Nachtmix: Uwe Schütte on Bavarian radio

On Saturday, April 8, our very own Uwe Schütte will be featured in Bayern 2’s famous Nachtmix series to talk about his adventures in pop music.

Follow this link to the show’s webpage.

Nachtmix, mit Karl Bruckmaier

Samstag, 08.04.2017
23:05 bis 00:00 Uhr

Bayern 2

Auf Schwarz und Weiß
Zu Gast: Der Autor Uwe Schütte

Uwe Schütte ist Germanist, hat über Elfriede Jelinek gearbeitet und bei W.G. Sebald promoviert. Doch unermüdlich ist er auch auf der Pop-Überholspur, schreibt über Musik, veranstaltet Symposien, gibt Bücher heraus – von den Mühen und Freuden des Büchermachens in Zeiten von Internet und Sparzwängen. Die Musik kommt von Kraftwerk, Laibach, Zeitkratzer, Psychic TV und Jeb Loy Nichols.

Art as Wake-Up Call: Uwe Schütte on the Concept of Sleep in (Popular) Music

Andreas Spechtl’s solo album Sleep

Link to Uwe’s article in Wiener Zeitung

Test Dept symposium a great success

The launch of the Test Dept book attracted about 40 visitors to Aston. The audience heard five speakers from various UK universities talking about the band.

Apart from a Q&A panel with original band members Paul Jamrozy and Graham Cunnington, the highlight of the event was the talk by Stephen Mallinder, formerly frontman of Cabaret Voltaire. His presentation about the role of radical music during the Thatcher years was accompanied by a slide show including a number of iconic images and photographs.

 There was also an after event party at Vividworks wich was well attended. It included DJ sets from Test Dept, Stephen Mallinder and Alexei Monroe.

Test Dept book launch 28 May

Straying a little from our usual focus on German music, the German section is proud to host the Midlands launch of “Total State Machine”, a fantastic new volume documenting the work of seminal English industrial band Test Dept.

You can find more info on the event, which will be opened with welcome address by our colleague Uwe Schütte, by visiting the event page.

The event is free but requires registration.

You can also watch a video or visit the publisher’s website.

 

Uwe Schütte on Ian Curtis “So This Is Permanence”

Our colleague Uwe Schütte has published a comprehensive review essay on So This Is Permanence, a beautiful collection of handwritten song lyrics and notes by the late Ian Curtis. The singer of Manchester band Joy Division committed suicide aged 23, at the eve of the his band’s first tour of the USA. You can listen to a Spotify playlist of Joy Division’s music here.

Uwe’s piece appeared as the cover story of the leading German-language literature magazine “Volltext” and you can read an excerpt here.

Andreas Spechtl, DAAD Songwriter in Residence

For the first time, we  invited to Aston not a Writer but a Songwriter in Residence. Andreas Spechtl, singer and songwriter of the Berlin-based, Austrian band Ja, Panik will be in Birmingham from 20 April. His band is recognised as one of the foremost German-language indie bands. They won acclaim in particular for their last two albums “DMD KIU LDT” and “Libertatia”, the latter winning the Album des Jahres Award of the leading music magazine SPEX. The highlight of his stay will be a free  solo concert in the city centre. More news on this after Easter. Spechtl was invited by our resident pop music expert Uwe Schütte and his stay is sponsored by the DAAD  and the Goethe Institut, London.