Interview – Numéro Berlin https://www.numeroberlin.de Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:36:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 WEEKEND MUSIC TIP PT 97 – MISS BASHFUL https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/06/weekend-music-tip-pt-97-miss-bashful/ Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:20:21 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71797
“IT’S HARD BEING HOT WHEN I’M SUCH A THOT”

A problem Miss Bashful knows all too well, self-titled “sexy talker”, artist and general club performer.

Her story is one for the books: Born in Mexico City, she was raised in Houston, Texas, before she moved to Berlin at only 19 years old. Here, she headjumped into Germany’s nightlife, quickly establishing herself as a strip and pole dancer in various clubs.

Miss B transitioned into music in 2022 with her debut single “Mini Skirts on Men” and hasn’t been seen in strip clubs since.

Her stage performances are unique: In little clothes but high heels, she climbs the DJ booths of Berlin, Barcelona and LA, dances and sings into her glitter-bedazzled microphone in collaboration with changing producers/DJs such as DBBD or MC-RT.

Girls and gays go crazy for the 27-year-old and for good reason: Her persona feels refreshing, captivatingly sexy and liberating.

Her newest album was just released last month. Produced by Luca Eck, it ranges from enticing features to slut-on-slut crimes and typical Bashful’s bouncy beats.

We met Miss B for a chat to hear about her newest album, toxic relationships and what real sexiness means.

LEONIE KAMPEN: Your new album Glamour Snobby recently came out – how does this project differ from your previous work?

MISS BASHFUL:

It’s still sexy cunty dance music but just more digestible day to day, not so techno. I wanted to explore with a different sound.

LK: What was the creative process behind the album like?

MB:

It kinda just came together organically, I went to the studio with Luca Eck and they matched my freak, so we started pumping out tracks and it was so fun!

LK: Do you have a personal favourite track, or one that feels especially meaningful to you?

MB:

I like my song about 3MMC because I have a toxic relationship with it at the moment.

LK: You recently wrapped up your USA tour – how was that experience for you?


MB:

It was my first hard-ticket tour, it was expensive af but worth it – I had my sexy dancer Santi, sexy opener Miss Madeline, my sexy tour manager Big Dom, sexy choreographer Mila, my sexy DJ Luca Eck, sexy creative director Christiaan. Shoutout to the Hyper Dreams team as well for all the hard work! I just had the sexiest team with the sexiest vibes and my fans are literally the cutest. Lots of girlies. I just love being a mother.

LK: Do audiences in the US respond differently to your music compared to European fans?

MB:

I think that club shows and concerts are just so different. Club shows you feel like you’re making love and concerts are more like you’re putting on a show. But I would say the main difference is in the USA there’s more EDM cuties coming to the shows.

LK: You’ve spent time between Europe and the US — could you see yourself moving back to America at some point, or can fans expect another Hot European Summer?

MB:

I’m still enjoying my hot European summer, but I’ve been in Berlin for 10 years and a part of me really misses being closer to home and my family. New York is on the table… it’s sexy and classy but still trashy – just how I like it.

LK: You grew up in Texas, which often has a reputation for being more conservative. Do you think growing up in that environment influenced the way you express yourself artistically today?

MB:

My family was always more liberal so they influenced me to be more free spirit. Maybe growing up in boring Texas made me want to explore more.

LK: Do you think your background in stripping helped you to become the sex icon you are today? Or are there still moments of insecurity or maybe even shame before stepping onto the stage?

MB:

Stripping and Berlin literally birthed Miss B.

Stripping is my mother and Berlin is my father. Stripping taught me how to be a boss bitch, how to act, and how to perform on a stage. Berlin taught me about clubbing and techno.

“Stripping is my mother and Berlin is my father.“
“I think it’s more sexy to be unique.“
LK: At a time when body image pressures and appearance trends feel especially intense online, you are a leading figure in confidence and celebrating your body. What is your advice for the girls out there?

MB:

I think it’s important to show my girlies that it’s ok to embrace what your momma gave you. Even when I feel bloated and gross I still go on that stage with my little tummy out cuz it’s just NORMAL and fuck it heheh. I think it’s more sexy to be unique.

LK: Looking back at your career so far, what feels like your proudest achievement?


MB:

Probably the USA tour I just did because I got to put together a team and a show that was just next level to what I have been doing for the past three years (performing on top of DJ booths).

LK: And outside of music and your career – what’s your proudest achievement there?

MB:

Getting my dream penthouse in Mitte!

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WEEKEND MUSIC TIP PT 96 – 99 https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/06/weekend-music-tip-pt-96-99/ Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71601 „TO BE ON STAGE IS THE FINAL REWARD“

“99” is a project, band, and label that moves along the edge between performance and observation. Founded in 2021 by two Austrian childhood friends, Amandus99 and Danziger99, they have just announced their new album, set for release on 19 June.

After their 2022 debut “99 In dein Herz”, the new tracks no longer drift through clouds but move across the cold asphalt of Vienna, Paris, and Bucharest. With “99 Nichts Für Immer”, the duo steps slightly away from their earlier post-punk sound, while maintaining rave elements, dark lyrics, and an overall mystical, almost gothic aesthetic.

Starting this autumn, 99 will present the new album on tour across ten cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

We met the duo and spoke about the new album, tour essentials, and musical influences ranging from Ludwig Hirsch to 187.

Leonie Kampen: You’ve developed your own aesthetic with “99” and the project. Are there specific inspirations, people or things that influence you?

Danziger99:

Very different things. It’s hard to name something concrete. It’s more a mix of many things you see, and you kind of put it together. There’s not one specific influence.

Musically, I personally would name Ludwig Hirsch but then also rappers like Bushido or 187. Maybe it does not sound obvious, but we do take influences from there too.

Amandus99:

It also changes over time. The first projects were inspired differently than now. It’s a process and it’s developing in another direction, also musically. Different influences came in.

LK: Are your lyrics based on real life or more metaphorical?

A9:
There are metaphors, but most songs are still strongly based on reality. It’s personal, but I like to exaggerate things or build stories around them.

D9:
Same for me. Every song has some real situation in it. We just don’t always tell it very directly. It’s more diffuse. In the new project there are more concrete influences, musically and lyrically.

LK:
 You’re from Austria, Burgenland—does your hometown play a role?

