Butterfly Dance 2026 @ Schlosspark, Schloss Esterházy

Flytjendur

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  Moby

  Berlin’s Paul Kalkbrenner has charted a career path like no other. A techno talent, who over the course of two decades has emerged from the underground, to top charts, act in and soundtrack a movie, headline festivals and amass millions of fans, all while refusing to compromise his grand techno sound.
  
  Kalkbrenner is synonymous with dance music, he came of age in a golden era for techno, turning twelve when the Berlin Wall fell, and spending his teenage years raving, before starting to DJing and collect records as electronic dance music’s first tidal wave spilled throughout the city. He realized early that DJing wasn’t for him, and has focused on producing and playing his own music live ever since.
  
  Though he rose to popularity in the peak of techno’s ‘Berlin era’, and his early career was associated with Bpitch Control, his fan base was never confined to this scene. By the time he played the lead in the seminal movie ‘Berlin Calling’ and its soundtrack smashed records across Europe he had already released multiple albums (Superimpose, Zeit, Self) and built a significant following globally.
  
  With a catalog that now includes eight albums, over 137 individual tracks and numerous remixes, Paul is one of the unique electronic artists who can deliver the ebb and flow of a dancefloor journey using only his own music. His transcendent live performances have seen Paul break down traditional electronic music barriers, headlining festival and
  arena stages typically reserved for rockstars. He was the first techno artist to play Tomorrowland’s typically commercial main stage, and was invited by the German Federal Government to perform to 400,000 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
  
  After creating his own label in 2009 and releasing two albums and a live documentary, Kalkbrenner signed to Columbia Records in 2015. He was the first artist to be given unfettered access to the Sony Legacy vault, enabling him to rework previously-unsampled icons like Luther Vandross and Jefferson Airplane on his album ‘7’. In 2022, after leaving Sony, Paul will again release music independently.
  
  Traditionally known as an album artist for much of his career, releasing eight LPs, registering 3 No.1 overall records and entering the Top 10 overall charts in 10 countries and selling 1.5 million units, Kalkbrenner has experimented with other formats including a viral mixtape compilation (Back To The Future - downloaded upwards of 3 million times), and more recently a spate of singles, No Goodbye, Speak Up and Parachute.
  
  His seminal single Sky & Sand continues to hold the German singles record for most weeks at #1 (121 weeks). Despite the major releases and mainstage performances, Paul’s career remains intertwined with techno. He is a figurehead and pioneer in the electronic music scene, an uncompromising artist who has endured despite dance music’s fickle trends and obsession with the new.
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  Sophie Ellis Bextor

  Hailed by the press as a “global pop sensation” (Paper), "a shining light in the darkness” (LA Record) and “a blinding force to be reckoned with” (Purple Sneakers), Holiday Sidewinder has arrived. Dropping her powerful debut album “Forever or Whatever” in 2019- a whip-smart, anthemic and bold collection of pop songs driven by shimmering synths and classic late-night disco beats. Invoking the electrifying energy of icons Prince, Debbie Harry and Madonna, Sidewinder has rapidly amassed a dedicated following from her jaw-dropping live show. Holiday Sidewinder is here to entertain you.
  
  Her 2021 collaborative record - “Face of God” - written with and produced by Empire of The Sun/PNAU’s Nick Littlemore and Grammy award winning Broadway composer Billy Jay Stein, has been described as “Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother for the streaming generation” by NME and “a heady blend of the Flaming Lips life affirming psychedelia and Kate Bush’s sweeping pastoral pop” by The Guardian.
  
  Holiday's latest album 'The Last Resort' is a tropical cocktail of reggae, rock, sophisti-drop-top-yacht-pop with glam metal guitars, rave and disco. Set on a mythical abandoned island resort, strewn with cyclonic romances, greek gods and tragedies, Holiday Sidewinder's Last Resort is set to take you to Paradise, Dystopia and back again.
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  Curtis Harding

  One of the most visionary artists in soul music today, Curtis Harding is proof of the strange magic that happens when musical prowess meets unbridled imagination. In the making of his fourth full-length, the Atlanta-based singer/songwriter dreamed up a batch of songs exploring the longing and unease of being far from home—a true-to-life reflection he soon expanded into an elaborate concept album about a pilot lost in space. The latest addition to an acclaimed catalog including his 2017 breakthrough Face Your Fear (co-produced by Danger Mouse), Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt merges the lavish scope of a space opera with the pure feeling of classic soul—ultimately bringing an even greater potency to his wildly eclectic sound.   

