YELKA - Nowhere Jive

The most unlikely band of the year. YELKA are set to release 10 strictly limited vinyl albums in 3 years with artwork by Kompakt's Bianca Strauch-Freytag. And they do so without any kind of social media. Instead they play residencies in Hamburg and Berlin (more international residencies to follow).

In strange times, beautiful things happen. People reunite to eventually get back to doing what they've wanted to do all along. This is what was happening about three years ago, when drummer Christian Obermaier and Daniel Meteo met playing soccer in the Uckermark region of Germany, only to shortly after form a new band with bassist and singer Yelka Wehmeier in Berlin. According to lore, it was above all Meteo's humor that convinced Obermeier.

Meteo is known in the past years mainly as the manager of Apparat, music publisher (Random Noize) and label maker (Shitkatapult, The Album Label), Wehmeier most recently as a bassist in the first line-up of Patrick Wagner's band Gewalt, and Christian Obermaier, we had almost forgotten about him, although in the noughties he was one of the most sought-after drummers in the Berlin indie world, playing amongst other in SchneiderTM's band. He and the band's namesake Yelka Wehmeier, in turn, played together in the criminally overlooked Berlin post-rock band EAGLE BOSTON until 2013!

YELKA now sounds much more brittle, minimalist. Which might be due to Daniel Meteo's Magic Band-like guitar playing. But also due to the welcome absence of synthesizer pads. Thus, when listening to the first YELKA productions, all the artfully crumbly bands of Post Rock suddenly come back to mind. The Sea & Cake or Karate, for example. But also musical harbingers like Captain Beefheart, Can or the electric Davis between Kraut and Jazz!

Fun in the church-A&R Maurice Summen was so enthusiastic about the already recorded material that he spontaneously offered the trio a 10-album deal. So in 2023 alone, three YELKA albums will be released on Fun in the church. (March, June, September). By the end of 2025, all 10 albums should then be released. No wonder they have no time for the Internet beyond that. They'd rather make music, make records, play concerts - and not waste time on that.

The band is also planning on regular concert sprees in various European clubs. For each album release in the next few years, they will play as a residency band in the same venues. The first album is titled "Nowhere Jive" and will be released on March 31, 2023.