New paths, new sounds
The Bernese musician Tobias Jundt has made his international breakthrough from Berlin. On the fourth album of his project Bonaparte, he shows himself to be more versatile.
In Switzerland, Tobias Jundt once successfully wrote songs for himself and other pop singers, as well as music for jazz bands, string quartets and orchestras. Nevertheless, he moved to Berlin in 2008 because in Switzerland you can only survive with mainstream pop music or in heavily subsidized genres such as jazz or classical music. However, he wanted to write songs in a niche area that were not played on mainstream radio and therefore demanded a "much larger playing field". He has succeeded in doing this from Berlin: he performs with his band Bonaparte even in faraway countries such as China, and his new album is even being released in the USA.
It is no coincidence that the fourth Bonaparte album is self-titled, as Tobias Jundt is looking for new artistic paths and a more independent expression. He has obviously realized that the hectic, garish party sound of the last few albums suits his wild shows, but otherwise wears out quickly. On Bonaparte his electro-pop still mostly sounds edgy, rough and excited. However, there are also quieter and more complex songs on it that you can also enjoy listening to at home.
This has a lot to do with the lyrics. Jundt rarely plays around with words, but rather muses more often, as in Me So Selfie, which addresses the compulsion to present oneself. Outstanding is the thoughtful Song Into The Wildfor which an impressive video clip can be found on the Bonaparte website. According to Jundt, there will be such a video clip for eight of the new songs, which comes very close to his aim of creating a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk. The artistic reorientation is also evident live. At a concert in Zurich, Bonaparte focused less on the show and more on the music with a smaller line-up, which nevertheless went down well with the audience.
Bonaparte: 'Bonaparte', Warner Music. www.bonaparte.cc
