Lead singer, primary songwriter and founder Sex Gang Children. From 1985 on, Andi has recorded and performed as a solo act and with various line-ups of Sex Gang Children. More info at www.myspace.com/andisexgang.
OTHON & TOMASINI are Greek composer/pianist Othon Mataragas and Italian actor/singer Ernesto Tomasini. Othon's original and unclassifiable repertoire, coupled with his virtuoso piano playing, and Tomasini's huge range and unique renditions make for an intense experience that is as dark as it is lyrical. Haunting music, deranged performance and heightened theatricality are Othon & Tomasini's trademarks.
The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Formed in 2001, the group consists of Amanda Palmer (vocals, piano, ukulele, toy piano, harmonica) and Brian Viglione (drums, percussion, guitar, vocals). They describe their heavily art-damaged and theatrical style as "Brechtian punk cabaret", a phrase invented by Palmer because she was "terrified" that the press would invent a name that "would involve the word 'gothic'," and are part of an underground dark cabaret movement that started gaining momentum in the early 1990s.
Rose Rovine e Amanti is a musical project based in Rome lead by Damiano Mercuri aided by Noemi York Christian Valente and Giuseppe Lorenzoni. The sound has changed through the years from a pure neo-folk to a wider range of sounds. The music is a brilliant mixture of acoustic neofolk-rock with some bitter songwirtin’ tunes. To describe their music we could mention artists like: Sol Invictus, And Also The Trees, David Bowie, Lucio Battisti, Leonard Cohen, Death In June & Current 93 and Jacques Brel style, all reinforced by a Mediterranean taste.
This is a quite unique collaboration, an unexpected one between the italian composer Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld, leader of Einstürzende Neubauten and former Bad Seeds. They first met during the realization of Ingiuria, a theatre pièce and right after that they collaborated on a song for a soundtrack, "A Quite Life". That song started the whole process of writing and producing an album together where songs and more experimental pieces could find a common ground.
The Tiger Lillies are a group led by the twisted and brilliant accordionist Martyn Jacques. With Adrian Huge on drums and firecrackers, and Adrian Stout on double bass, musical saw, and backup vocals, they make a striking trio, performing a marvellous blend of gypsy circus cabaret, traditional English vaudeville, and Weill-esque operattas with a dash of Brechtian stagecraft. Their songs' thematic content tends to focus on death, religion, circus life, seafaring creeps, pimps, prostitutes, rent boys, bestiality, drugs, and the seedier side of life.
A Whisper in the Noise is a musical project formed in 2002 by rock composer West Thordson. Centered in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, United States Twin Cities metro, the group is known for their dark sound and unique instrumentation, as well as their effective live performances. Eschewing the more traditional use of guitar or heavy keyboards that might be associated with the band's umbral sound, the instrumentation of A Whisper in the Noise has included the cello, violin, French horn, synth/electronic keyboard, bass guitar, and percussion in some variation.
As of April 2009, Pretty Balanced has changed their name to The Alphabet. Pretty Balanced showcases a new sound that's been called piano chamber rock, rock electronica, and most recently by the band, Ctrl+Alt+tronica: the amalgamation of classical instruments, primarily piano, violin, double bass, and contemporary ones- vocals, drums and plenty of electronics. On 18 April 2009, the band announced on its site that it was no longer Pretty Balanced, but would instead be performing under the name The Alphabet.