Stella Sommer likes contrasts. Her band is called Die Heiterkeit, German for »cheerfulness«; her previous album bore the not-so-cheerful title »Pop & Tod I+II« (»Pop & Death I+II«). That was almost three years ago, which is why her eleven-track fourth album, released in March via the Buback label, is called »Was passiert ist« (»What’s happened«). Quite a bit has transpired in the meantime, and not always cheerful things. On the contrary, though, Sommer’s self-recorded songs prance along as lightly as anything else in the melancholic German-speaking indie world. Both bitter and sweet, like the last liqueur before the bar closes, her music reflects the contrasts that make life bearable.
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