NEWSEUM

This techno jazz duo from Leipzig, Germany, is the result of combining old and new: a Newseum. Using live bass, drums, and some tech trickery, they create a fresh and extremely danceable sound — a blend of what you’d expect to hear in an illicit basement club in East Germany and the raw attitude of improvised live jazz. The Swedish-German constellation consists of bass player Simon Fagerstedt and drummer Peter Krutsch. The duo was born under the lights of intense strobe lamps in dark, dusty basements in abandoned industrial buildings in Leipzig. The same buildings that were closed off by the police after the end of the GDR, and where the audience often wore gas masks and whistles around their necks on the dance floor. Over time, these rooms became free spaces for creativity and expression. Leipzig, the hippest and most creative city in East Germany (Berlin was long ago conquered by Airbnb tourists), has preserved these open spaces. Newseum create their music in precisely such a basement — Next door, heavy-duty cables from an old, barely still working electrical substation are cracking and ticking. You can practically hear this electric crackle in their music. Both members are well-established musicians, touring regularly with different bands and artists in South America, the US, Europe, and Asia. They started Newseum as an experiment, seeing if they could still make music with just two live instruments. The question was “what happens if we remove all the BS?” — what’s left is the thing that actually makes you dance: drums and bass.