Otto Club is a live electronic ensemble consisting of five KORG MS-20 synthesizers and a drummer. While electronic music often originates behind a computer, Otto Club deliberately chooses a fully live approach. Each synthesizer plays only one note at a time, building the music from five independent voices that together form a single polyphonic instrument. Within this unique lineup, vocals also have a fixed place: Otto Club starts from songs in which voice and synthesizers come together.
Narrative texts in German and English form an essential part of the music. Almost entirely carried by analog synthesizers, Otto Club sounds warm, fluid, and surprisingly organic. Influences from Air and Yellow Magic Orchestra are audible, while the emotional dynamics are more reminiscent of a band like Big Thief than the conventions of electronic music.
Together with visual artist Paolo Hamann, Otto Club develops its live performances as audiovisual shows, in which music, scenography, and light form a single whole.
