afternoon kicking back and talking about the music scene in Switzerland. I look fondly back at the interview (and lunch). It was interesting to know more about the magazine and how it works. Our discussion would eventually be transformed into a two part article.

Less than seven days later, I was speaking with Charli and Naemi from willibald, a band who had a big influence on the beginning of the blog. It was also a lovely conversation to discuss their singles, Y and Crumbs, as well as to delve deeper into the bands history. The interview would also turn out to be another two parter like with High on the Sound, with the first part being released in February. I can still remember the humorous parts of the conversation to this day.

March

The first part of the aforementioned interview with Mario was published at the beginning of the month to coincide with 9th edition of the magazine and its show at Südpol in Lucerne featuring oze and STRUKTURSTRUKTUR. The article focuses mainly on Mario’s background and the behind-the-scenes running of the magazine. I also am certain the magazine release evening would have been a lot better if I wasn’t under the weather but there was nothing stopping me to check out what High on the Sound has built over the last few years.

March also saw the release of an interview with Kombinat, another big influence on the blog and I had already wanted to know more about how the association organises their festivals which are definite musical highlights of the year. The interview coincided with the fourth edition, which was another success and thoroughly enjoyable experience. My highlights were definitely Far Coast (one of the first interviewees for the blog), Concetta Spaziale (great to see the new project live since the interview), EYE-O, Cosmic Vomit and the Shattered Mind Machine.

I also saw another two concerts during the month - R. Daneel Olivaw at the Tiny Desk concert in Kauz. In the intimate venue, the band’s set was split into two with the audience having the possibility to ask the band some questions. It was an interesting concept. The band’s performance was also amazing and enjoyable from start to finish. The other concert was subaqua at Ebrietas in Zurich, it was great to hear the songs live after having the Foxes Prowl EP and the PROGR Session on repeat for most of the month.

The month also saw the release of the Spring playlist and an interview with Doom! Noo Yelbek, who have been making a lot of waves over the past year especially due to the song, Kilimanjaro, which I listened to a lot at the time in preparation of the release of The Burden Left by The Seven Snakes. It was interesting to know more about their mix of musical backgrounds, that Berne: le 07.02.2022 is not a live album (!) and I’m looking forward to see what the future holds for the band.

April

April was a prolific month with five articles kicking off with an interview with Mord Fuzztang. The band, who I first came across through a superb concert in 2022 (thanks to Kombinat), had released their latest album, Air Gélatine in November 2024. I really enjoyed finding out more about the band, the recording in Ticino and about the artwork for the album - wrapped in bubble wrap - and the scratch and sniff for the Live at G5.

I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see the very exciting line-up of Darius, Mouche-Miel and Nostalgie Plage (interview from 2024) at the Bad Bonn in Düdingen. I had an excellent 24 hours in Fribourg and it was fantastic to be back for my second visit. I was able to check out Ablette Records (located at the fri-son) - a wide-range of Swiss bands amongst a very diverse collection, Vincent is also very friendly and knowledgeable about music, highly recommended - and I went back to La Coutellerie - where I spent most of time during the weekend in 2022 - before the concert in the evening. I still have fond memories of the performances, atmosphere and not to mention location of Bad Bonn all the way down at the end of a long road in the countryside.

The collaboration with Lost in a Detail for their article about the post-rock scene in Switzerland saw the light in April too. It had been on our agenda for a while but we decided to publish the article to coincide with their wonderful album, Eyes On The Stars, Feet On The Ground. It was great to know about the band’s knowledge of the post-rock scene in Switzerland, it was already evident that when I met them at the first Alles Post- MusikFest! that they would be an excellent source to discover the scene in more detail. Their recommendations are definitely worth checking out.

I also had fun compiling a list of five bands that predominantly don’t use guitars. These compilation articles are also a nice change after working on a lot of interviews. I think it’s also interesting to help for others to discover new music.

The interview with Sunday,June brings back the memory of listening to the wonderful album, Sun Glitter and Other Reflections, as I sat watching the sun sparkle over the Zurich Lake on the way to work. It reminds me of one my favourite moments of the year when the weather brings a lot of optimism. It’s been great to see how the project/band has grown over 2025 and I’m also curious to see what the future brings for Sunday,June.

