MUSICIANS

MICHAEL KAISER 

GUITARS, LYRICS, SONGWRITER, CO-PRODUCER

Michael Kaiser was born in 1974. He started playing guitar at age six. The interest in the instrument was low key until he was exposed to 80ies Hardrock. Quickly he started learning Rock songs on the acoustic guitar. After seeing Bon Jovi live in Munich 1988 he was obsessed by playing the electric guitar.

The following years he totally fell in love with the guitar learning Guns ´n Roses, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi songs of the records he listened to as well as having first band-experiences in highschool. Of course he was impressed by the technical abilities of Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert. Michael spent hours, weeks and months practising fast rock playing typical for that time.

After some less successful bands he joined a semi-professional Rock-Band and was able to play bigger stages as support act.

Through the years he got more and more into jazz and fusion music. Players like Al diMeola, John Scofield and Pat Martino grabbed his attention.

More and more fed up by transporting two guitars, effect boards and a half-stack amp to evers show he was looking for less equipment intense alternatives. In 1997 he founded Café Duo with his highschool-friend Markus Babler. The setup was simple and effective. Instrumental music on two acoustic guitars.

After four years, three CDs and over 150 shows he decided to quit the band and concentrating fully on playing with Café Duo.

In 2005 Café Duo decided to take a break. In the ten years to follow he hardly even touched one of his guitars. It was in winter 2015 that he received a call by Markus. A family member requested a Café Duo concert as birthday present. Michael got back to practicing… much to his surprise the playing had not deterior rated as much as expected. After three week of practising Café Duo played the birthday show. The live recording sounded well so they decided to start a comeback. Since the Michael is back playing with Markus and also plays in various other outfits.

WOLFGANG STINDL aka IKARUS

SYNTHS, RHODES, LYRICS, SONGWRITER, PRODUCER

Wolfgang Stindl was born in 1974 and started making music with the age of 12 playing in various bands and projects.

Inspired by vast journeys and all sorts of ethnic music, he started to combine Electronic Chill Out tracks with sounds & vocals from all over the planet under the artist name Ikarus.

With the assistance of MP3.com in 1999, Ikarus got the chance to reach a wider audience, work together with musicians over the internet and to sell my CD´s worldwide.
Encouraged by the incredible resonance from listeners and excellent chart positions on MP3.com, Ikarus released his official debut album titled “Ikarus-Touch the sun” on Sonic Images Records/Earthtone Records in january 2001, after being discovered by the A&R manager of Sonic Images Records on MP3.com.

Meanwhile Ikarus is featured on various compilations, movies, tv series and computer games.
On the movie “The Matrix-Revisited” starring Keanu Reeves by Warner Bros, Ikarus is part of the soundtrack.
Ikarus is also featured on the US/Indian movie “Flavours”, which has got very nice reviews around the world.

Ikarus has done remixes of 1 Giant Leap “My culture” (feat. Robbie Williams & Maxi Jazz) and Madonnas “Ray of light” among others.
MTV-Undiscovered, Yahoo, Amazon.com, Musiceditor.com and others featured Ikarus songs during the past years.

MARKUS BABLER

GUITARS, SONGWRITER

Markus Babler got in touch with the guitar through a friend when he was about 13 years old. He gave it a try and fell in love. He has been playing ever since. First Markus got into Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, then into the Electric Blues, later he discovered Jazz in all its forms and free improvised music. Jazz became a big influence for him in every respect.

After leaving school he started to make music with Michael Kaiser, but it was only later, after both had been playing in different rock bands, that they teamed up to form Cafe Duo, exploring new territory by playing their own intrumental music on acoustic guitars.

Markus is involved in other projects ranging from playing songs to playing his own music between jazz and rock, and providing guitar parts to electronic tracks.

GUEST MUSICIANS

BARBARA WIESER

VOCALS

PETER SCHÖNBAUER

E.BASS

Live:

Julian le Play, Marina & The Kats, Tyler, Conchita, Loretta Who, Albin Janoska, Roisin Murphy, Vera Böhnisch, Valerie, Meena Cryle, Anna F, Waldeck, Heller Propeller, Hans im Glück, Joni Madden, Boris Bukowski, Drechsler, Ganes, Mo, Haddaway, Monika Ballwein, Milan Polak, Drew Sarich, Mat Schuh, Lidia Baich, Rounder Girls, Sandra Pires, Superfly Radio Orchestra, Shortpeople, Millions Of Dreads, Beat 4 Feet, Hubert Tubbs, ‚Big John‘ Whitfield…

Studio:

Julian le Play, Marina & The Kats, Tyler, Loretta Who, Valerie, Mo, Violetta Parisini, Elija, Milan Polak, Flo Holoubek, Heller Propeller, Virginia Ernst, Aleksey Igudesman, Cindy Gomez, Nadine Beiler, Eva K. Anderson, Schmidhammer, Vera Böhnisch, Lidia Baich, Verena Pötzl, Opien (Niko Stössl), Erwin Kiennast, Horst Chmela, Mario Pecoraro, Rising Girl, Lukas Perman, Drew Sarich, 3 Feet Smaller…

GINA SCHWARZ

A.BASS

From early childhood on, Gina was fortunate to have the opportunity to play challenging music. After beginning to play the accordion at the age of eight she came in touch with contemporary music – original compositions for accordion, which Gina also studied years later.

​Being captured by the sound of the piano, she learned this instrument, too – mainly classical music. Soon after, Gina became passionate and quite serious about composing her own music. And ever since, composing and improvising music has become a very personal, reflective experience for her.

Thus, however, her love for all kinds of jazz music and a magnetic attraction to the lower register brought her into contact with my main instrument, the BASS.During her career as a bassplayer her music has been influenced by a wide variety of musical styles.​

„SchwarzMarkt“ 2006 was Ginas Debut Cd as a leader, followed by „Airbass“ in 2008. Touring with US saxophonist George Garzone and recording „In the Zone“ 2007 was another highly inspiring experience for her as a Co-Leader. With „Jazzista“ 2013, her third album, she haa tried to combine all my musical influences.

​Performing live and working in studio (three Cds) with Bass Instinct was also a big challenge. This Vienna-based acoustic sextet comprised of bassists – largely from the symphonic field – explored a mix of composed and improvised music, drawing from traditional and avant-garde genres.

In recent years she has discovered her love for free improvised music, as well.

CONTACT

For licensing enquiries please contact us!

If you want to use our music for your commercial or video projects please feel free to contact us here

IKARUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

CAFÈ DUO ON SOCIAL MEDIA

©2017 Cafe Ikarus