A9:
Not really in the process. We have a studio there, about an hour away. It shapes you a bit, but in sessions it’s not really a topic.

D9:
Same for me. The only influence is maybe aesthetic things like flags or logos from Burgenland that we sometimes use.

LK:
 You work a lot together besides your solo projects – do you also have conflicts?

A9:
We’ve had bigger fights, but it’s settled over the years. We know each other since kindergarten, so the beginning was intense when everything started so fast. It affected the friendship, but now we handle it well. Of course we still argue sometimes.

LK:
 About your new album – what can we expect? How is it different?

A9:
It’s a new sound. Still some similarities, but it developed a lot. More rough, colder, a bit dirtier. Still has rave elements, but different.

D9:
Also more dark, dystopian. Lyrically harder, more direct and provocative overall.

LK:
 What about the title “Nichts für immer”? Can you elaborate on that?

D9:
It comes from a phase where it was unclear if we would continue at all. After a tour there was a low point. “Nothing forever” reflects that uncertainty.

LK: You even considered quitting?

D9:
Not really to quit overall, it was just unclear how exactly to continue, we had different ideas.

LK:
For the tour you added three more musicians – how did that happen?

D9:

It developed through this experimental music course in Vienna, where I met the people. First bass, then keyboard, then drums – our ensemble formed step by step.

LK: How does that affect your dynamic from usually playing with the two of you to now three people more?

D9:
We sometimes play as a duo, trio, or five people. It depends on what side of the music we want to show.

A9:
Five people is a planned show, very structured. As a duo it’s more experimental, like an underground set. Both have their value.

LK:
 Is there something you always take with you on tour?

A9:
A vocal straw and a special scarf.

LK:
 Studiosession or live performance?

D9:
Both. Studio is difficult because it’s not like a fixed schedule. It’s a balance. Live is the confrontation – you get immediate feedback. To be on stage is the final reward to me.

LK:
 Any current projects?

D9:
We got many demos, but are currently focusing on the album. We’re also trying to make the project and its impact last longer beyond release.

A9:
Yes, we have many unreleased songs and also some EPs in the making.

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IN CONVERSATION WITH ACHIM REICHERT https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/06/in-conversation-with-achim-reichert/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:31:52 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71634 “There’s No Golden Rule for When Something Is a Letter”

A letter isn’t a fixed form but an agreement, something we settled on at some point. Take that seriously and type design becomes the freest of all disciplines: a kind of drawing that comes, on one hand, from pure feeling and, on the other, always aims at communication. Achim Reichert has spent more than two decades in exactly that in-between space, from Offenbach to his own Paris studio to a professorship in Saint-Denis. His typefaces don’t come from catalogues or models but from a kind of compulsion, “the world is a certain way, and for that I need this particular vibration”, and almost always out of dialogue: with artists, with projects, with the requirements that are meant to surprise him. For the Spring / Summer issue of Numéro Berlin, he designed the cover typefaces of every cover, something new and refreshing.

Achim Reichert: I’m curious about what someone does with the typefaces. The wonderful thing about type design is that you’re essentially making a drawing, you’re allowed to draw. And I say “allowed” deliberately, because afterwards it also serves a purpose. For me it was always like this: I enjoy drawing, but I didn’t want to bother anyone with the idea that this is some great drawing, there are a thousand great draughtsmen. So making type was a lovely thing, because I could draw and it had a purpose at the same time, something for communication. First for my own work, but when you hand it to someone else, they can keep working with that drawing language. And what comes out of it I never expected. When I see what someone does with it, I might think: oh God, I’d never have done it that way. But, hello, that’s exactly the point.

Antonia Schmidt: I do think it’s changing, that people are less able to let go. Making a magazine is a collaborative product; a lot of different people work on it. And there’s an ever-stronger tendency for everyone to want control over every area. I have the feeling people in this scene have become really bad at handing things over and saying: this is what I bring, and now I’m curious what others make of it.

AR: Well, that’s also something people are shown by example. And it surely comes from the digital side too, that you have permanent access. On a shoot the client can look over your shoulder constantly; the moment it’s in the camera, they have access. Or via PDFs. That kind of permanent control is possible today. The nice part would actually be the time in between, between the making and the print, the maturation, that free time. It gets cut away. And that’s precisely where it happens, where something comes into being.

The question of the different disciplines is interesting too. On one hand everyone wants to break out of their discipline. On the other it shows a certain disrespect towards the actual craft. Graphic design is always the first to shout: okay, do whatever you want with me, you’re the client, you’re paying. It’s vulnerable from the start. With magazines there’s the added factor that they get their money from clients. We once made a magazine because we found the content interesting, because we wanted to know how people work creatively. But when it came to monetising it, it ran through buy-ins, a brand buying its way into the thing. And many magazines say of their own accord: we’re here to carry your vision. So it’s partly self-inflicted, because you’re looking for a business model. But those are just my observations; I’m no expert.

AS: You studied in Offenbach and then moved to Paris early on. Here you founded a studio?

AR: Exactly; together with my partner. We were essentially doing graphic design for the art world.

AS: And how has that changed, from back then to now, the scene here in Paris?

AR: I would say, art wasn’t anything special here back then; there was no strong art scene. There were people doing things, of course, who have since become more successful. The magazines that shaped that period were Purple and Self Service, which helped a lot. It was definitely a time when you didn’t yet know exactly what was happening. Some people were already doing great things in the late nineties. I didn’t pick up on a lot of it because I was limited by the language, too. So you saw a lot of it wide-eyed and had no idea how established it already was, or wasn’t.

Today it’s much more professional, of course. Every gallery knows the procedures. It’s become a machine, and I don’t mean that negatively, it’s become a functioning thing. As for the underground: in Frankfurt or Offenbach there was always an environment where you made your own exhibition spaces, put your own things out. In Paris I always found that a bit lacking, that little gets made here on one’s own initiative, although of course things like Self Service or Purple also came out of that kind of underground.

AS: Yes, totally.

AR: But what I have to say is: the magazines that came later were already squinting pretty quickly at how they could be useful to the client. They were far more service providers. They’d say: hello, we’re the young line and we’ll bring you to the youth. But that got stronger. That, though, really is just my personal perception.