The final article of the month was a collection of music videos that I had come across over the past few months. Understandably, there aren’t too many music videos out there but I look forward to making more collections because the ones I have come across are worth sharing.

There were also a couple of great concerts to finish the month, Kalkas, who I interviewed in 2024, made their first appearance in Zurich at the Safari Bar. There was also the extra surprise that the whole set consisted of new material. We ended up talking so much that I missed the whole set from Gora Mama (sorry!). The other concert was the record release show from The Shattered Mind Machine who put out another strong set to celebrate their latest album, Achilles Heel. I also enjoyed the support act, Thee Irma & Louise.

May
May started strongly with an interview with Aria Konishi (Mount Kōya, The Last Wolf) to know more about he works with the recording and mixing of bands. Having done most of the recent output of Mount Kōya, in which he plays bass and does vocals, I discovered a lot of fantastic bands and projects through his work and I was really impressed by the overall feel to the songs. I have always found it fascinating to see how the final product comes together.

Looking back at the interview with Colmaar, I feel that I began to find my feet more with the interview questions and I am quite proud of the end result. I found out a bit too late that the band had existed for 14 years under another moniker but it allowed me to focus on their new chapter and their debut album, Éternel, is an excellent way to start it. It took a couple of listens to get used to post-rock/post-metal with vocals but it just seemed to fall in place during the train ride to Fribourg in March.

During the month of May, Darius released a documentary about the making of their latest and magnificent album, Murmuration, and I felt that it was the perfect moment to find out more about the behind the scenes of the album. I hadn’t anticipated that the documentary would be in French but I hope that the article helps for those that don’t speak the language, if not, I hope you have had as much as pleasure from the album (and their discography) as I have.

I was also intrigued about Cosmic Vomit since their memorable performance at the Kombinat Festival earlier in the year. It’s always interesting to interview bands where there is not too much information about them and to. know the people behind the music. I liked to read about the band’s friendship and how the songs for lifeisfuct were composed, especially with the bass signal being split across three signals for a wider sound.

June

The month kicked off with an interview with Dear Misses. I had enjoyed their concept album, Life and Death of Frankie Trombone, and I got hooked on their latest album, Cool Down Under. I was a big fan of the descriptions of each song from the album on their Instagram page and we added them to the interview as well. Eventually the idea would also turn into a new feature on the blog, Track by track. Furthermore, I had also been intrigued by the music scene in Muotathal and Dear Misses was the perfect place to start.

I was also helping out and in attendance for the third edition of the Alles Post- MusikFest!, which as usual, was a fantastic occasion. My highlights were definitely Fomies, it was fantastic to finally to see them live, and Umoora, who were also very impressive and debuted some new songs accompanied by some fitting visuals. My friends and I were also digging the song, Kong, from them a lot and I’m looking forward to seeing how they follow up the split EP with wolfer.

A week later there was the Stolze Openair Festival which featured three bands back to back (who I also interviewed) - Batbait, Mount Jacinto and Mord Fuzztang. It was great to get a taster of the new songs from Batbait for their (at the time) upcoming album, Working In The Garden. I was a big fan of the live versions of Seems Right and Monte Jacinto from Mount Jacinto, and the album, Silver Lining, as well as the Outward Signs EP would go onto be a part of the soundtrack for the summer vacation. Lastly, Mord Fuzztang was an unstoppable machine and was the perfect finish to my evening.

The aforementioned wolfer would coincidentally go on to be the next band to be featured on the blog. It’s definitely another enjoyable interview and it was great to find out more about how the band worked with the two sisters in the trio, with the bass guitar having quite a prominent role and about recording in England. I was also curious about the album and single covers.

The third and final interview of the month was with Samuel Riedo about his very dreamy solo/personal project, Gans Sauvage. 4-Gans-Menü will always remind me of Easter at Lake Constance, I really fell head over heels with the EP for a number of reasons - the ambiance, the humour, the switching between languages. It was interesting to find out about his approach to the project, especially being a part of many different bands such as Hook, Line and Sinker, Darius and Jean-Michel.

Stay tuned for part 2 (and thanks for making it this far :D)