Concerts - Reading - Film

La Paloma. Yearning. Worldwide

PREVIEW Summer Festival Watermusic

Tue, Apr 29, 2008
6.30 pm
Free admission
(Wassermusik: information about the concerts following soon)
La Paloma - the film

6:30 p.m. “La Paloma”: Andreas Schäfler + Sigrid Faltin: Reading from the new book published by marebuchverlag

7:30 p.m. Film: “La Paloma. Sehnsucht. Weltweit” (La Paloma. Yearning. Worldwide): preview of the film that will come to cinemas in mid-June

9 p.m. Concert: Harry Koizumi, Hawaii: Hawaiian sailors’ songs

9:30 p.m. Concert: SpaCe DoG: Surf Music

10:30 p.m. DJ set: Kahuna Kawentzmann: Tiki, Surf, Exotica


A song to freedom – from Mexico to the Reeperbahn, from Graceland to Hawaii: The song of the dove is a piece of music that just about everyone knows. In the 150 years of its career, it has been interpreted, rearranged, recorded, and translated into dozens of languages and cultures – more than 2,000 times. Its origin was already global: the composer of “La Paloma”, Sebastián de Yradier was a Basque who came to the Caribbean via detours. The song was sung in a broader framework for the first time in 1865 in the National Theater in Mexico City. The song is always heard in the context of the romance of seafaring – and not only in Germany as interpreted by Hans Albers, Freddy Quinn, and Curd Jürgens; it has also been recorded by Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Charlie Parker, and the Marine Chorus of the Black Sea Fleet; and the Soweto Gospel Choir had its version in its repertoire of longing.The avant-garde musician Kalle Laar’s Trikont label has already anthologized the sixth CD with versions of “La Paloma”; now follow a book published by marebuchverlag and the film “La Paloma. Sehnsucht. Weltweit”.

It can all be experienced this evening – with tones that well suit yearning and world music: after a rock career, Harry Kuizumi from the Hawaiian island of Oahu has dedicated himself to the Hawaiian slack-key guitar. The Berlin band SpaCe DoG provides powerful surf sounds à la 1960s, with film melodies and its own creations. And to conclude the evening, Cool Surfin: Kahuna Kawentzmann, guitarist, producer, and former head of the Hamburg surf band “The Looney Tunes” will spin the platters. A music-film-word experience centering on the yearning for the South Seas.´


La Paloma. Sehnsucht. Weltweit. is a preview of the new Summer Festival WATERMUSIC – open-air beside the Spree River

July 10-13 Surf music with the Surfaris, Marc Ribot, and others

July 17-20 Seafarer songs with Eliza Carthy, Juana Molina, and others

July 24-27 Tiki with Don Tiki, Waitiki, and others

Plus films, discussions, and summer school with the themes of water, river, and the sea