On the other hand, there’s a huge amount going on right now. Among the generation of thirty- to forty-year-olds, and the younger ones, the twenty-year-olds, there are constant new magazine launches, people doing things, simply enthusiastic about the craft. Whether that yields a genuinely new kind of photography, I can’t say. Twenty years ago it was a bit more everyday, a bit more romanticising daily life, there were always styles, too. So I can’t say all that much about the change; maybe I’m not the right chronicler for it.

I find it fascinating how it has developed here. Because people don’t stay in their posts forever, new people are constantly being appointed. In the fashion houses too, new designers keep coming in, often from their own circle of friends. Something is always developing. I have the impression that there are possibilities to do something.

AS: I find the connection between typography and fashion interesting, to come to the theme a bit. It’s something where I long thought more could happen, and where for a long time we saw barely any creativity, and on the fashion houses’ side sometimes no awareness at all.

AR: If you’d complain to a fashion designer fifteen years ago that Helvetica is always the one being used, they wouldn’t have known what Helvetica is. Things like that happened, with people who are genuinely intelligent, but for whom typography simply wasn’t important. And that’s fine; I don’t know cutting techniques either. But that there hadn’t yet been much collaboration, that the limits weren’t being tested, what can you do with type, what with communication? I found that a shame. I always saw more potential there. That’s also why we made a magazine back then, because we wanted to connect fashion, type and creation.

So I think it’s good that the fashion world is now more willing to experiment with type. And that there are now typefaces in play that may have originated twenty years ago, out of a very simple will to bring a particular form into the world. Because that’s really what it is: you create a formal language and you want it to live. That’s the great thing about it: if you make a drawing on paper, you have to hang it in a gallery, or these days you do it on Insta. But a typeface, you make it as a file, hand it to someone, and then it lives, then it gets printed.

And with all these branding things in particular: for a while everything went sans serif, now people are starting to bring in more traditional typefaces again. There’s this back-and-forth about what branding is, what identity is, how neutral it has to be. 

What even is neutral? These questions aren’t conclusively answered; there are always new answers to them.
AS: How do your typefaces come about? Does it come out of the hand, out of feeling?

AR: Out of feeling, yes, whatever form interests me at the moment. It can also be a form that’s simply rectangular. Then I ask myself: what can I do with this? And then it collides with the requirements a typeface has. The B is composed differently from an A, but in the same formal language. And then I notice: my idea of the form doesn’t fit the T at all. So I work on it and let myself be surprised by the requirements.

That’s one side. Alongside that there are things where I think: I’m interested in this technique: If I write very small, for instance, what’s it like when I make it big? What comes out of that? Those are experimental series, nothing extraordinary: you set yourself a constraint and see what happens. What tends not to happen with me: that I see an old book or an old type catalogue and think, oh, I’ll make the new version of that. Others can do that.

AS: How does drawing letters differ from other drawing?

AR: I don’t think it differs much. Four or five years ago when I left the studio i had as a duo I was at the point of asking myself: what do I actually want? I can’t just keep doing exactly the same thing I’d pursued for twenty years. I was sitting at my desk, luckily had a sheet of paper and a pencil, and I just started drawing. And I realised: this is exactly what I want. The only question was: how can this work so that I make money from it? That’s basically been my fundamental task for five or six years.

And at some point it started to feel like back when I was drawing letters for typefaces. I’m not thinking about letters at all, but maybe they’re in there anyway. There’s this back-and-forth: is it a drawing, is it a letter? A letter is something we’ve agreed on, something we recognise. A form isn’t a letter because it has a particular shape, but because at some point we agreed that that’s the shape for that letter. I have to keep reminding myself of that: there’s no golden rule for when something is a letter and when it isn’t. No good Lord decided it. That also gives me a freedom, really, you can use anything as a letter. Because I now have this continuous drawing practice, the process has become even clearer. I can look at it even more neutrally.

AS: Can we look at a few of them?

AR: This is not my first, but it’s the typeface I was really excited over. It came about when I started making type. That was the techno era, you took existing typefaces, altered them, broke them, attacked them. But I constantly had the feeling I was holding old things in my hands, tinkering with stuff from the fifties. And then I thought: I have to make this myself. Out of myself, from zero, from scratch.

At the same time there was the pronouncement from the typography professor in Offenbach: I can’t teach you this, there’s no course for it, so it can’t be done. But there were people in my circle who did it anyway and said: just do it. And then I sat in the computer room one night and simply drew all 255 characters with the mouse. Suddenly it was there. For me that was a breakthrough, for others it’s nothing special, but for the first time I could say: hey, this is a typeface, it’s digital now, and I can work with it.

AS: You can work with it.

AR: Exactly. Then I thought: I’ll clean it up a bit, because the basis is great, it looks harmonious, not just scrawly or handmade. By the way, those filled areas in the second style appear automatically, when you set point after point, the program always generates a surface. Two points make a line, a third makes a triangle.

That was the foundation for everything. From it I made a script style, a linear serif style. A very simple working-through on the basis of this thing, also to break open how type used to be cut. We had new media, after all; you could approach it more casually and see what happened. There were then things inspired by logos, where you work with curves, or the variant with the extremely broad band nib. The whole thing really just shows a bit of the process, and the thought that it doesn’t have to be a certain way.

Then there was the hymn-book typeface, drawn with a very fine nib, as an intermediate step towards Helvetica. And I realised: this is great, because it’s neither just a children’s typeface nor pretentious. What bothered me for a long time, you see, is this vertical order: there’s a sender and a receiver, and the receiver has to be convinced by the beauty that the sender is better than they are. That gradient. There’s nothing wrong with that, you’re allowed to dream upwards. But you can also try to communicate horizontally, at eye level, and still with quality. That you don’t take the thing so seriously. That’s why it suited me well to use these typefaces for projects.

AS: Over how long did you keep developing these typefaces?

AR: This series here is roughly the first four years. At some point that was enough. Maybe for some project you had to adjust something, add a few letters, change a weight. It’s called Try, for the attempt. That was the attempt.

After that it was more individual things, often solved through projects. For a musician (Cornelius Cardew), for instance, a poster series, he did a lot of community work, hence a very illustrative type. Or a painter (Nicolas Chardon) who works only with squares and surfaces, he got the complete opposite, a really scratchy typeface, not like Suprematism, not like Malevich. So there were typefaces that wanted something, and typefaces that came about in response to something.

