Sinularia | Tourismusverband Salzburger Altstadt

Sinularia

Jo Wespel: guitar | Felix Henkelhausen: bass | Max Santner: drums | The young Berlin trio Sinularia claims to have created its own genre: "Subwater Beats". Which means first and foremost their concept of combining music with visuals. Thus, guitarist Jo Wespel, bassist Felix Henkelhausen and drummer Max Santer wear specially designed fluorescent jumpsuits, which together with corals glowing in black light create an underwater world at concerts. Musically, the combination of dragged, so to speak washed-out rhythms with floating melodies and chords from electronic, especially "Intelligent Dance Music" is added. Inspired by bands like Flying Lotus or Aphex Twin, but thanks to the virtuosity of the three kept wide open for jazz improvisation.

Artist biography Max Santner

Drummer and composer Max Santner, born in 1991 in Salzburg, was already exceptionally accomplished at an early age yet remained curious. He won the Joe Zawinul Prize when he was only 17 and, in 2016, was awarded the scholarship of the Austrian Federal Chancellery. At this time, he was already living in Berlin where he co-founded the KIM Collective which follows an interdisciplinary approach in its concerts as well as annual festival. This is also represented by the bands with which Santner has already travelled through Europe: Laura Winkler’s disco folk sextet Holler My Dear, the Sinularia trio and his own band HUM as well as, meanwhile, big jazz, avantgarde and pop ensembles such as Moritz Sembritzki’s Magnetic Ghost Orchestra or Luise Volkmann’s Été Large.

Artist biography Felix Henkelhausen

Bassist Felix Henkelhausen was also an early starter. He learnt the classical piano and cello whilst he was young, soon developed an interest for the double bass and started his preliminary studies in Bremen when he was only 16. It wasn’t long until he went to Berlin where his mentors included Marc Muellbauer as well as Robert Landfermann, Jim Black and Drew Gress. And so, at the age of only 28 years, Henkelhausen has already played with numerous national as well as international maestros, presented a highly acclaimed debut album with his own quintet in 2019 and won the BMW Jazz Award with the Peter Galls Quintet in 2021 and the New German Jazz Prize with a trio with Wanja Slavin and Sebastian Merk in 2020. A few months ago, he performed at the German Jazz Prize with Lakecia Benjamin and Terri Lynn Carrington.

Artist biography Jo Wespel

Jo Wespel is a guitarist, composer and “subculture activist” who has already organised concerts in Dresden’s Kukulida arts association. He now lives in Berlin, is a member of the “Subwater-Beats” Collective as well as the team at the Kulturrabatz Festival and the Festival-Boost Project for the development of a “Meta Community”. As a musician he can be heard with “post contemporary Jazzbeats” in his band Zur schönen Aussicht and with loops and electronic music as Beatdenker whose debut album “Too tall to dance” was released in December 2021.