One of the legendary figures of Cologne’s music scene is the German singer Gerd Köster, whose sign is the dialect he uses: Cologne’s dialect Kölsch. He is part of the history of Cologne’s most celebrated artists and he first started his music career as the frontman of the German band “Schroeder Roadshow”. It was an anarcho-political-rock band that sang ironically about politics and that became one of the cult bands in the German Federal Republic. Later on, he started his solo career with the project “The Piano Has Been Drinking”, a project that consisted of a Kölsch adaptation of many Tom Waits lyrics and that was welcomed with pleasure in Germany.

Fug and Janina are a German duo that plays music for children and that started their adventure back in 2010 when both met and discovered that both of them played the ukulele enthusiastically. At the beginning, they only performed for friends and in small venues, but very soon they received requests from schools, day-care centers and special schools in Cologne.

The story of the German a cappella band “basta” started out as a get-together of two of the current members, William Wahl and René Overmann, who shared a passion for a cappella music. Having played together in some bands as teenagers, they decided to join forces and start the band, in which they sometimes performed as a quartet along with other friends. Until one day the band members at that time came to the conclusion that they should arrange a stage number and write their own songs. That is how they began rolling in 2000, when they spent the whole summer writing, rehearsing, and playing their own official concerts.

Ede is a 22-year old composer and singer coming from Spain, who has already found her voice and her way. Even though she has just "taken the first steps" in the music scene, she has walked a long way to come here and she has a comprehensive education in music, performing arts and dancing. Just as many Millenials, she started out uploading videos of her own compositions to YouTube in which she appeared singing and playing different instruments. Her immense talent and infectious personality were the key elements to gain a loyal audience that has seen her rise and grow artistically.

The musician, composer and producer Arno Steffen was born in 1953 in Cologne and fell in love with music from a very young age. His musical interests have oscillated between punk rock, experimental music, and humorous pop songs.  He is a cornerstone of Cologne’s traditional music scene and Germany in general. A member of many bands since he was in high school, he then became part of some memorable bands—Zeltinger, the punk rock band that sang in the dialect Kölsch, Triumvirat, the experimental band in which he was lead singer and composer, although he is best known for his part in the pop-humorous band L.S.E., which also included songs written in Kölsch—.

Coming all the way from Spain, Infarto Producciones is GMO's new exclusive partner for the German-speaking countries. Infarto Producciones is based in Spain and it was born out of the necessity to develop artistic talent within the current context of information overload and in a time when self-production has become the norm. Loaded with fresh sounds from Spanish young artists, such as Alice Wonder, Sweet Barrio, Ede or Serrulla, they produce and organize all sorts of music projects and events. Their conception of the music industry is based on the belief that music should not be under the command of economic interests, and that creativity and artistic development should not be not given a second place.

The German movement against racism and neo-nazism was founded in Cologne in 1992 as a reaction to the growing racism and brutal aggressions that were taking place in Germany. The colloquial slogan written in the local dialect Kölsch literally means “Ass up, teeth apart!”. The movement brought together some of Cologne’s best bands (BAP, Bläck Fööss, Brings or Höhner, Nick Nikitakis, or The Piano Has Been Drinking, among others) in a first concert that was held in Cologne and that was broadcasted on television. It soon raised awareness and people from the music industry (EMI Electrola) wanted to take that great project in an album for free. That is how the first record was released in 1992 with the title Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander.

Mike Herting is the director of the GlobalMusicOrchestra (GMO). Mike Herting has been active as a pianist, composer, and producer since the beginning of the 80s. He was the founder of the ambitious rock-jazz group Headband and belonged to the Cologne trio Härte 10, an experimental rock-funk formation.

The Berlin band was first formed in 2003 under the name Emigrantski Raggamuffin Kollektiv RotFront and was composed by the Ukrainian Yuriy Gurzhy, who, along with Wladimir Kaminer, was known as part of the legendary Russendisko DJ collective, and also the Hungarian fellow Simon Wahorn.

Even though the classic ensemble only has nine members, the number varies according to their necessities and sometimes there are up to fifteen people on the stage. One of the former members of the band was also the Hungarian actress and singer Dorka Gryllus.

In their songs, it is possible to hear traces of rock, hip-hop, dancehall, reggae, ska or even klezmer and the band counts on many musicians from different nationalities. The band members recognize themselves as a political band that is mainly defined by its internationality. They come from countries like Germany, USA, Australia, Hungary or Ucrania. Following this line, the lyrics are also written in different languages: German, English, Russian or Hungarian. Besides, the "emigrantski raggamuffin" music, as they call it, talks about the everyday life of an immigrant in a big city.

They have published three albums so far, Emigrantski Raggamuffin (2009), VisaFree (2011) and 17 Deutsche Tänze (April 2014) and have also taken their music to many venues and big festivals in Europe.

The singer, song-writer Julian Dawson was born in Kent (England) in 1954. He started out with some solo performances and an Art School band he had, but he soon found in singing his calling. He then joined his first professional band and planned to move to Germany to play for the US forces there. He then decided to leave England and moved to Frankfurt following The Beatles example. After some time in Germany and having moved back to England, he decided to record his first album, which was called Let Out the Pig and began touring through Europe.