Butterfly Dance 2026 @ Schlosspark, Schloss Esterházy

Performers

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  Moby

  Moby is an American electronic musician and is also the name of his live band. Born Richard Melville Hall on September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York. Moved to Darien, Connecticut at the age of 2.

  He's also released music under the names Voodoo Child, Barracuda, U.H.F., The Brotherhood, DJ Cake, Lopez, On the Rim of the Wheel a Nail, and Brainstorm/Mindstorm.

  Moby plays keyboards, guitar and bass guitar, and expresses mild[/atrist] irritation at the assumption that everything on his newer albums are samples. He took his performing name from the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville, who is his great-great-granduncle.

  Early years

  Moby used to be in a punk band called the Vatican Commandos, which was formed in 1980, but abandoned punk in 1989 for electronic music. He realized his music tastes and growth were going in a different direction than his previous band's.

  His first album "The Story So Far (aka Moby)" featured the single "Go", which gained popularity in many discos, and earned a spot on the UK charts. The song is so popular that Moby still plays "Go" regularly in his sets. "Go" is a progressive track using the string line from "Laura Palmer's Theme" from the TV drama Twin Peaks.

  1994-1998

  His first album for the UK based MUTE Records was Everything Is Wrong (which had US distribution via Elektra) , which earned early critical praise and minor commercial success. He followed that up with a hard rock/electronic album called Animal Rights in 1996. In 1997, he released I Like to Score, a collection of music included in movies. Among those tracks was an updated version of the James Bond theme used for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. However, both Animal Rights and I Like to Score had only limited success and Moby and Elektra parted company however he remained signed to MUTE.

  1999-2004

  After a decade's worth of music, Moby's breakthrough album was 1999's Play. Mainstream reviewers raved about his talents on the album (released on V2 Records) though some early fans were let down. The album has 18 tracks and was the first album in history to have all of its tracks commercially licensed: "Porcelain," for instance, appeared on TV commercials for Bailey's Irish Cream, Hong Kong's PCCW and Nordstrom, and Volkswagen's MKIV Jetta; "Find My Baby" was on a commercial for American Express featuring golfer Tiger Woods. The album's tracks eventually were accepted in various radio formats, but because of Play's extensive licensing, the album could have been financially successful even without radio play. In addition to fame garnered through its licensing, Play is also notable for its extensive sampling of old blues recordings collected by Alan Lomax. In a 2005 posting on his web site, Moby theorized that his eagerness to license his music is a result of "growing up in poverty."

  In 2001, Moby founded the Area:One Festival. It was a popular touring rock festival that featured an eclectic range of musical genres. A second tour was organized for the following year.

  In 2001 Moby also earned the ire of Eminem after calling his music misogynistic and homophobic; Eminem later satirized Moby (among others) in "Without Me," calling him a "fag" and questioning his relevance with the claim "Nobody listens to techno." Moby replied that he hadn't played techno since 1992. The two were in a confrontation at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, though Moby expresses respect for Eminem as an artist.

  In 2002, Moby briefly had a television show on MTV, Señor Moby's House of Music, which focused mostly on more obscure electronic music. Also in 2002, Moby released 18, an album that had 18 tracks. The most popular song on the album was "We Are All Made of Stars". Moby says he wrote "We Are All Made of Stars" because of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks, which happened on his birthday.

  2005

  In 2005 Moby released "Lift Me Up", a single from his album Hotel, which featured, in addition to numerous remixes, UK company Digimpro's software. The program allows users to remix the song - using any or all of the samples included—and save it as an MP3 file. Thus unlimited, personalized versions of the title track were possible. Digimpro had previously seen exposure with group Erasure's single "Breathe," allowing users the same ability. Instead of his usual usage of samples, all of the vocals and instruments on "Hotel" were performed live in the studio by Moby and vocalist Laura Dawn, who is the Cultural Director of MoveOn.org.

  For certain dates on Moby's 2005 European tour, Liveherenow provided concert goers with CDs of the show 10 minutes after the show finished. Other Mute Records artists like Erasure and Client have previously used this company for similar reasons.

  2006

  Moby has recently scored the soundtrack for Richard Kelly's upcoming movie 'The Southland Tales'. Whilst he is generally against composing music for films, he was a huge fan of Kelly's previous film 'Donnie Darko' and could not resist the offer the director gave him.

  ITV in the United Kingdom use Moby's song "Lift Me Up" for their coverage of Formula One racing by using the song as the intro. and also snippets to segway's for interviews and advertisements.

  Also, Moby had one of his older songs used in a Original HBO series, The Sopranos. This song, "When its Cold I'd like to Die" was used in the last scene in which Tony was in his dream state.

  Beside music

  Moby is a vegan, non-denominational Christian and self-proclaimed "simpleton" (for his often sincere and idealistic political assessments).

  Moby lives in New York City's Little Italy, where he's lived for a decade in a small apartment in a five-story building across the street from David Bowie. Until recently he co-owned a small restaurant and coffee shop called TeaNY, where he occasionally waited tables. He also organized the Little Idiot Collective, a group of artists that also includes cartoonist and musician James Kochalka Superstar. He's a huge fan of the TV series "The Simpsons".

  Activism

  Moby is a well known advocate for a variety of progressive causes, working with MoveOn.org, and PETA, among others. He created MoveOn Voter Fund's "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest along with singer Laura Dawn and MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser.

  He also actively engages in nonpartisan activism. He has performed benefit concerts for the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, promoting music therapy. Moby also serves on the Board of Directors of Amend.org, a nonprofit that implements injury prevention programs in Africa.

  He is an advocate of network neutrality and he testified before the US House committee debating the issue in 2006.

• 

  Sophie Ellis Bextor

  My new song ‘Relentless Love’ is out now 💋

  UK / EU Tour 2025 🪩

  https://sophieellisbextor.komi.io

  https://www.instagram.com/sophieellisbextor

  https://www.tiktok.com/@sophieebtiktok

  https://www.youtube.com/@sophieebofficial

  https://x.com/SophieEB

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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)