Grumpy Pieces release; Harmonious Thelonious (Live) + Saeko Killy (Live)

Harmonious Thelonious:
Harmonious Thelonious is a solo-project focusing on rough and dense beats and textures inspired by american minimalist music and african rhythm patterns

With Grumpy Pieces, Düsseldorf-based musician Stefan Schwander, aka Harmonious Thelonious, returns with an album that gathers many of the elements that have defined the project over the years – while simultaneously pushing them apart. The record feels like a tightening of earlier ideas: interlocking melodies, hypnotic patterns, a sustained focus on rhythm and texture, paired with a sound that is rougher, drier and more immediate than before.

Musically, Grumpy Pieces draws from familiar territory within the Harmonious Thelonious universe: Pan-African and Middle Eastern rhythmic concepts, repetitive minimal structures, stripped-down electronics and noise used as a structural force. Yet everything here feels less fixed, more unstable, at times close to falling apart.
Melodies grind against rugged bass foundations; dry snare hits cut sharply through the mix. The groove remains central, but now carries a nervous, fractured quality – noticeably more restless than one might expect from a project active for nearly eighteen years.

The title Grumpy Pieces is more than a wry aside. The album reflects a present shaped by political and social tension. Anger, uncertainty and a muted sense of despair run through the tracks, without the music ever becoming literal or lapsing into overt commentary. Instead, it operates through friction: between dancefloor momentum and disruption, immediacy and resistance.


Saeko Killy:
Tokyo-born, Berlin-based, Saeko Killy is a producer, live performer, and DJ, bringing haunting pulse communication to the dancefloor.

Known for her dynamic sets, she has performed across Germany and neighboring countries such as France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, igniting floors from intimate bars and clubs to festival stages.
Her debut EP, Dancing PIKA PIKA (Chill Mountain, Osaka), marked the start of her sonic journey, followed by her first album, Morphing Polaroids. She has also contributed to compilations from R.I.O (Berlin), Subject To Restrictions Discs (Zurich), and Emotional Especial (UK).

Her second album, Dream In Dream, out on March 14, 2025 from Bureau B, invites listeners deeper into her ever-evolving soundscape.

Line-up: Harmonious Thelonious, Saeko Killy

Arrangör: arkaoda Berlin

Åldersgräns: 18+