After last year’s unforgettable first visit to the INNtöne Festival on a farm surrounded by fields, meadows, and forests, where we discovered the excellent Christian Mühlbacher USW orchestra on Sunday alongside the established Walter Smith III, Kirk Lightsey, and Don Moye, we were looking forward to this year’s very diverse program. More than 30 planned concerts by a total of 22 bands on three stages (Open Air Bühne on the adjacent meadow, Scheune, i.e., a large barn, and St. Pigs Pub, i.e., a former pigsty with two bars) promised a three-day musical feast.
The Austrian Chameleon Orchestra was introduced to the main Open Air stage by the main organizer, Paul Zauner. Its leader, Christian Wirth, who founded it in 2013, fulfilled his dream of a versatile orchestral ensemble, which the musicians tried to convince us of at the beginning of the festival. First, inspired by the musical legacy of Anton Brückner, they peacefully played three movements from his famous Symphonies No. 4 and No. 9. Then, true to their name, the Chameleon Orchestra radically changed their style to intense world music and even Afro-pop-jazz with the arrival of Mozambican singer Stewart Sukuma and his Portuguese partner Ana Girão. With cheerfulness and exuberant enthusiasm, they cheered up the audience and got them singing along to Mozambican songs. A successful start to the festival.
Immediately after the concert on the main stage, Jumping Jungle, an entertaining jazz ensemble of very young enthusiastic musicians from Vienna, took to the stage in the barn. They played a series of well-known jazz hits such as Cantaloupe Island, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, Chameleon, Armando’s Rumba, etc. with convincing enthusiasm, much to the delight of the large audience, who had moved from the sun-drenched Open Air stage under the roof and were happy to absorb their youthful energy. In particular, siblings Mena and Xaver Plankensteiner, who founded Jumping Jungle six years ago, amazed with their musical maturity, jazz sensibility, and Xaver’s thrilling solos on the triple keyboard.
The second performance on the main stage in the meadow brought together an experienced trio for the first time. The charming singer Heidi Vogel, born in London with Arab-Persian roots, English pianist Liam Noble, and Czech bassist Jiří Slavík, our only musician at the festival, presented their original, often completely improvised versions of proven jazz standards. The charismatic Heidi, reminiscent of Amy Winehouse in appearance and Nina Simone in her singing style, thrilled the audience not only with her extraordinary voice and incredible vocal range, but also with her perfect interplay with her two excellent bandmates. The first unforgettable musical experience from INNtöne 2025—I recommend the video clip below the photo gallery.
Last Friday’s concert featured the American band The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis. This instrumental trio of respected members of Washington’s experimental music and punk rock community combines Anthony Pirog’s thrilling, visionary guitar playing with an intense rock rhythm section: Joe Lally on bass guitar and Brandon Canty on drums found a kindred spirit in free jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis at a concert in Brooklyn in 2021. The band took their jazz influences to the next level on their 2024 album The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis. And it was precisely this kind of intense music that they performed for us under the stars until midnight.
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