  Self-produced at Electric Deluxe Recorders (an Austin studio owned by Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas), Departures & Arrivals serves as the follow-up to If Words Were Flowers—a 2021 release hailed by the likes of UPROXX, who praised Harding for “making some of the best modern soul music out right now.” For Harding, the decision to handle production on his own stemmed from a deep desire to pursue his creative ideals without compromise or restraint. “I produced my first album so this felt like a return, although this time I was more confident and capable of sonically going where I wanted to go,” says Harding. “I really love the process of building worlds in the studio, doing what I want in the moment and experimenting with new sounds instead of doing the same thing over and over.” Mostly recorded live with a full band, Departures & Arrivals encompasses everything from moody space-funk to lush baroque-pop to otherworldly psych-rock—all while endlessly spotlighting Harding’s rich and captivating vocals and incandescent guitar work.   

  In a testament to the dazzling fluidity of his artistry, Harding arrived at the album’s premise by resolutely following his creative intuition. “Because I’m away from home so much of the time, a lot of these songs came from feeling adrift and wanting to get back to the ones I love,” he says. “I started envisioning this character who takes a journey and gets lost in space, then ends up traveling through different galaxies and dimensions as he’s trying to find his way back home.” Naming Ridley Scott among his favorite sci-fi auteurs, Harding notes that the extravagant world-building of Departures & Arrivals inspired many of his production choices, including the abundance of symphonic string arrangements supplied by Steve Hackman (a composer who’s worked with such diverse artists as Doja Cat and Andrew Bird). “I’ve always used strings on my records but never to this extent, and everything Steve created just took me to another place,” he points out. 

  Despite the astral setting of its storytelling, Departures & Arrivals remains firmly grounded in emotional realism thanks to the depth and honesty of Harding’s songwriting. To that end, a gorgeously joyful track called “True Love Can’t Be Blind” speaks to a love that endures across a great distance, telegraphing a euphoric infatuation in its radiant piano riffs and rapturous harmonies. One of the album’s most exhilarating moments, “Time” unfolds in smoldering horns and galvanizing call-and-response vocals as Harding offers reassurance to anyone losing faith. “When you feel alone it can be hard to see any hope, so I wanted to write an uplifting song about searching for the positive,” he says. “It might take some time, but if you keep pushing and put your best foot forward, you’ll get there.” And on “The Power,” Departures & Arrivals presents a timely disco anthem lit up in lustrous grooves and feverish strings. “In the context of the record, that song could be about trying to find the power that will bring me back home,” says Harding. “But it also plays into what’s happening politically right now, where the people in power keep taking from us without giving anything in return. I wrote that song to give people some kind of release and remind them that no matter what’s going on in the world you still need to live life and have fun doing it.” 

  With its tracklist ranging from the ornate romanticism of the album-opening “There She Goes” to the surreal grandeur of “Hard As Stone,” Departures & Arrivals marks the most complete manifestation yet of Harding’s expansive musicality. Born in Michigan but raised in Atlanta from age 14, he got his start singing and playing drums in church with his mother, a gospel singer who introduced him to seminal gospel acts like The Mighty Clouds of Joy. With his musical upbringing also including the Stax and Motown records his dad played at home, the ’90s hip-hop beloved by his sister, and the classic alt-rock favored by his friends, Harding started rapping at age nine and later moved on to writing songs after teaching himself to play guitar. In his early 20s, he began working in promotion for LaFace Records (an Atlanta-based label once home to legendary acts like OutKast) and quickly progressed to singing backup for CeeLo Green. After launching his own music career, he made his debut with 2014’s Soul Power and then delivered Face Your Fear—a genre-bending powerhouse that landed on NPR’s list of the year’s best R&B albums and soon found Harding touring with Jack White and taking the stage at major festivals like Lollapalooza.

  Closing out on the reverb-drenched reverie of “Running Outta Space,” Departures & Arrivals ushers in a bold new era for Harding while staying true to the profound sense of purpose that’s always fueled his songwriting. “Sometimes when you’re feeling lost, hearing from someone else who’s felt the same way can let you know you’re not alone—that’s really the whole sentiment of the album,” says Harding. “I hope these songs help people to recognize that feeling lost is all part of the journey, and that the journey is what’s most important anyway. And once you realize that, you’re on the right path. You’re already on your way home.”

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  Kraak & Smaak

  Since the Dutch producers trio Kraak & Smaak released their first album 'Boogie Angst' in the UK, the Netherlands, the USA and Japan in 2005, the boys' live band has grown into a steady and well-respected force in today's international club and festiva..

• Freak Power
• Kraak & Smaak (DJ)