Ports of Call Music is very excited to be releasing, in conjunction with the South African label Subjangle, “All in the Mind”, the new album by the Berlin band The Strange Encounters”. Based around the songwriting of Guido Kreutzmüller and Joe Armstrong, the album is bursting with gorgeous harmonies, infectious jangly guitars, and tunes you won’t be able to get out of your head.

Available from Ports of Call as a vinyl and digital release, and on Subjangle as a CD, the album will be released on April 26th 2024.

Founded in 2018 the band has since played numerous gigs around Germany until the pandemic ground everything to a halt. Everything? Not really. During eases in lockdown the band dug down in their own attic studio in Berlin together with producer Thomas Wosnitza to record ALL IN THE MIND, their first longplayer, which combines catchy folk-pop and bluesy rock’n’roll with psychedelic soundscapes and improvisations, to create their own distinctive sound.

Kreutzmüller and Armstrong are excellent observers, each with his own angle and background. In their lyrics they paint complex pictures, full of desire, sensitivity and self-awareness. Their stories come from a place of love as well as from the fascination for the everyday life and its characters. They tell of the big and small delusions and confusions in human relationships, as well as describing the social dislocations happening next door, looking right into the abyss of the human soul in changing times. If the album seems to fall out of time, then it‘s perfectly placed in the early 21st century. It‘s all in the mind.

As a touring band with sparkling guitars backed by a powerful rhythm section around drummer Boris Faust plus various guest musicians, the bands‘ live set provides a wide range of twists and styles, raw, mature, unpolished and cool. In the duo line-up, Kreutzmüller and Armstrong spark the flame with intimate versions of their song catalogue, stripped down to acoustic and electric guitars and piano. Be it quiet or loud, seated or dancing – The Strange Encounters are a pure joy to experience.

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