The Moon is no Door is an experimental indie rock band. Their first album was released in 2022, featuring Dirk Dresselhaus - processed electric guitar and mixing, Ulrich Krieger - saxophones, and was recorded live by Stepha Schweiger - vocals, pianos, synthesizer, Robert Pöschl - electric bass, Adam Goodwin - double bass, Mäx Huber - drums, vocals, Christian Haudej - electric guitar. Their melodic, catchy and edgy sound with two basses playing simultaneously combines with elements from kraut and psychedelic.
Over the past two years since the release of their album Tiny Moment, the band The Moon Is No Door (TMIND) has recorded new tracks at the famous Hansa recording studios in Berlin, which will be released as an album in summer 2025.The first single from it, ‘Armagideon Time’, is a free collage with a contemporary theme based on the reggae song by Willi Williams and became known to a wider audience as the B-side of The Clash's ‘London Calling’ single. The TMIND version is a hybrid of experimental rock and reggae and, instead of the biblical references of the original, focuses on the lyric line ‘Kick it over, don't forget to kick it over’ added by The Clash. Halfway through, the radio edit of the single then runs over into a lively and bubbling reggae section, which pops up a new dub, delay or drone surprise at any time. Background:Stepha Schweiger (Pyrolator, Hanno Leichtmann) on vocals (the vocal dubs and edits are by Pyrolator), keyboards, electronics and responsible for music and production, founded the band in 2019 with Texan musician Adam Goodwin (double bass), her long-time companion Robert Pöschl (Kim Foley, Robert Forster) on electric bass and co-production and Mäx Huber (Kim Foley) on drums. The single 'Armagideon Time’ also features guitarist Alex Kozmidi (Camera) and jazz trombonist Marleen Dahms as guests.
The Moon Is No Door is the new band spearheaded by the composer and singer/songwriter Stepha Schweiger, a familiar name thanks to her experimental musical theatre work and productions with Pyrolator and Hanno Leichtmann. Expanded to the four-piece band The Moon Is No Door, this album follows on from two solo albums dedicated to the poetry of Katherine Mansfield. However, it takes a new musical direction because, according to Schweiger, “the new selection from Mansfield’s texts needed a band that sounded harder, edgier and more krauty, plus I had a huge longing to do something with familiar band members again.”
Eight of the album’s nine songs are based on poems and literary still-lifes by the NewZealand-British author Katherine Mansfield, all of which are still relevant to this day. “I immediately identified with these lyrics on a very emotional level,”says Stepha Schweiger, “as if they came from deep within me. And then I felt the irrepressible urge to sing and play them”. In the psychedelic, krautrock musical settings, which are heavily influenced by both indie pop and improvisational avant-garde, the moon is no door create fictional scenarios and dialogues with multiple vocal inserts in the form of collages.
The core of the band consists of Stepha Schweiger on vocals, synthesizer and piano, Adam Goodwin on double bass, Robert Pöschl (Robert Forster, Kim Foley) on electric bass and Mäx Huber (Walter Salas-Humara, Kim Foley) on drums. There are also guest appearances by Ulrich Krieger (Lou Reed) on saxophone and Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM) on “processed” electric guitar along with Christian Haudej on electric guitar. The Moon Is No Door came into being over the course of several sessions with Schweiger’s long-time musical associates. It all kicked off with Stepha Schweiger and Adam Goodwin, who then brought robert Pöschl and Mäx Huber on board, with whom Stepha also collaborates in the group “Girl on Catfish”. Stepha and robert know each other since their teens. Both of them played together for five years with the forerunner bands and then in the resulting formation of “Baby You Know”.
On Tiny Moment, Stepha Schweiger amalgamates poems by Katherine Mansfield and excerpts of a Virginia Woolf text with her own compositions to create exciting, absurd and even magical-sounding songs. With regard to her approach, Schweiger has the following to say: “I don’t just want to create an embellishment to a poem, but initially aim to create a musical antithesis that coalesces as much as possiblewith the poem. With this in place, I can in turn look at the poem, feel it, hear it, understand it and, in the process, realise something new every time, also about the poem itself. This is a reciprocal composition process of convergence between music and text. As a result of identifying the largest deviation and the strongest possible confluence between music and text, the composition ultimately emerges in the most autonomous manner imaginable.”
More than a century ago, Katherine Mansfield already created a self-determined modus vivendi forherself, on both a private and professional level. This sense of autonomy is reflected in her literary output. The tracks dive into the topics ofself-perception as a woman in society, finding a haven in various relationshipsand perceiving the significance of nature. The album’s title track deals with atiny but enchanted moment during the twilight hours when suddenly a spooky element appears in the air, transforming everything into a minor miracle andconferring magic on the perception of oneself and one’s surroundings. Incontrast, “Gray’s Inn Road” is about pilgrims striving to reach nowhere – is ita “Road to Nowhere” or does it actually lead to a destination? ...
the leadsingle "Revelation" is out on June 24, 2020, accompanied by the teaser video for the album "Tiny Moment" - Vinyl, CD & Download – to be released on August 26, 2022.
On July 15, 2022, the video "Revelation" is released.
The moon is no door will perform a release tour starting in September 2022 in Germany and Austria.
Broadcast by Roland Biswurm including Interview with Stepha Schweiger
BR24 - Roland Biswurm on Tiny Moment - Interview with Stepha SchweigerFreistil broadcast from August 24, 2022
Freistil from August 24, 2022Deutschlandfunk Kultur Tonart 22nd August, 2022, 3 pm, interview and live performance with The Moon Is no Door
online till 29th August, 2022, listen to interview and live performanceInterview with Stepha Schweiger on the Album Tiny Moment and the band The Moon is no Door
Interview and more music of album "Tiny Moment"new review by Stephanie Grimm in the TAZ Berlin
new review of Tiny Moment by The Moon Is No Door in the TAZ BerlinTiny Moment - Album of the week on SWR2 - broadcast on August 19, 2022
listen to interview at Tandem on swr2 - by Luigi lauer„Revelation“ ist zugleich ihr Debüt vom Erstlingsalbum „Tiny Moment“, das am 26. August erscheinen wird. Im Track geht es um die Absurdität des Lebens und mit seinen Nina-Hagen-ähnlichen Vocals trifft er das auch völlig.
"Revelation" is the first single by new band The Moon Is No Door, whose debut album Tiny Moment is out August 26th. This song is a tightrope of tension, with enchanting piano harmonies juxtaposed with raw saxophone, guitar and vocal sounds. The musician delivers a sound that is a bit reminiscent to the late 70s we think.