A friend of mine, Wolfgang Breuer, noticed there’s no program that lets you say digitally: here’s a circle, here’s a line, and I want to change the size of this circle. There’s no function for that. So he had a program written and gave it to me, and out of that I made a typeface. He had this geometric, digital idea, and the question was: what do you do with it, how can you develop it further? Or here, it must have been right at the beginning here in Paris, through the graffiti and the Arabic script that was very present here at the time, a different kind of wrist movement came into it.

Then there was a project for documenta. The artistic directors didn’t want to make a documenta where great art is shown and everything else is just okay; they wanted to question every area: what is a magazine, what is a wayfinding system, what is a poster? They posed that question first, and there was an independent answer for each discipline. That’s also nice with regard to our theme from the beginning: that you give each discipline its space rather than subordinating it.

AS: Exactly, no subordination. And yet harder to control afterwards.

AR: Sure, harder to control, but then often great things come out of it. I think the viewer always senses whether something was made out of a kind of self-importance or because you think you have to do it that way. With that wayfinding system the idea was: we want people to be accompanied, not led by the hand from above. There are only suggestions, there’s the documenta halle, there’s the spot. For that I developed a typeface that runs at chest height, like a graffiti thing, just written down like that. That’s the kind of thing that comes out.

There are also typefaces that arose purely from a formal idea, that I wanted to combine thick surfaces with very thin ones, simply to see what comes out. A thought like plant stems, purely from feeling. You get typefaces that are almost uncontrollable, that go beyond themselves, but also ones that work for body text and are still interesting at large sizes, in display, because they have nice details.

AS: I’ve seen that typeface too.

AR: That was about the question of how many points you need. For a book about a French philosopher I once wanted to make a different roman style. Or here, those are things where you constrain yourself geometrically in order to generate a feeling.

Another was a commission from the artist Tania Bruguera. She wanted a typeface that’s legible everywhere in the world, so, 40,000 characters. I didn’t know it either, but I asked myself: what makes a typeface illegible to other people, what makes it foreign? And I thought: a typeface becomes foreign to me when it contains components of another culture, strokes and forms we never use. I took that foreignness and said: I’ll make a typeface that has no such form at all. That’s what came out.

AS: So these typefaces actually always come about in dialogue, don’t they?

AR: Absolutely. For me everything is constantly a dialogue anyway. And it’s a stroke of luck that there are people, like Tania, who say: I don’t need an image or a newspaper, I need a typeface for my project. Because I got stuck in the art world, working a lot with artists, I was able to do quite a bit.

But a lot also came from me. I once ran a typography workshop with illiterate people, for instance, because I wanted to know what typography actually is. Quite naively thought: I’ll just ask illiterate people, since they can’t read. And I learned that they tick in a completely different way. Out of that I made a typeface that shows a bit of it, the way someone I got to know writes very simply. I was later able to use it again for a catalogue at the Museum of Modern Art, for an architect. It fit. It’s nice when you can keep developing something like that.

AS: You teach yourself these days, too?

AR: There were always workshops. But now, for the first time, I have a longer professorship, at the Université Paris VIII in Saint-Denis Vincennes. She was founded around 1968, those thinkers like Deleuze or Foucault worked there. De Gaulle wanted to push the ’68 movement out of Paris and set them up out there in the forest. Also to give them space. You’re welcome to check that, but that’s my understanding. It’s not a Sorbonne, a different mindset, much more horizontal. But also not an art school, it’s something else, a bit bigger, a bit tougher too.

I’m co-responsible for creation there. I see my task as getting people to make something. I don’t teach type design or graphic design from A to Z; instead I develop assignments and see what happens, in the hope that as much as possible comes out of it.

AS: Lovely. Thank you so much.

More of Achim Reichert´s work can be found here and on his personal website.

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IN CONVERSATION WITH TADASHI KAWAMATA x RUINART https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/06/interview-tadashi-kawamata-x-ruinart/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:55:24 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71578 TADASHI KAWAMATA AND HIS ONGOING CONVERSATION WITH NATURE

Champagne house Ruinart invites annually changing artists to reinterpret the maison, all under the motto “Conversations with Nature.”

And who could be more suitable for that than Tadashi Kawamata? The contemporary artist and sculptor is known for his in-situ installations using wood as his signature material. Born in 1953, he has developed an international practice that explores how temporary structures can reshape the perception of space and environment. Through a skillful play with scale and form, the Japanese artist reveals subtle interactions and the vitality of nature, a focus he has maintained since 1979.

His installations made of wooden frames and beams occupy empty spaces, corners, and building facades.

The collaboration between Tadashi Kawamata and Maison Ruinart culminates in three of his renowned in-situ installations in the Champagne region – Tree Hut, Nest, and Observatory– concluding to form a cohesive whole. Visitors are invited to attentively observe the vibrations of nature, essential to the harmony of champagne, from weather and climate to biodiversity.

Leonie Kampen: You are this years artist to continue the series „Conversations with nature“ at the Maison Ruinart in Berlin;  How do you converse with nature? 

Tadashi Kawamata: Nature, for me, is a continuous state of flux, a process of growth, decay, and renewal. It is not something fixed, but an ever-evolving entity that profoundly influences our existence. I converse with nature through my installations by highlighting subtle shifts in light, the movement of wind, and the presence of other living creatures. It’s about recognizing the interconnectedness of all things and our place within that delicate balance. My interventions are not intended to dominate or disrupt a space, but rather to engage in a dialogue with it, offering a new perspective and subtly shifting how one perceives their surroundings. By creating structures that blend with the environment, or that are built from natural and often reused materials, I emphasize that nature persists and reclaims spaces, even in man-made settings.

LK: What role does it play for your art?

TK: Nature plays a central and fundamental role in my art. My work, with its focus on ephemeral structures and natural materials, inherently speaks to the impermanence that pervades both the natural world and human experience. My installations are designed to evolve and transform with time and the elements, reflecting the vulnerability of ecosystems and reminding us that nothing is fixed in nature. This continuous transformation, the subtle integration with the environment, and the dialogue it creates between human activity and nature are all paramount to my artistic philosophy. I aim to re-connect visitors to nature, inviting them to observe, reflect, and recognize the interconnectedness of all things, without imposing a permanent, unyielding presence.

