Marco Kleebauer has been called many things – sound tinkerer, Wunderwuzzi, producer, multi-instrumentalist. They are all correct and yet not quite enough to describe the scope of the work by this central player of the Austrian pop miracle of the last few years.
Player, on the other hand, sums it up quite well. Marco Kleebauer shares and explains with almost childlike joy on Instagram (@justsmileand.wav) the most complex setups in his studio, with which he conjures up his sounds that have long since become unmistakable. He presents experiments in which he juggles the turntable’s tone arms as if they were children’s toys. This playfulness is the drive behind the discovery of new sounds. Repetition is the musician’s greatest enemy.
So it’s no wonder that on the one hand he produces the most exciting pop these days – with his own projects like Leyya or Sharktank; for acts like Oehl, Bilderbuch or Naked Cameo. On the other hand, however, he enjoys diving deep into the depths of the musical ocean and releases sound fragments and entire musical landscapes at irregular intervals – often spontaneously; or entire concept albums accompanied by home-brewed beer; or in general, as is currently the case, on a sound surface that is supposed to accompany a sketchbook painted by him in its entirety like a radio play.
Marco Kleebauer thus becomes more and more a multimedia Hubble telescope, who, in order to find meaning, has to fathom the limits of his universe anew every day and always discovers corners in it whose existence seemed completely unimaginable a day before. The stage is his big playroom. A wide variety of instruments, weird effects, UV light and costumes come into play as well as a familiar circle of good friends – Florian Tiefenbacher (drums), Alex Kerbl (percussions) and Aaron Hader (saxophone, synths) together build a world of sound like something out of a utopian sci-fi movie and have absolutely no interest in letting us out of this world again.
Marco Kleebauer (Synth) marcokleebauer.com
Alexander Kerbl (Percussions) discogs.com/artist/4252172-Alexander-Kerbl
Aaron Hader (Saxophon, Synth) discogs.com/artist/6316566-Aaron-Hader
Florian Tiefenbacher (Drums) @florian_tiefenbacher
Sophie Lindinger (Visuals) @sophie_aenna
