Brandee Younger Trio
July 8, 2025
The enchanting and radiant harpist Brandee Younger needs no more than a few notes to hypnotize a few hundred fans — and hold them in the palm of her hand.
As a former musician, I can feel the kind of joy and inspiration her fellow artists must experience when she brings them on tour.
It’s more than just playing music — it’s stepping into her luminous world of rhythm and soul.
The photo album: Photos. Brandee Younger Trio
Malcura
July 8, 2025
This is Malcura — a wild, high-voltage flamenco-fusion band straight outta Melbourne. Never heard of these guys before — and turns out they’ve been out there baking absolute bangers this whole time.
Two nylon-string guitars, spicy Latin grooves, a fat dose of rock’n’roll, and zero chill.
They’ve already dropped two albums and two EPs — flamenco meets gypsy jazz, surf rock, funk, even metal — and they’ve been wrecking Aussie stages non-stop.
No gimmicks. Just heat.
The photo album: Malcura in Montreux
Borja Catanesi
July 9, 2025
A street musician who’s already played his way through half the world — and is clearly full of energy to conquer the other half. I love photographing musicians. Maybe it’s because I used to perform a lot myself back in the day with my own band.
But Borja Catanesi — with 131,000 followers on Facebook alone — is something else. Pure joy, energy, and inspiration radiate from him, and it reaches everyone around, no exceptions.
I couldn’t take my eyes (or my lens) off his performance.
If I had my flashes with me, I would’ve kept shooting even after dark.
The photo album: Borja Catanesi in Montreux
Borja Catanesi’s Facebook
Mortòri
July 9, 2025
Mortòri isn’t a surname or stage name.
It’s the name of the solo project by artist‑producer Aris Bassetti.
I got drawn to this project not just because the artist was driven to explore the darkest sides of love, but more so because it beautifully aligns with our international movement “In Support of National and Ethnic Languages and Cultures.”
Why? Because he chose to create it in his mother tongue — the Ticino dialect, a variety of Western Lombard. This language, like many minority tongues, is under threat of disappearing.
Dialects like Ticinese are indeed part of the Western Lombard family, spoken in northern Italy and southern Switzerland.
Switzerland has numerous regional languages and dialects (e.g. Romansh), many facing survival challenges. Initiatives in schools and cultural associations aim to preserve them.
The photo album: Mortòri in Montreux
Myra
July 10, 2025
Myra — a fiery, glam‑artistic singer and writer of upbeat, feel‑good tracks; actress, composer, and director. In 2023, she won the FAIR — YouTube Music Award, directs her own music videos, and obsesses over every visual detail.
But, honestly… there’s nothing all that extraordinary about it.
The photo album: Myra in Montreux
Yazz Ahmed
July 11, 2025
Yazz Ahmed is a British-Bahraini trumpet player.
Her style is a vibrant blend of psychedelic Arabic jazz.
At the festival, she performed with an outstanding band — I was especially struck by the saxophonist and a true vibraphone guru.
Naturally, they became the focus of my shots.
The lighting at Memphis… let’s just say, it’s not exactly a photographer’s dream.
So the photos came out — fittingly — a bit on the psychedelic side too.
The photo album: Yazz Ahmed in Montreux
Capitão Fausto
July 11, 2025
Capitão Fausto is one of the most influential bands of its generation on the Portuguese music scene.
They are also the founders of the Cuca Monga label, which has become a cornerstone of Portugal’s independent music scene.
The photo album: Capitão Fausto in Montreux
Eileen Alistair
July 12, 2025
And here is 22-year-old Eileen Alistair from Zurich — a rising star and singer-songwriter known for her honest voice and deeply emotional lyrics.
She began performing her original songs in 2023, kicking off with 18 shows across Switzerland and millions of views on social media.
In 2024, she played her first international gigs — in Manchester, Germany, and Amsterdam.
And her London concert in April 2025? Sold out in just five hours.
The photo album: Eileen Alistair in Montreux
Tilar
July 14, 2025
Tilar brings an insanely energetic mix of funk, pop, and jazz.
Vocalist Clara Lucas and keyboardist/producer Joshua Milo have seemingly been running the show since the band was founded in 2019.
Their humorously edited concert clips have gone viral on Instagram and TikTok, racking up millions of views.
In 2020, Tilar won the Sparda Jazz Award.
And in 2025, they took first place in the Thomann x Shure Band Contest, earning a slot at Montreux, €3,000 in prize money, Shure grants, and full travel support to the festival.