LK: How did you experience your work with Maison Ruinart? 

TK: My experience working with Maison Ruinart was profound. The collaboration presented a unique opportunity to engage directly with a very specific, cultivated natural environment – the Champagne region. Ruinart’s deep dependence on the terroir, the vines, and the climate, and their commitment to sustainability, resonated deeply with my artistic approach. 

My first encounter with the Ruinart vineyards was particularly evocative; it was a very foggy and quiet day, with only the sounds of birds passing, and I felt a very natural connection, smelling the air and feeling the wind. This impression of the field of vines, which eventually becomes champagne, was profound. It underscored for me the idea that champagne is synonymous with lightness, patience, and precision – a long, invisible process that resonates deeply with the ephemeral nature I explore in my own work. 

My installations there, like the “Tree Hut,” “Nest,” and “Observatory,” were designed to explore how a centuries-old institution must adapt and innovate in the face of ecological shifts, highlighting the intricate dialogue between human activity and natural cycles.

LK: You work mostly with wood, or wooden products  What do you like about wood?

TK: I am drawn to wood because it is a living material. It retains the memory of its different uses – nails, blows, and grooves. Each plank tells a unique story. Wood is like skin: it breathes, changes color, and transforms. Over time, it will age and transform, becoming grey and cracking, and moss may start to grow. This process of aging is an integral phase in the life of the artwork. This continuous transformation, this inherent quality of life, and its connection to natural processes of growth and decay, are what I deeply appreciate about working with wood.

LK: What makes it hard to work with it? What makes it easy? 

TK: Working with wood allows for a certain simplicity and artisanal dimension. It is a material that anyone can cut or assemble, which makes it accessible for creating my structures. The ease comes from its natural adaptability and its inherent narrative; it carries its own history and transforms organically, which aligns with my artistic philosophy of impermanence. The challenge, if one can call it that, is less about the material itself and more about ensuring that the ephemeral nature of my installations is understood. I don’t seek to achieve static perfection, but rather to create works that will age, evolve, and ultimately transform with time and the elements. This means accepting and embracing its natural processes, rather than forcing it into a fixed state.

LK: Are there any other materials or elements that intrigue you? 

TK: Beyond wood, I am intrigued by materials and elements that speak to similar themes of temporality, transformation, and a connection to the environment. I often use simple, reused materials in my work, as they inherently carry a history and reflect cycles of usage and decay. The broader elements of a landscape – light, wind, sounds, textures – and how they interact with my structures are also crucial. I am constantly observing how nature persists and reclaims spaces, even in man-made settings, and how these elements can collectively form a powerful statement about our relationship with the environment.

LK: In previous interview you mentioned moving away from the States because New Yorkers were always pushing for new things after new things – Is it different now that you moved to Paris?

TK: When I consider the pace and expectations, particularly in artistic contexts, I find that Paris, while a vibrant cultural center, offers a different dynamic than what I experienced in New York. My installations are not about perpetual novelty but rather about creating a dialogue with existing spaces and natural processes. In Paris, as in other European cities, there is often a deep appreciation for the historical context and the subtle interactions of art within its surroundings. 

This allows for a focus on the transformative journey of the artwork and the contemplation it evokes, rather than a constant demand for the next “new thing.” My work emphasizes the ephemeral, the ongoing conversation with a place, and this resonates well within a European context where history and continuity are often valued alongside innovation.

LK: Why did you choose to leave your home Tokyo in the first place? 

TK: My artistic journey has always involved a process of discovery and self-expression that extends beyond any single geographical location. Leaving Tokyo was part of a larger exploration to engage with diverse environments and architectural philosophies, seeking new contexts where my artistic vision could evolve. While there is a Japanese aesthetic of harmony with nature that my work often aligns with, my aim is to bridge perceived divides between architectural traditions and highlight the porosity between art and landscape, wherever I am. 

Moving allowed me to engage with various urban and natural settings, fostering new dialogues and expanding the reach of my artistic conversation about nature, time, and human interaction.

LK: Your project archive dates back to 1979 – Which work of yours are you proudest of? 

TK: It is difficult to point to a single work as the “proudest.” My artistic philosophy is fundamentally rooted in the ephemeral nature of installations. My works are in-situ installations designed to exist for a specific period, with their disappearance or transformation being an integral part of their creation. 

Therefore, my emotional connection is not to a static object, but to the ongoing process itself. Each project, in its dialogue with the specific site and context, is a part of a larger, continuous evolution of my exploration into the vulnerability of ecosystems and our relationship with time. What I value most is the ability of these works to provoke thought, to shift perspective, and to create a connection with the environment.

LK: Is it getting hard to think of „new things“? 

TK: No, it is not getting hard to think of “new things” because my artistic process is not primarily about seeking novelty for its own sake. I like to work, I always need to think of another project, another idea. I also draw sketches, a lot of sketches and I get bored if I don’t work on new installations. 

When inspiration feels distant, I often return to the fundamental act of drawing. For me, drawing is like breathing; I do it every day, often without any specific objective. Some drawings serve as studies, others are simply traces of a moment, and sometimes, they evolve into artworks themselves. More than anything, these drawings are traces of my thoughts, a way to connect with my inner landscape and allow new ideas to emerge naturally.

LK: What´s your biggest achievement despite art? 

TK: Beyond the art itself, my greatest achievement, I believe, lies in the connections and collaborations that art has opened up for me. Art has allowed me to connect with diverse individuals, explore places, cities, and countries I wouldn’t otherwise encounter. It has enabled me to engage in meaningful dialogues about our environment and societal values, fostering a deeper understanding and respect for the Earth. This ability to facilitate connection, to invite contemplation, and to subtly shift perceptions through interaction with my installations, particularly regarding our relationship with nature, is perhaps my most significant achievement beyond the physical artworks themselves.

LK: What are you currently excited for?

TK: I am always excited by the potential for new dialogues between human activity and nature, and the continuous opportunity to engage with different landscapes and communities. Right now, I am very excited by the installations of my artworks in Reims for Ruinart, it is quite something to see my work on this incredible environment. And of course, I’m excited when it comes to a glass of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs champagne!

