IMA's Nominee Matthias Sturm Announces US Tour

Online, June 3, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Hailing from East Germany and based in a 16th Century fortress in the countryside outside of his adopted hometown of Paris, Matthias Sturm's eclectic "modern throwback" progressive rock vibe has led to his ever expanding status as a musical citizen of the world.

Following up his 2012 breakthrough Blood and Thunder, which was produced in Los Angeles by David Hillis (Pearl Jam, Afghan Wigs, James Blunt) and scored a hit from the U.S. to India with the John Lennon/Pink Floydesque "Peace on Earth," Sturm opts to tease his growing legions of fans a little.

Rather than release a full-length recording, he has crafted the dreamy and grooving six track EP Luna Park to convey the initial essence of a planned future rock opera.

The multi-talented singer/songwriter's life leading up to his emergence as a solo artist rolls like a high spirited travelogue, with his heartfelt voice conveying highly poetic music and lyrics that, in his words, invite the listener to "step into a Byronesque universe inhabited by muses".

Back in the past of the Cold war era, while attending evening classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, the young vanguard was involved in the East German art boheme and illegal punk music movement.

Today, a more popular live performer since opening dates in Belgium and Holland in 2008 for NOVASTAR, Sturm has performed on club tours and larger venues across Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, India and the U.S. More recently, he was booked for the Europavox Festival in France at the prestigious stage of La Cooperative de Mai at Clermont-Ferrand.

Driven by the global harmony themed "Peace on Earth," Blood and Thunder scored medium rotation at college radio across the U.S., earned spins on Jay Adkins' Off the Charts program in the UK and, via the video clip of "Homesick," earned exposure on VH1 India and Prime TV's "Indie Picks" in the U.S.

Sturm also earned major accolades from publications like Music Connection ("Sturm's Brit sounding voice recalls the best of classic soft-rock, but with interesting, modern electronic touches"), Skope Magazine ("makes us excited about the prospects of rock and roll's future") and NYC's The Big Takeover magazine ("a charismatic, carefree outing that'll also have you whistling along").

With basic tracks recorded by Sturm at his home Les Fougis Studios in France, Luna Park was produced and mixed in Vancouver by Warne Livesey, best known for his groundbreaking work with Midnight Oil, The The, Mark Hollis (Talk Talk), Matthew Good Band and Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie). Livesey, who also plays bass, says of the collaboration with Sturm: "It was very enjoyable, mostly due to the fact that the songwriter's work is interesting and unusual, understated and full of personality."

The EP also features drums by Dave Krusen (Pearl Jam, Candlebox, Unified Theory).

Tracks include the trippy and hypnotic, folk influenced "1947 (Pandora Out The Box)," a clever extension of the "handshake with the devil" aspect of his renowned track "Mister D"; the classical-prog rock influenced "All Beauty Must Die"; the spirited, electronic off the wall rocker "Mirror, Mirror"; the lovely and lyrical French chanson "Gitan" about a young gypsy man (who recites German hobo slang in the middle part) and the more humorous, yet quirky rock cabaret of "If The Devil Comes" as a curfew number of the EP.

Explaining the concept of Luna Park, Sturm says, "It's a more antiquated term of a kermis or amusement park, and has been a synonym for the ups and downs of life, a symbol of the karmic wheel to find in the carousels...the lunation and the lunatic world, where darkness is elucidated with colored lamps and flashy lights, a cinematic market of vanity, cornucopia of wasted live and unborn beauty. Memories of
my youth in East Germany flashed up.

'' More than at any time before, I've got a picture of the human condition and what it does to us and it really knocked me out.

Some things I'm saying on this album are about present human habits, how we're used and how we use and abuse others," he says.

'' By this, handing a bitter pill in a sweet package can be excellence in songwriting.''