SLIXS

SLIXS
	; SLIXS 2012
	General information
Genre (s)	Vocal music
founding	circa 1996
Website	www.slixs.info

Slixs at the ZMF 2017 in Freiburg

Stouxingers (until end of January 2012 Stouxingers) is a German a cappella - Sextet from Berlin , Dresden , Leipzig and Halle . Katharina Debus , Michael Eimann, Gregorio D'Clouet Hernández, Karsten Müller, Thomas Piontek and Konrad Zeiner are permanent members of the ensemble and pursue other music projects in addition to their collaboration. Stylistically, based Stouxingers of jazz , pop , soul and rhythm and blues, do not, however, exclusively focus on these genres and have developed a distinct musical character for vocal music.

Due to the diverse experiences of the individual artists in the most varied of musical styles, SLIXS also experimented with classical and so-called world music . That is why exotic elements such as Central Asian throat singing or Balkan folklore find their way into the band's own repertoire, albeit purely vocalistically, i.e. in addition to “conventional” singing with the help of special vocal techniques. Imitation of instruments and beatboxing are also typical sound elements for the vocal ensemble SLIXS .

Band history

At the end of the 1990s, the SLIXS group was formed under the name Stouxingers and initially not only dedicated itself to a cappella music, but also had their polyphonic singing accompanied by instruments. In 1998 she recorded her first album, Voice on the Trigger . The formation has been making music entirely without instruments since 2003.

In 2004 her second studio album Everything Ain't Everything ... was released, followed in 2008 by ... Nothing Is Real . Due to the frequent use of jazz elements, these recordings are often associated with jazz, although different musical styles are incorporated into the compositions. So far, no singles have been released.

In cooperation with the director and actor Frieder Venus, a “scenic concert” called Vocal Virus was created in 2010 . Pieces of music, sound collages and body percussion flow smoothly into one another and are optically staged by the actors. Recorded with five cameras in HD, this live performance was published on DVD that same year.

The band has had its current name since February 2012. In the course of the name change, SLIXS released their EP of the same name in the same year. The keen interest in the soundtrack produced by SLIXS in 2009 for the German film Mensch Kotschie by Norbert Baumgarten led to its publication in 2014 under the name Quer Bach and to the decision to develop a corresponding live program with instrumental pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach , which has since been 2016 will be listed.

In December 2016, the next studio album was released under the title Playgrounds , which, apart from a Heroes cover by David Bowie, who died in 2016, only contains his own compositions.

Range

The six-member vocal band is not only well-known in Germany , but has so far also given concerts in Austria , Switzerland , France , the Benelux countries , Italy , Spain , Finland , Latvia , Estonia , Poland , Russia , Ukraine , Slovakia , given to Taiwan , Singapore , China , South Korea , Malaysia and Brunei . On German soil, SLIXS have performed in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, in the Stadtpark Hamburg, in the Schlachthof in Munich, in the Tränenpalast and in the Radialsystem in Berlin and in the Bonn Pantheon.

In 2009 they contributed part of the soundtrack to the film Mensch Kotschie (with Stefan Kurt in the leading role), in which they also worked as extras. Also as extras and soundtrack suppliers are SLIXS in Jan Tenhaven's ARTE documentary Pretty Ugly - Everyone can be beautiful . Her albums have been presented several times on Deutschlandradio or MDR Kultur . They were studio guests at Sing-Off China , TV3 in Catalonia , ORF , SWR and Radio 1, among others . TV reports on SLIXS ran among others on France 3 , 3sat , RBB and MDR . Concert recordings were broadcast live by NDR Kultur and MDR Figaro , among others .

Cooperations

Every now and then SLIXS have given concerts together with other vocal music ensembles and a cappella bands. These include The House Jacks (USA), The Magnets (GB), Montezuma's Revenge (NL), Hop O 'My Thumb (CH), The Boxettes (GB) and the German artists LaLeLu , Flowalicious, Sixpack, Füenf and Cash' N Go. Together with the Klazz Brothers , they worked on the crossover project Messias Superstar - a contemporary adaptation of Georg Friedrich Handel's Messiah . In 2011 they developed a live soundtrack with cabaret artist Lars Reichow and performed it on his show Goldfinger . In 2014 there was a joint tour with Bobby McFerrin across Europe, during which SLIXS and other singers accompanied vocal pieces from his repertoire (including VOCAbuLarieS ) and improvised with him.

In addition, they have performed at a variety of festivals in Europe and Asia, including the Montreux Jazz Festival , Voicemania in Vienna , Vokal Total in Munich , Dresden Jazz Days , International Bach Festival Schaffhausen in Switzerland , Shanghai International Arts Festival in China , Penang Island Jazz Festival in Malaysia , Hong Kong Jazz Festival , Jarasum Jazz Festival in South Korea , Solidarity Of Arts Festival in Poland and have worked with internationally known musicians such as Paul Carrack , Roger Chapman , Jon Lord , Chris Thompson , Jocelyn B. Smith and Bobby McFerrin as well as with the German Singers and song authors Heinz Rudolf Kunze and Dirk Zöllner make music.