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IN CONVERSATION WITH FABIAN KLUTH https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/05/interview-the-restless-mind-of-fabian-kluth/ Wed, 27 May 2026 09:09:11 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71287 THE RESTLESS MIND OF FABIAN KLUTH

Fabian arrives at the Numéro office that day pulling a small carry-on suitcase behind him, walking with the determined energy of someone who has decided there is no time to waste. He is in Berlin to record an episode of his podcast one.voice together with Numéro publisher Götz Offergeld – four more conversations with different guests are planned during his short stay in the city, he mentions casually. He already has all the equipment with him; setup will take five minutes, maximum.

At just eighteen years old, Kluth is already considered one of Germany’s youngest art collectors and recently staged an exhibition in Berlin featuring works from his collection one. The fact that he personally wrote email after email inviting our team to this event feels symbolic of his entire approach: persistent, direct, and completely unimpressed by any kind of rule.

It becomes obvious within the first few minutes that Fabian is exceptionally intelligent. While others spend years building an understanding of art, markets and cultural systems, he seems to have absorbed that knowledge in an astonishingly short amount of time – through books, conversations, YouTube tutorials and obsessive research. It all began during the pandemic with a work by Rosa Loy that he financed himself through student jobs. Today, he funds his collection through stocks and crypto investments and focuses primarily on contemporary artists engaging with themes such as gender, politics and the social structures shaping everyday life. But intelligence alone does not explain his momentum. It also takes vision and a willingness to simply begin before doubt has the chance to grow too large.

That is exactly what we speak about with Fabian Kluth in this conversation.

Ann-Kathrin Riedl: When the media writes about you, you are described as Germany’s youngest art collector. How did that come about? Did you grow up in an environment that was passionate about art?

Fabian Kluth: It really began during Covid. We were all sitting at home, locked in, and at some point you just get bored. I never really had much homework from school, so by Monday I already felt like I had finished everything I was supposed to do. Then there were still six days left in the week that somehow needed to be filled. 

So I started getting into all kinds of things. I was reading a lot – Goethe, philosophy, mathematics, physics – and I started asking myself: what do I actually want to do after this pandemic?

At some point school announced that we all had to do internships. So I randomly applied to an architecture office in Cologne. I realized very quickly that I would never become an architect because I was catastrophically bad at the artistic side of it. But I became fascinated by the question of what drives people creatively. And once you start dealing with architecture, you automatically end up dealing with fashion and art too. It’s all connected somehow.

AKR: So you introduced yourself to the art world. But how did that lead to collecting?

FK: I could never produce art myself. I’m completely incapable of that. I got terrible grades in art at school too. But I love to own my own pieces.

AKR: I think it’s healthy to have that kind of self-awareness. How did things continue from there?

FK:I discovered artists on social media, especially in Leipzig. One of them was Rosa Loy, the wife of Neo Rauch. I became obsessed with her work. So I tagged her on Instagram and emailed her asking for previews. Everything was far too expensive for me, obviously, but eventually I found one piece hidden at the very end of a PDF that somehow seemed possible.

I realized that if I worked gastronomy jobs all summer long, I could maybe afford it. So at the end of summer vacation, in 35-degree heat, I took a bus to Leipzig with a huge tote bag and picked up my first artwork.

AKR: Tell me more about it. Was it love at first sight?
What interested me wasn’t beauty. I don’t buy beautiful works necessarily. I buy works that move me or disturb me.

FK:Things that create friction. That’s still true today. It’s much more about themes.

And I don’t only collect paintings either. The exhibitions are very broad in terms of medium.

AKR: Which themes are important to you?

FK: The exhibitions are always about creating a reflection of our time. I think art should function as a mirror. It should confront us with ourselves.

I’m very interested in gender issues, environmental topics, consumer culture. Harry Nuriev, for example, is incredible. He did this exhibition with Dietrich & Schlechtriem where he created soaps with Balenciaga labels trapped inside them. I think that kind of critique of consumerism is brilliant.

Most of the artists in the collection are born in the 1990s or later. Some of them literally just graduated from art school or are still studying. I simply found them online, visited their studios and bought works directly.

AKR: Does the collection follow a commercial purpose at all?

FK:Not at all. Nothing is for sale.

At the exhibitions a lot of people immediately wanted to buy works. Which was actually great for the artists. One artist sold several pieces directly from his studio that evening because of the exposure.

But I don’t take commissions and I don’t want to. That’s not the point.

AKR: So how do you finance this passion today? Many people would probably assume that you’re a nepo baby.

FK: Absolutely not. But art isn’t necessarily as expensive as people think.

And honestly, Covid helped in that way too. I started learning about stocks and crypto – this was before the big AI boom. I invested in NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Meta. It all developed relatively quickly. Today I make a lot of money through stocks and crypto.

AKR: The term “art collector” comes with a lot of associations – older men, wealth, status, establishment. What makes you so fascinating is that none of these clichés really apply to you. But do you sometimes feel that the way you’re portrayed is also a bit sensationalized?

FK:I actually hate the term collector. That’s why my project is called Platform and Vision and not “collection.” 

Of course the stereotypes exist. But I’m not interested in profiling myself through art. I don’t need a Gerhard Richter hanging in my hallway just so visitors understand I can afford one.

AKR: The established art world is also considered quite closed-off – how did people there respond to you?

FK: In the beginning nobody took me seriously. They imagined some rich kid in Louboutins with daddy’s money. 

But that was never me. I wear the same thing every day. Black shirt, same trousers, different shoes depending on the season. That’s it.

AKR: Is that because you want to eliminate the question of “What do I wear?” from your life by creating a uniform?

FK: Exactly. Like Steve Jobs with his Issey Miyake sweaters. I don’t want to stand in front of my closet every morning thinking about clothes. I want my energy elsewhere.

AKR: Which also removes a lot of the self-performance that defines our era.

FK: Especially now with social media, yes. But honestly, I also want the project to exist independently of me eventually. The interesting thing isn’t Fabian Kluth as a person. The interesting thing is the discussion around the work.

Honestly, this “youngest collector in Germany” title gets old quickly anyway. Eventually there will simply be another younger person.
AKR: How do you position yourself in relation to the established art world?

FK: I don’t really care about conventions or norms. I do my own thing.

