Monophona at Kantine Berghain Berlin / Thursday 19th Febuary 2015

When Claudine and Chook first starteddiscussing a common musical project in the winter of 2010, theycame from completely different worlds. He haddiscovered DJ-ing as a teenager and soon made aname for himself not only as a turntable artist, but also as a drum&bass producer; she was asinger-songwriter touring with a folk-rock band and had an admiration for the likes of TomWaits, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell. Neither one of them knew anything about the otherone’s musical roots and influences.

Yet, after having built successful careers intheir respectivefields, they were eager to take on a new musical challenge and search for common ground.The result of this collaboration is MONOPHONA, a blend of two extremes, electronic andintimate, melodic and innovative. When the time came to taketheir songs to the stage, theduo was joined by Jorsch on drums and percussion. He adds detail and dynamics to their setand, with his enthusiasm and broad musical knowledge, soon became an invaluable asset,turning the duo into a trio.Their debut album“The Spy” came out in November 2012.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=sRU00LBJs-Y

It has garnered internationalattention; being voted second best album of the year on Ireland’s RTÉ2fm and was praised byLaurent Garnier as “a real achievement”. Fink described them as “one of the best bands we’vemetwhile on the road”. Since their first gig in the summer of 2011, MONOPHONA have made aname for themselves, both in their native Luxembourg but also abroad. They have opened foracts such as Fink, Poliça, Elektro Guzzi and Daughter and been part of many afestival line-up,namely the Eurosonic (Groningen), the c/o Pop (Cologne), the Reeperbahn Festival (Hamburg)and The Great Escape (Brighton). In 2013, they also scored a slot at one of Europe’s biggestfestivals, the Sziget (Budapest).

At present they areready to present their second album “Black on Black”, which will bereleased in January 2015 on german Label Kapitän Platte. While “The Spy” had been almostentirely put together in the studio, this new collection of songs has above all been influencedbywhat the band has learned from playing live. A first two-track single “Ribbons” and “Blackon Black” was released in October 2014 and another single “Thumb” followed on January, 6th 2015.