Cologne Music Week: 2LADE, Donia Touglo & BROCKHOFF

2LADE
2LADE is a German-speaking rapper from Cologne, which is known for its unique depth as well as aggressive voice. Combined with exquisite beats, his songs not infrequently become earworm material. He pulls his look, his music and his alter-ego consistently through and provides with his sound for a character, which there is no second time in the music industry.

Donia Touglo
Donia Touglo is a singer, state-approved actress, performance artist and creates worlds through her art. Her expression testifies to a (super)life path dedicated to personal liberation and cultural understanding. Her interdisciplinary creativity is expressed in the self-taught design of her artwork, costumes, and ever-different, original elements of her energetic shows, drawing from her diverse stage experience. The Cologne native with Togolese roots writes her lyrics in Ewe, English, German and in the language of her soul. At the same time she initiates permaculture projects and humanitarian engagement in Togo and dedicates herself to a very personal healing process. All this is reflected in her music, which condenses into her first solo album. From global sounds with West African influences to Afrobeats, Afro-fusion, electronics, neo-soul, psychedelic pop and more, Donia Touglo draws on a variety of genres and styles and expresses them in her own way. Describing it as "anything that feels good to my soul" or a "soul infused world jam," the independent artist brings a colorful kaleidoscope to her art. From 2019 to 2021 she has released a 5 track EP, 8 singles and 2 features, produced and directed her own music videos and was awarded the popNRW award in the NEWCOMER category in October 2021.

BROCKHOFF .
With a name that sticks in the mind with force, BROCKHOFF presents songs that hit equally in the head and heart, but are not afraid of vulnerability and the illusory search for the supposedly right way. Between empowering pop and uncompromising fuzz sounds, the 22-year-old musician from Hamburg hits a surprisingly adult intermediate tone with her songs in an unimpressively honest way. Drawers of stereotypes are opened, only to rummage through them in the next moment, dump them out and re-sort them without a raised forefinger. Accompanied by raw and unfiltered guitars, questions of peer pressure, loneliness and thrills shimmer through their songs, building stories around the big in the small. "Feel your pleasure's biting my tongue" she sings - battered by overwhelm and boredom in the face of the general urge to belong at parties - making the challenges of her generation audible in fine detail.

BROCKHOFF's music emerged after her move from a small town to Hamburg: she fully immersed herself in the big city, let herself drift, and found herself confronted with a curious creative environment. All this gave new impulses and formed the polarizing sound of the artist. Four instrumentalists support the songwriter and guitarist live to release the energy of the studio recordings. The band knows how to take a step back at the right moments, only to replace the newcomer's unobtrusive voice with three guitars in the next bar. Closeness emerges between outburst and dreamy immersion, and BROCKHOFF thus finds just the right combination of tidy pop arrangements and garage-sound mentality on stage.