And honestly, criticism interests me more than praise. I need friction. I need tension.

AKR: You seem incredibly driven.

FK: If I want something, I go after it relentlessly.

There’s an artist I wanted work from for over a year. I called every Monday asking if there was something available. Every single Monday. At a certain point, he agreed. It’s persistence.

AKR: But where does that drive come from?

FK: That’s difficult to answer.

My parents never pressured me. Quite the opposite actually – very laissez-faire. But for me it feels natural. If I do something, I want it to work properly.

AKR: You give off a great sense of ease. Do you ever have to force yourself to do things, or does it all come naturally to you?

FK: Of course there are things you have to do. But generally I try to only do things I genuinely care about.

Look at today for example. I came to Berlin last night, didn’t sleep at all, tomorrow I’ll drive back at four in the morning, then I have appointments again immediately. But I just do it because I love it. Doing nothing stresses me more. I can’t lie on a couch for two hours. Impossible.

AKR: Is there anything in your life that calms you down?

FK: I have a horse. Laughs. Once a week I go there, clean the stable, put on rubber boots and walk around for two hours. That’s probably the calmest part of my week.

AKR: Alongside collecting and exhibitions, you also host the podcast one.voice, for which you’ve already spoken with people such as Johann König, Amir Kassaei, and most recently our publisher Götz Offergeld. How do you choose the people you speak with?

FK: I’ve always loved misfits.

I felt like all the existing art podcasts always invited the exact same people. I wasn’t interested in that. I wanted people with friction. Naturally I already had close contact to many artists because I collect their work.

AKR: Would you describe yourself more as an observer than a participant?

FK: In a club I’d probably sit at the bar watching people instead of dancing.

But eventually I’d still walk over and talk to them.

AKR: What would fulfillment mean to you?

FK: Definitely not repeating the same exhibition format for the next forty years. The vision is much bigger than that. I want to bring people together. That’s really the core idea behind everything.

And honestly, if tomorrow I wake up and decide I want to make a magazine instead, or open a clothing store, then I’ll do that.

AKR: With the same intensity.

FK: Exactly. Whenever I get excited about something, I start immediately. Perfectionism is basically fear in disguise. I don’t really care about perfection at first. I’ll just ask ChatGPT how to solve things.

AKR: What would your advice be to people who want to realize their ideas but keep getting stuck in overthinking?

FK: Honestly? You just have to fall on your face again and again. Fail repeatedly. Get up again. Continue.

You just have to analyze what you’re doing and how you can improve it. Not everything has to be radically disruptive immediately. Sometimes it’s enough to question existing systems and optimize them differently.

Germany especially has this fear of failure. But life is too short to spend it doing things you don’t care about. I don’t want to wake up every morning working on topics I feel nothing for. That’s the real nightmare to me.

Fabian´s podcast „one.voice“ featuring Götz Offergeld as an episode guest can be listened to here.

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EDITORIAL: ONE DAY WITH LEVIN LIAM https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/05/editorial-one-day-with-levin-liam/ Thu, 21 May 2026 16:05:24 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71204 ONE DAY WITH LEVIN LIAM

 

Levin Liam was born in Berlin but grew up and lives in Hamburg. Next to his acting career, he released his first single in 2020. After switching to German-language lyrics, he quickly gained recognition for his music. 

Calling him a rapper feels wrong – Levin Liam is celebrated for his atmospheric, melancholic songs. After his last album in 2024, he now presents his new album „PECH“: 17 songs that feel more personal and cinematic than his previous work. The corresponding „PECH TOUR“ will kick off in January 2027 and will cover major cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

We accompanied him throughout a day in Berlin. As the city slowly awakens, he offers us an authentic look into his daily life and how he spends his time. He told us about his new album, what happened on the way to Marseille, and which is the most underrated song on the album. 

See for yourself on our Instagram

LEONIE KAMPEN: How does your new album differ from your previous albums/songs?

LEVIN LIAM: In my opinion, it has become more mature musically. It’s a coherent journey, both in terms of what’s being said and the sound. And even though there are a lot of darker-themed tracks on it, I’d say it’s also a little more playful and fun.

LK: Which one is your personal favorite on the album?

LL:Very hard to say. It always changes. As of now, I’d say “weißt schon.”

LK: Why “Pech” as the title?

LL:“Pech” is a very unique German word. There is no direct translation in English. You’d use something like “bad luck” or “the opposite of luck.” Plus, you can interpret the word in two different ways, and both fit the meaning the album has to me.

First, “Pech” in its direct meaning: being or feeling unlucky, having bad things happen to you and dealing with them. And second, there’s this way of using it in German that’s equivalent to saying “whatever” in English. That’s also a key mood of the album: shit hitting the fan in all sorts of ways, and still being like, “whatever.” A certain attitude or arrogance on the brink of it all.
LK: Do you consider yourself unlucky?

LL: No, not really. I think in some ways I’ve always been both very unlucky and very lucky at the same time, which also fits what I meant with the two meanings of the word “Pech.” I’m not a spiritual person, but I feel like life has a pretty good way of balancing things out. You win some, you lose some. You get disappointed by people, and you disappoint others. I got really lucky in a lot of ways in life, but I’ve also been through some very painful challenges over the last couple of years, and I try to have that balance in my music as well.

LK: Your fourth tour is upcoming next year – How do you feel, what are your expectations?

LL: I was able to learn a lot from my previous tours, so I’m really looking forward to this one. We already played some of the album at the Elbphilharmonie, and it’s an exciting one to play and hear live.

I‘m actually super excited to get back in touch with those who are part of the reason all of this is even put out there.
LK: Berlin or Hamburg?

LL: I love both for very different reasons. Hamburg feels more like home to me. Calming and familiar, smaller and more manageable. I can get shit done here, see family, be productive. Berlin, on the other hand, often feels very chaotic, big, exciting, and so on.

Even though I was born there, most of the time I’ve spent in Berlin was in the last couple of years, after the start of my career, so a lot of it is connected directly or indirectly to music. But I also have a lot of dear friends there, so I couldn’t miss out on either one. Still, I’d love to move somewhere completely different one day.
LK: Where to?

LL: If things calm down politically one day, I could see myself living in New York for some time. New York has been one of the most inspiring places I’ve been to, so that’s kind of a dream.

