Empathy

Born near the forests and foothills of the southern German Alps, Berlin-based musician Hans Gnendinger was never more than a stone’s throw away from a land of nature and myth. At the southern end of the Romantic Road, where violins and lutes are made, this castle-laden domain proved a nourishing breeding ground for the young composer. But it was on the streets and stages of Berlin that Hans Gnendinger honed his craft and success as a multilingual songsmith, guitarist, and performer. After two full-length albums and career as alter ego ‘Hans Sølo’, Gnendinger finds himself in a new incarnation: Grizzly Bird, a multi-genre trio formed in 2017 with Berlin artists Florian Dietrich (drums) and Nils Wenzel (bass). Grizzly Bird infuses lush orchestration into Gnendinger’s raw storytelling verve, with evocative lyricism and dreamy, fingerpicked reverie. Due for release in 2019 through Berlin’s Famous Gold Watch Records, Empathy is both Grizzly Bird’s, and the label’s, debut release: a conceptual international journey that imagines tales from the minds of the animal kingdom, pulsing with electro-tinged chorales and unhurried narratives – the sonic culmination of Gnendinger’s Bavarian roots through the scrim of Berlin’s sonic underground.