Having begun as a naïve youth project after school, Tonbandgerät have ticked off most of the phases of a classic band biography over the last ten years with every trick in the book. From their debut EP, “Du nennst es Tetris, ich nenn es Alltag” (2009), to their New Music Award in 2012 and the nationwide success of their debut album, “Heute ist für immer” (2013), the quartet pursued a career path that was crowned with rapid success in the early 2010s but that was nevertheless highly unconventional. In addition to the warm and catchy indie pop formula, it was also the group’s wonderfully poetic lyrics that helped them gain a great reputation both in indie circles and in the media mainstream. Further works such as the album “Zwischen all dem Lärm” (2018) and the EP “Hellsehen” (2022) – which was aptly named for the band’s 15th anniversary – show Tonbandgerät to be a passion project with musical sophistication. Although the band shrank to a trio in 2022 due to the departure of founding member Isa Poppensieker, with “Ein anderes Leben”, they once again found enough creative energy this year to celebrate what is perhaps the temporary creative zenith of a career that has certainly not been short of highlights.