It’s just a shame that photography can’t quite capture their full energy.
The photo album: Tilar in montreux
Yerai Cortes
July 14, 2025
Yerai Cortés is pure brilliance.
A guitarist with no technical limits — he delivers the most intricate passages with astonishing ease.
And his stage presence? Flawless.
Despite his young age, Yerai has risen to the top of his field with incredible speed.
He’s part of a new generation of artists who are taking flamenco into uncharted and thrilling territory, blurring the lines between tradition, classical form, and the avant-garde.
With Guitarra Coral, accompanied by a choir of six palmeros who join him with vocals and handclaps in a shared ritual, this guitarist from Alicante is reshaping flamenco for the 21st century.
The photo album: Yerai Cortes in Montreux
Automobile Club
15.07.2025
Automobile Club was one of the few bands on the open-air SUPER BOCK stage that truly shook the audience — and not just artistically, but physically.
They hauled their own sound-blasting gear onto the stage, and I swear every organ in my body — veins and arteries included — got a deep-tissue massage.
And mind you, I’m someone who’s seen and heard some of the heaviest rock acts out there. Back in the day, I didn’t shy away from unleashing bone-crushing bass lines myself.
Three friends — Julien Marty, Ludovic Lacroix, and Maxence Sibille — founded Automobile Club, a rock trio shaped by a mix of musical influences. For the past 15 years, they’ve been shaking up the Geneva music scene, selling out every show.
Strange that I hadn’t heard of them before.
If you ever catch them live — do yourself a favor and bring earplugs. Just in case.
The photo album: Automobile Club in Montreux
Dana & Alden
15.07.2025
The amazing McWayne brothers — younger brother Alden, a drummer and Berklee College of Music graduate, and older brother Dana, a saxophonist — team up with a group of multi-instrumentalists to create beautiful jazz melodies with touches of indie, inspired by their unusual childhood in Eugene, Oregon.
After this concert, I couldn’t wait to dive into their debut album, Quiet Music for Young People — a collection of memories: summer days spent working in an apple orchard, and rainy winter nights tucked away in cozy jazz clubs.
The photo album: Dana & Alden in Montreux
Cobi
16.07.2025
Even if you don’t catch every word of his American English lyrics, you’ll feel it — this guy isn’t just playing the guitar, he’s playing the strings of your soul.
Cobi, a young blues guitar wunderkind from Minnesota, is a singer-songwriter whose raw voice and unconventional lyrics won’t leave you indifferent — especially if you tune in to what he’s saying.
He started out performing in small clubs, honing his craft by playing night after night in bars across the U.S., until he made it to Los Angeles.
There, he signed with Def Jam Records, and his very first single, Don’t You Cry For Me, shot to the top of global Spotify charts and hit No. 1 on SiriusXM’s Spectrum radio.
That was the turning point — the street musician became a touring and recording artist. And thank goodness for that, or we probably wouldn’t have heard him in Europe at all.
The photo album: Cobi in Montreux
Nayana
16.07.2025
It’s hard to say how old this singer actually is.
Why?
Because she looks incredibly young — yet carries herself on stage like a total pro. Not just a singer, really — more like an actress, fully in command of every moment.
Her musical journey started back in childhood, winning over the guests at her family’s hotel in Thailand.
Her debut mini-album OSMOSE came out in 2022, and right after that she played nearly 60 shows!
With an angelic voice and a band of musicians clearly head over heels for her, she creates an atmosphere that’s both uplifting and warmly intimate.
At least that’s how it felt to me.
The photo album: Nayana in Montreux
TechnoBrass
17.07.2025
Brazil never stops surprising with its impressive energy.
TechnoBrass is an explosive septet from Rio that blends the hypnotic drive of techno beats with the raw power of brass band grooves — pulling listeners into a full-on trance.
The group has made a name for itself as one of Brazil’s most creative instrumental projects, drawing crowds of over 1,500 at every TechnoBrass LIVE show.
In Montreux, it was nearly impossible to see the band through the fog machine, which honestly looked like it had broken down.
A real challenge for any photographer — so don’t expect sharp shots this time. Just haze and darkness.
I had to edit the photos in a way that matched the Brazilian vibe — intense, impressionistic, and a little wild.
Hope you don’t mind.
The photo album: TechnoBrass in Montreux
Ganavya
18.07.2025
Her voice is inseparable from her poetic soul and the deeply spiritual, philosophical context of the music she composes — or rather, breathes into being.
