This is how Weilheim is back on the pop music map: The band "Kid Empress" around the Weilheim musicians Joscha Arnold and Severin Rauch enchants at their debut in the Westtorhalle.
Riedhausen – It is quite possible that one day this concert will be glorified as “legendary”.
According to the motto: Do you remember the very first appearance of "Kid Empress" - back then, 2023, in the small west gate hall in Riedhausen?
And we were there!
This band is here to stay
In any case, last Friday evening a career could have started that once again puts Weilheim on the pop music map.
"Kid Empress" is the new project by Weilheim musicians Joscha Arnold (36) and Severin Rauch (37).
And it's more than a project.
It's here to stay.
Already the first sounds, the first beats of this band make it clear: Here great ability meets unconditional will, many years of experience meets lasting curiosity.
There hasn't been a more promising start in the region since The Notwist.
Everything in it that the musicians themselves like to hear
Where “region” is relative: saxophonist Arnold and drummer Rauch, who were musically socialized in the big band at the Weilheim high school, met singer Anna Gosteli and guitarist Baf Scheipers while studying jazz in Basel.
What the four learned there, and in a hundred projects that followed, is the solid foundation for Kid Empress—and is now being made into pop that's as complex as it is danceable.
Britpop and hip-hop, songwriter folk and drum'n'bass, rocking rumble, electronic gimmicks and Scandinavian clarity: Everything the musicians themselves like to hear is combined here into a coherent whole.
"Tiny Moon" is an epic, lyrical ballad that develops calmly, "Kalimba River" is a driving catchy tune.
Both are melodious.
“Kid Empress” leads via melancholy to euphoria: the 100 or so listeners in the hall enjoy with their eyes closed, dance along, and are also highly concentrated during the quiet, meddlesome passages.
When it comes to the announcements, the band is very "Weilheimer Schule"
There are no big announcements, the quartet is completely "Weilheim school".
Anna Gosteli even sings a large part of the concert sitting sideways on a box, introverted and expressive at the same time.
Her warm voice shapes the character of "Kid Empress", and yet she is not in the foreground.
The star here is the band - in which the famous pianist and sound inventor Sam Hylton seamlessly fits in live as the fifth wheel.
The day after this premiere, "Kid Empress" made its big city debut in Munich's "Milla", and the debut album "Spit Out Light" will be released in ten days: so much beginning, so much magic - and excitement to see where it will lead becomes!
