The Olympia Theatre proudly presents
PAUL KALKBRENNER
Thursday 24 May
**Tickets on sale tomorrow at 9am** 

Berlin musician, producer and actor Paul Kalkbrenner has announced that he will perform at the Olympia Theatre on Thursday 24 May. Tickets from €23.00 inclusive of booking fee are on sale tomorrow, Wednesday 22 February at 9am from Ticketmaster outlets and online at www.ticketmaster.ie.

Even though reality shows have been trying to prove otherwise, a successful career as a musician, even as a pop star, cannot be forced with a pre-packaged crash course. Paul Kalkbrenner has tallied up more than 15 years of experience as a producer and live act, all the while learning what it means to go purposefully from one step to the next. When the Berlin Wall fell, he was 12. The soundtrack of his youth, and of the majority of his generation, was still in its infancy, awaiting its breakthrough: techno music. 

His first tracks were released in 1999 on Berlin-based BPitch Control (the newly founded label from Ellen Allien) as the Friedrichshain EP, titled after his home district in the city’s east. Together with Paul Kalkbrenner, BPitch Control gained a strong momentum.

In early 2006, German director Hannes Stöhr, an avid fan of Pauls album Self, decided to get in contact with Kalkbrenner. His idea was to produce a film about a musician in Techno City during the new millennium, and Paul would compose the soundtrack. In the course of their exchange, Hannes had the realization that Paul should not just contribute the music, but that he would be the perfect choice as the film’s star. Without hesitation, Paul accepted the offer. They decided to title the film Berlin Calling. For the soundtrack’s production, Paul and his friend (and BPitch colleague) Sascha Funke spent half a year in Cézanne’s hometown of Aix-En-Provence in southern France.

The finished work was brought to German theaters in October 2008. Berlin Calling and Paul’s debut acting performance received positive reviews, and the film, thanks to its authentic depiction of the Berlin club scene and drug culture, became, slowly but surely, a cult classic. 

The soundtrack and especially the movies lead single "Sky and Sand" broke all sales records. That track in particular went gold in Belgium where it remained in the charts’ Top Ten for weeks. The 2009 DVD release of the film brought Paul to a new, much larger audience around the world. By the end of the year, Paul separated with BPitch Control after a decade-long relationship to take the next steps of his career alone. In early 2010 Paul completed a twelve-city live concert tour throughout Europe (with over 50,000 tickets sold within just a few weeks), followed by many headlining appearances at summer festivals.

With well over one hundred thousand attendees, his 2010 European Tour marked a milestone in the realm of live electronic music performance. No other musician from Germany has established himself in this genre with such overwhelming response, not just from all the dancefloors, but also in the hearts of newfound fans from beyond the club and techno scenes. 

To document such a unique experience, Paul Kalkbrenner and his crew decided to record over fifteen concerts with the highest technical standards, shooting simultaneously with up to eight video cameras, with the selected footage subsequently edited and finessed by the Pfadfinderi visual team. The final sequence seen here is a fascinating, ten-song foray into Paul Kalkbrenner's sold-out shows throughout Europe, showing the exceptional standing he achieved in the process.

Last summer Paul released his latest album Icke Wieder.

Tickets for Paul Kalkbrenner: Live at the Olympia Theatre are on sale at 9am on Wednesday 22 February.

For more see: www.paulkalkbrenner.net / www.mcd.ie / www.ticketmaster.ie