Each one of your idols is here: rock, 60s counterculture, and punk’s embodiments in music are all present in artist Gala Knorr’s euphoric playlist. The mood is chaotic, thuggish, and sexy, and as the sun comes down, I’m ready to go ‘Down the street’ with The Stooges. Urban environments, romantic love, and drifting life delineate both the artist’s practice and musical influences, which are closely intertwined, as Gala discovered different ways of thinking through music in early trips to the US to visit her brother. I can picture her young self running her hands over old records in big malls, as ‘Monkey goes to heaven’ is sung by Black Francis, leader of the Pixies. In response to these early garage influences, the artist’s practice responds to subcultures discovered by the hand of media, literature and music. She even became a DJ while studying in Paris a while back, where filmmaker Jonas Mekas attended to one of her sets! Following her devotion for novelist Jack Kerouak and hoping to write the next best American novel, Gala travelled multiple times to the US, acquiring a John and Yoko 1970s calendar in one of her trips, which now serves as the cover of this soundtrack, with the modification of having painted Yoko and John’s faces under yellow cover. Just like her canvases often appropriate mass media iconography, this inquiry is translated in her playlist, where original songs are covered, such as ‘Quiero ser tu perro’ by Parálisis Permanente or Nicoletta’s ‘Le grand amour’, bridging the languages of the countries where she has lived.  An ideal combination of energetic, existentialist and rebellious spirit provides the perfect setting to dance Grace Jones’s eccentric rhythm, followed by CAN’s ‘I want more’. When I’m already sweaty and exhausted from grooving and jumping, Bob Dylan sings ‘You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on’, sweetly closing up this MIX! and mirroring Gala’s nomadic understanding of life. 

Please Note: In case of heart-break or existential breakdown, all lyrics can be screamed out or whispered in.