As most of you know I’m quite busy with the ‘Starman’ tour of Sven Ratzke, where we use the music of David Bowie and play it in our own way. So you must understand that it came as quite a shock to us (and the rest of the world) that he passed away recently – such a legend, such an authentic person and inspiring figure. This tragic event made playing his music even more special, and we were asked to honour David Bowie in the Dutch tv-broadcast called RTL Late Night. Of course we were happy to do that, so here it is with great respect for mr. Bowie:
It’s been a busy summer! Three whole months we’ve been rehearsing and editing the new Sven Ratzke show STARMAN, with the music of David Bowie. Of course we renewed all the tunes (beautiful arrangements by Charly Zastrau), but to be shure it would be a terrific show we spent a lot of time in making everything perfect.
So now there’s a cd and a tour! The cd is available at www.bol.com and in the web shop of Ratzke. There you’ll find the tourlist too, and you’ll find that it takes us not only top to bottom through Holland, but also to Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, and to the biggest theatre festival of Australia and we’ll play New York for 10 days! So if you want to check us out, have a look at the list and find you’re nearest stage to see us perform. The reviews until now have been blowing us away..
Last time we played Sven Ratzke’s and Claron McFadden’s Groschenblues is a while ago at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Luckily the great music of Kurt Weill and lyrics of Bertolt Brecht are requested on several stages once in a while, and so we could play the piece this week in Berlin, at the Tipi am Kanzlerambt. We had a great time at this beautiful venue – and the audience loved it! Charly Zastrau did a great job arranging all the pieces, Sven is an incredible performer and Claron’s magical voice makes the songs sound even better. Check out the (German) review here if you want to know more..
The great Sven Ratzke is touring worldwide with his theatre show ‘Diva Diva’s’. Until now there was no cd available for this tour, so he decided to record an EP with some of the tunes from the show. That EP is ready now and available on Challenge Records, check it out by clicking on the link!
Additional to that there were two beautiful clips recorded in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and those are on youtube. Both these songs are on the EP too. Enjoy!
Now that was a busy and great summer! Basically I wasn’t home for two whole months, with trips including Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and almost all of Italy! Great places, great people, I’ll tell you more about it later.
Right now I want to tell you about a cd-recording we did this summer, the new album of Sven Ratzke. With new arrangements of gorgeous songs by Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Caven and Hildegard Knef, but also newly, especially for Ratzke written songs by Mathilde Santing, Cora Frost and New York-famous Rachelle Garniez. On the cd you’ll hear some guest performances of Eric Vloeimans, Tuur Floorizoone, Claron McFadden and Fay Lovsky. It’s a real beauty, check out this YouTube promo:
The cd is called ‘Songs in a Cabaret‘ and you can find it at Challenge Records International or buy it in Sven’s online shop. You can also attend the cd-release on september 25th at the Bimhuis Amsterdam, tickets available here.
