Unhappybirthday from Hamburg have been releasing dreamy Avant-pop records and touring Europe consistently for over 10 years now. The group was founded in the port city of Wismar in northern Germany in 2012 by singer and keyboardist Daniel Jahn and guitarist Tobias Rutkowski and producer Jonas Meyer joins the band for this, their new (fifth) album release. "Stella Loops" circles around the vast cosmos offering refuge from the feeling of confinement that has enveloped us all over the last few years and to help achieve this Unhappybirthday have mixed their trademark elements of Electronica, House and Ambient music and for this release invited a guest list that includes Andreas Dorau, Martha Rose and Jimi Tenor to contribute. Hamburg’s masters of emotional pop unhappybirthday return via Tapete this fall with their fifth LP, Stella Loops, a fantastic voyage through outer and inner space in a craft comprised of mid 90s electronica, pastoral house and sun-blushed downbeat. On their previous LP, the moonlit Mondchateau, unhappybirthday explored the suave sophisti-pop of the late 80s, serving their trademark beauty and sadness with a poolside spritz. For Stella Loops, the Hamburg outfit swap the Mediterranean for the Sea of Tranquility, slipping their terrestrial moorings in the name of auditory escapism. Written in part as a response to the enforced inertia of the pandemic and ever-present anxiety of life in the now, Stella Loops finds the group staring skywards, seeking solace in the possibilities of the infinite. Using the sci-fi literature of the GDR as a lyrical launchpad, unhappybirthday stumble, tumble, float and fall through the galaxy, finding freedom in each mantra like vocal. With space as their place, the group take inspiration from the dreamy electronica of their teenage daze, filtering their yearning melodies and intricate arrangements through core memories of Ultramarine, Gus Gus and The Beloved. Processed beats and blinking sequences underpin nonchalant basslines and graceful guitar licks while nebulous pads provide a woozy weightlessness befitting their cosmic concerns. Recorded once again in Hamburg and Berlin, Stella Loops sees Daniel Jahn and Tobias Rutkowski working closer than ever with regular collaborator Jonas Meyer, who joined the group in addition to his usual production duties. Hamburg’s Andreas Dorau and Zwanie Jonson return to lend their vocal talents alongside Berlin based Martha Rose, while Finnish legend and Bureau B sibling Jimi Tenor graces album closer 'Jimmy' with an enchanting flute solo. The Bureau B connection also extends to the band’s first ever cover version, a suitably smooth take on 'Lass Uns Überlegen' by the oddball Swiss cassette project Die Welttraumfoscher. The latest evolution of the unhappybirthday sound, Stella Loops is replete with all the chiming motifs and intuitive arrangements we’ve come to expect from the group, this time imbued with a fresh set of influences and intentions. Who knows where they’re headed in the future, but their present is a gift.
Unhappybirthday from Hamburg have been releasing dreamy Avant-pop records and touring Europe consistently for over 10 years now. The group was founded in the port city of Wismar in northern Germany in 2012 by singer and keyboardist Daniel Jahn and guitarist Tobias Rutkowski and producer Jonas Meyer joins the band for this, their new (fifth) album release. "Stella Loops" circles around the vast cosmos offering refuge from the feeling of confinement that has enveloped us all over the last few years and to help achieve this Unhappybirthday have mixed their trademark elements of Electronica, House and Ambient music and for this release invited a guest list that includes Andreas Dorau, Martha Rose and Jimi Tenor to contribute. Hamburg’s masters of emotional pop unhappybirthday return via Tapete this fall with their fifth LP, Stella Loops, a fantastic voyage through outer and inner space in a craft comprised of mid 90s electronica, pastoral house and sun-blushed downbeat. On their previous LP, the moonlit Mondchateau, unhappybirthday explored the suave sophisti-pop of the late 80s, serving their trademark beauty and sadness with a poolside spritz. For Stella Loops, the Hamburg outfit swap the Mediterranean for the Sea of Tranquility, slipping their terrestrial moorings in the name of auditory escapism. Written in part as a response to the enforced inertia of the pandemic and ever-present anxiety of life in the now, Stella Loops finds the group staring skywards, seeking solace in the possibilities of the infinite. Using the sci-fi literature of the GDR as a lyrical launchpad, unhappybirthday stumble, tumble, float and fall through the galaxy, finding freedom in each mantra like vocal. With space as their place, the group take inspiration from the dreamy electronica of their teenage daze, filtering their yearning melodies and intricate arrangements through core memories of Ultramarine, Gus Gus and The Beloved. Processed beats and blinking sequences underpin nonchalant basslines and graceful guitar licks while nebulous pads provide a woozy weightlessness befitting their cosmic concerns. Recorded once again in Hamburg and Berlin, Stella Loops sees Daniel Jahn and Tobias Rutkowski working closer than ever with regular collaborator Jonas Meyer, who joined the group in addition to his usual production duties. Hamburg’s Andreas Dorau and Zwanie Jonson return to lend their vocal talents alongside Berlin based Martha Rose, while Finnish legend and Bureau B sibling Jimi Tenor graces album closer 'Jimmy' with an enchanting flute solo. The Bureau B connection also extends to the band’s first ever cover version, a suitably smooth take on 'Lass Uns Überlegen' by the oddball Swiss cassette project Die Welttraumfoscher. The latest evolution of the unhappybirthday sound, Stella Loops is replete with all the chiming motifs and intuitive arrangements we’ve come to expect from the group, this time imbued with a fresh set of influences and intentions. Who knows where they’re headed in the future, but their present is a gift.