Banda Comunale - Klein ist die Welt (2021)

The musical endeavors of the Banda Comunale or Internationale in recent years has been to represent a cultural antithesis in a social mood dominated by right-wing populist, xenophobic and Eurosceptic tendencies. The consequences of the corona pandemic hit us as an intercultural, politically and socio-culturally active, publicly visible band that has existed since 2001 at the height of this commitment.

Our central Brecht program with Bernadette la Hengst on escape and expulsion at the Volksbühne and in Kampnagel in April and May 2020 could not take place, as well as around 50 other performances at home and abroad. A fate that we share with millions of musicians worldwide. We go first and come last, as it says in "Systemically Relevant". The whole band will probably not give appearances in front of a large audience in the medium term. That is why we used the time to process the past years, encounters, friendships, inspirations and experiences and to document them in an album.

An essential part of our music has always been the contact and exchange with other international musicians. We were able to convince many of these artists to take part in our album in autumn 2020. We have been on friendly terms with many of them for years, we have always wanted to make music with some of them, unfortunately we have not yet been able to meet a few in person. We weren't able to invite the least of them to our studio. Despite the sometimes continental distance, pieces and arrangements were created together that reflect a cooperation that transcends boundaries and openness to the world, which is necessary for music as well as any other artistic form. It worked and it sounds damn good. Here, too, on this album, we want to continue to live the global idea, the borderless Europe, interpersonal solidarity and connectedness in times of contact restrictions, growing nationalism and conspiracy theories, to make it audible and to demonstrate the systemic relevance of a culture that is networked without borders. Have fun! (Banda Comunale aka Banda Internationale)

"Act local, sound global!" The world is small "echoes from the microcosm of the expanded band collective, which have now renamed themselves again to Banda Comunale, beyond the borders into the wide world: from Berlin to New York, Lagos, Senegal , Damascus to Ougadougou and back to Dresden! And how does it all sound? Big! " (Bernadette La Stallion)

“Brass music, big band swing, Afro and Latino beats, all of this goes wonderfully together at Banda Comunale, a multicultural 15-member combo from Dresden Bureaucratic mania (“employment office”) or the lack of support for art in the corona lockdown (“systemically relevant”), this is a truly igniting, explosive mix. 15 Caribbean space pirates are doing a lot of Rambazamba rioting here! «(Good Times, October / November 2021)