Category: Austria

Isabel Frey: Millenial Bundist

September 22, 2021

In May 2019, Isabel Frey, a singer of Yiddish revolutionary songs, landed her biggest gig yet, not in a concert hall but atop a van in central Vienna at the regular Thursday demonstration protesting the presence of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria’s ruling coalition. For the occasion, she took a pre-World War I song condemning the tsarist police, adapted the Yiddish lyrics into German and … More Isabel Frey: Millenial Bundist

Zoë: Debut Deluxe

January 3, 2017

The last native German speaker to capture millions of hearts in France was Marlene Dietrich, but the Austrian singer-songwriter Zoë Straub (her voice crystalline to Dietrich’s smoky) just may have the artistry and attitude to do a full Blue Angel. The 20-year-old prodigy—educated at Vienna’s Lycée Français—sounds divine in the language of Moliére and Piaf and also radiates an explosive combination of innocence and seduction. The 14 tracks of Debut Deluxe (12 co-written by Zoë … More Zoë: Debut Deluxe