THEES UHLMANN

In the organizer's words:

Highway, dirt tracks, country roads. Thees Uhlmann has long been his own road movie. But only the new album "Sincerely, Thees Uhlmann" traces the trip in a way that is suitable for traveling. It leads from the AJZ to the stadium, from Hemmoor to New York, through more than three decades of reunified Germany. Rock, indie, punk and everything else. Headlights only in extreme emergencies.

The Tomte Years (1994 - 2010): "In Cologne and then in my room" is the earliest track in this collection. It appeared on Tomte's very first vinyl single "Blinkmuffel" and sounds like simply kicking down the slope with his friends - the rest will come. One minute forty is enough for such an urgent song, it doesn't get any greener than that. In any case, the early pieces already contain much of what Thees' songwriting is all about: wit and conciseness, exuberance and melancholy. Later, "In Köln" also appeared on the Tomte debut album. "You know what I mean", an impatient punk record. It also marks the official beginning of the long-lasting bromance between Thees and Marcus Wiebusch, which has kept indie Germany on the map to this day: Grand Hotel Van Cleef.

Tomte themselves only came to greater attention in the noughties, their songs played in the alternative discos, the clips on VIVA, "Korn und Sprite", "Schreit den Namen meiner Mutter", "Ich sang die ganze Zeit von Dir", "Der letzte große Wal" and so on. Upbeat, approachable, driven. The Tomte line-up seemed increasingly erratic from the 2000s onwards. It was Thees who stuck, who carved a shirt-sleeved darling persona in the minds of audiences and media alike. The changing gold pieces, who were Tomte apart from him, contributed a lot to the story. But the signs were pointing to change towards the end of the decade.

The Thees Uhlmann experience (2011 - present): The fact that Thees would continue solo therefore seems more logical than surprising. Nevertheless, the very first song on his first album changed his perception as a songwriter. "Zum Laichen und Sterben ziehen die Lachse den Fluss hinauf", a once-in-a-lifetime song about repatriation and new beginnings, accompanied by a Super 8 video. In a podcast, Thees once explains how he always fought for himself as an artist in his home town of Hemmoor and even later. The song stands for being able to overcome this struggle. No longer having to hide behind an eternal search. Dare to find something.

In this way, the three solo albums to date have each become a statement piece in their own right. Something to orient yourself by. A kind of lost humanism with guitars, stormy, wistful moments, wit, longing, consolation. In "Ich bin der Fahrer, der die Frauen nach HipHop-Videodrehs nach Hause fährt", Thees Uhlmann intertwines powerlessness vs. responsibility with the impositions of the zeitgeist. Equally intimate and hymn-like, framed in a laconic narrative.

This guy really should write a book, you think. And of course you know he has. "Sophia, Death and I" was made into a movie by Charly Hübner. "No matter what I do, I've always thought of you" from the soundtrack is the latest song on this long-term study.