Die Therapie & Der Nussigmilde
Biography Die Therapie & Der Nussigmilde
Arno Grußendorf & DIE THERAPIE
If you’ve ever spent a sweaty night raving through Berlin’s Underground clubs, chances are you’ve seen a new sun rise. There’s something deeply erotic about being surrounded by the secret beats of tomorrow and the lunatic, dancing masses that made their way past dark corridors and secret doorways to dance at the top of the party food chain. Hold on to that feeling in your mind. Now bring it together with a Krauty sense of Jazz perfected and you’ve got what Die Therapie is offering: Mind-bending guitar harmonies, top-of-the-line-beats and synth sounds that reek of underground house. All put together with German meticulousness and for a single purpose: To slap the jazz genre around until it comes to its senses in the middle of dance floor, all wide-eyed and ready to party.
Die Therapie’s Arno and Jakob have honed their skills long enough to not cower before the gates of jazz heaven: They will bully their way in, if need be. And while both are academically trained – Arno spent his years of study in Amsterdam and Berlin, Jakob in Würzburg and Prague – their inner drives come from very different places: Jakob devoted his teens to 90’s true school hip hop, eventually carving out an independent career as rapper and producer while falling in love with drum and bass gurus like Photek. By contrast, Arno comes from the kind of family where piano lessons are for breakfast and the walls are paved with sheet music. He arrives at the guitar by way of keys and violin strings. Awestruck from day one, he eventually turns insane hours of practice and study with greats like Kurt Rosenwinkel into establishing himself as a successful solo artist. An older, wiser Arno now sneers back at the empty virtuosity of days gone by: His instrument has become his emotional extension, a confession with six strings.
What started with Bach and De la Soul is now an amalgam of influences: A curiosity and boundlessness that feels connected to the London scene around Tom Misch or Yussef Dayes. As Die Therapie, Arno and Jakob mix street dirt with indulgent hedonism. Whipping breakbeats meet wavering synth rhythms, glistening guitar figures swing through songs like "Level" or tear distorted holes in the melodies of "False Flakes". Frenzied solos combine with the menacing sounds of gloomy electro clubs and laid-back hip-hop beats. This massive, pompous sound serves a single purpose: to electrify the audience.
That is also why they deliberately break with tradition at their gigs: Genre purists will be shocked at how much electronic live equipment piles up on stage. Guitars and drums are joined by pads and laptop. Voice and vinyl samples mix up the songs. Ableton defiles the jazz stage.
The two complement it all with innovation in the studio: "We work as a singer and producer duo, just like in modern pop production," Arno explains. "For example, Jakob will drop by with a beat and I'll flesh it out melodically." Many songs emerge from a rhythmic idea and thereby retain a raw danceability.
After all, when it says in "Renaissance" "I learned jazz while dancing. It's time for a renaissance!", that's the agenda: Die Therapie disposes of the cliché of a music style for the initiated. Sexy, cool and gritty, the songs are meant to transmit their kinetic energy to the audience. And end the dark age of jazz in the process.
From 2018, the band participated in various competitions such as the Biberach Jazz Prize the Sparda Jazz Award 2019, Future Sounds Jazz Preis Leverkusen, Bayrischer Jazzpreis 2021 and is currently nominated for the prestigious Nachwuchspreis der Jazzwoche Burghausen.