It all flows from her as naturally as breath itself.
In the audience: her husband and father.
On stage: her brother — a true harp virtuoso.
At one point, she invites her father on stage, and he seamlessly becomes part of the performance.
In that moment, it becomes clear where her extraordinary gift comes from — a kind of radiant magnetism that allows her to sing of love and the interconnectedness of all things, affecting the audience in a way that feels nothing short of healing.
Ganavya, born in New York and raised in Tamil Nadu, studied at Berklee, UCLA, and Harvard.
With a rare voice on the spiritual and experimental scene, she effortlessly signed with Nils Frahm’s label, LEITER, and in 2024 released Daughter of a Temple — a choral album blending sacred jazz with South Asian devotional music.
The photo album: Ganavya in Montreux
Lost in Lona
Lost in Lona is an indie-folk duo founded by Lydia Beck and Konstantin Ebli.
Their debut album, Scared Like A Mother And Her Gun, was produced in Basel in 2023 and weaves together gentle melodies with deep, introspective lyrics about love, fear, self-doubt — and even mental health.
Their disarming sincerity pulls you into a space between melancholy and light, between highs and lows, between past pain and healing.
They’re all stunning — as musicians and as people.
Dive into the album and see for yourself :)
The photo album: Lost in Lona in Montreux
Zayad Al-Samman
18.07.2025
Ziad Al-Samman is a London-based singer and songwriter of psychedelic disco-pop.
Born to a Syrian father and a British mother, he draws inspiration from his roots and his love for the stage, creating high-energy, irresistibly danceable music.
His live show is a burst of strobe-lit energy and raw, unrestrained emotion.
Beneath the bright grooves, retro synths, and bittersweet pop melodies, Ziad invites us into his world — singing about love, loss, friendship, and the urge to live life to the fullest.
In short: a poetic, liberating whirlwind on stage.
The photo album: Zayad Al-Samman in Montreux
Faustine
19.07.2025
It’s easy to believe that, from a young age, this 24-year-old artist immersed herself in dream pop, alternative pop, hip-hop, and even hyperpop.
You can also feel that she has a deep appreciation for poetry and visual art.
Think of any of her tracks as an open invitation to ride through life — the way it exists in your own imagination and dreams.
Faustine shares her unique vulnerability with ease, opening up about the darkest moments of her life and even her struggles with mental health.
Her music also aims to support marginalized people facing social injustice — something she makes a point to emphasize in her off-stage appearances.
The photo album: Faustine in Montreux
Gilipojazz
19.07.2025
This insanely powerful trio from Madrid is something else!
I’d say it’s no surprise they won the AIE Award at the Rock Villa Festival in their hometown.
Gilipojazz blends jazz-punk, funk, progressive rock, metal, and classical music with explosive virtuosity — and, just as importantly, with a brilliantly absurd sense of humor that often doesn’t even need translation.
Hitting the big stage in 2022 with their album Dónde está el jazz?, they played over 40 shows in less than a year — including a standout performance at the Sziget Festival in Budapest — and they continue to win over audiences with their onstage madness and unconventional music videos.
The photo album: Gilipojazz in Montreux
Salt Tree
Australian duo Salt Tree was born where the forest meets the sea.
Tom and Nath, avid surfers and nature lovers, channel that love into their songs, airy harmonies, and captivating live performances. Their music, infused with a deep connection to the outdoors, personal experiences, and storytelling, makes for the perfect soundtrack to summer road trips and evenings gathered around the campfire. soundevent.atSoundCloud
Since their debut in 2022, this self-produced project has released three EPs, built a fanbase of over 1 million monthly listeners, racked up 90 million streams, and completely sold out their first headline European tour in November 2024.
The photo album: Salt Tree in Montreux
Sahel
Sahel is a French-Swiss singer and songwriter whose name nods to his desert heritage.
Born in Paris to a family of musicians, he grew up on jazz before moving to Geneva, and later to Lausanne, where he launched his solo project.
With his high, slightly husky voice, he blends pop, rap, rock, and jazz into a style that’s entirely his own.
His poetic and powerful lyrics come alive on stage with infectious energy.
Mixing singing and rap alongside his band, Sahel delivers concerts that are bright, warm, and bursting with life.
As part of The Day of Singing Hands, organized in collaboration with the association Procap, Sahel’s concert featured sign language interpreters — you’ll see them when you check out my photo album link.
The photo album: Sahel in Montreux