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WEEKEND MUSIC TIP PT 92 – NEROMUN https://www.numeroberlin.de/2026/05/weekend-music-tip-pt-91-neromun/ Fri, 15 May 2026 12:27:28 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=71090 NEROMUN: ON GOD, KAFKA AND HIS NEW ALBUM „WELK“

It’s a sunny afternoon in Mainz and a diverse audience is slowly gathering at and around „Schon Schön“, a cultural venue for club nights, events and concerts. Neromun, previously known as „Negroman“, is presenting his new album „welk“ tonight to a passionate crowd in his hometown. But before that, he takes the time to sit with us in front of the majestic St. Peter’s Church.
What was planned as a quick interview turns into a long, inspiring, almost spiritual conversation about linguistic theory, his creative journey and finding God and gratitude in daily life.

LEONIE KAMPEN: You currently live in Berlin, but today we are back at your hometown Mainz. How has your home influenced you, on a personal as well as on a musical level?

NEROMUN: Yeah, it’s funny, I never really use the word „home“ for here, I don’t have a connection to the term in general. It is definitely the place where I grew up, went to school and spent most of my life, even though it’s getting a bit tight. Mainz is very special, also because Wiesbaden and Frankfurt are so closely connected. There used to be many army bases here, which brought a lot of Black culture into the region. There were many Black clubs in the area, also in Mainz, but mostly Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. Techno too – this club „Dorian Gray“ in Frankfurt started techno in Germany first, but actually it was a funk and disco club, so also a Black space. But they were open to it, and that’s how the first raves started.
All that has definitely influenced me. I grew up with very good music, not only from my upbringing but also from the streets and my surroundings.
Also my old crew, „Sichtexot“ or Eloquent, who now lives in Wiesbaden, they were all here and we hung out and influenced and inspired each other.

LK: Regarding your music. I’ve rarely heard anyone use words in such a unique, creative way as you do. Do you read a lot? Or what are your sources of inspiration?

N: I do read quite a bit, even though I don’t even enjoy it that much. I don’t do it for fun or to kill time, but to access art. I read books that aim to go in interesting directions with language itself.
To me, rap creators, but also musicians in general, are nowadays poets. They create poetry that people can actually access, much more maybe than contemporary poetry. I don’t even know many contemporary poets like that.

LK: Me neither. I also feel like people are hardly reading any poetry anymore.

N: I actually do. I always carry a poetry book with me. I am not wearing my jacket, otherwise I could show you now.

LK: Which one is it currently?

N: Right now I have Georg Heym’s poetry with me, and Rilke is always in my bag. Poets from the beginning of the 20th century, they really resonate with me — Georg Heym, Georg Trakl, Else Lasker-Schüler, Rilke, Gottfried Benn — those are the kings and queens of poetry for me. And always have been. We read Hermann Hesse in 8th grade, and I was like, „whoa, this is crazy, I need to dig deeper into this“. So from there I moved over to Kafka and others and was just always reading a lot of that stuff.

„For me, poetry has always been on the same level as listening to Haftbefehl.“

Growing up, listening to artists such as Tyler, the Creator, I would google every single word I didn’t understand and treated lyrics as poems. For me they’re on the same level, there’s no difference.

LK: About your new album. Where would you position it in comparison to your other albums?

N: I don’t really think about it in that context, but if I had to, I’d say it’s a circle that closes, sort of finishing off the previous three albums. It almost sophisticates my previous works where I was experimenting more – many techniques and approaches  that I was developing for the past six years I could finally apply instead of experimenting with them.

LK: I must admit, I don’t always understand all your lyrics. Does everything really have meaning or a reference or is it sometimes also just words?

N: Everything has meaning and reference, it’s all thought through. But it’s important to me that, just like you said, it’s also feelings and vibes, because then the words gain a whole new meaning. They gain a new quality that means more to me than their alleged meaning.
There are plenty of deep reasons, such as: „How does meaning work?“ There’s this theory that we limit words to what they mean, but in reality there’s much more, such as the sound of it. The sound, the vibe is what actually sets our body into vibrations. And I really like to play with that. 

„When writing, it’s important to enter your own desert and go where you can hardly understand yourself anymore.“

Open texts inspire more people to click onto that and continue writing, or not necessarily writing but just expression in general.
Like Kafka, his works are open, „not finished“, with an open ending. And there’s this huge argument about whether they are actually unfinished or intended like that. His novels are endless, such as in „The Trial“, the protagonist is just trying to understand what’s happening to him and there’s no end to it. If there was one, it would be too easy — we could say, okay, that’s the moral of the story, done. But with the story remaining open, there are all these threads continuing forever. And that’s one of the reasons why Kafka is so popular, it simply doesn’t end.

LK: Are you already planning new projects or are you laying low after this release?

N: Right now it’s a bit of a transition phase, to see what’s happening, what’s working. I have the feeling I want to change my name again. For now, I’ve always done three albums for each artist name, like trilogies. I have the feeling I haven’t reached my final form yet and the name has a lot to do with that somehow. But the new identity hasn’t revealed their sound to me yet – just some feelings and playing around a bit, but nothing final yet. To me that’s the most beautiful phase of creating, when you’re figuring it out and are insecure and tripping over like a child that has just learned how to walk, it’s cute.

LK: How would you describe the current chapter, what emotions do you associate with your new album „welk“?

N: Gratefulness, consciousness, empathy, love of one’s neighbour as well as your enemies. We haven’t really covered that yet, but somehow I really found Jesus in the past year, my whole life just flipped around.
Gratefulness is so important — for example before my song „Prayer 3“, in which I am saying „I am hella thankful“, I’ve never done anything like that. I never expressed gratitude in a song. So many times I’ve worked through my anger and sadness, but when I made this song, I was levitating. When recording, you need to repeat it maybe 50 times. So for 50 times I was saying „I am hella thankful, I am thankful, I am thankful“. After that I was flying. And I realized: „Oh my god, this is it, I must be way more aware and thankful and actually say ‘thank you’ after each day.“
Same as for my song „Im Licht“, where I’m saying „You’re being heard when praying“, and it’s true. You are being heard when you pray, you can manifest everything. And that’s something that is far from finished for me, I want to really get to the bottom of this and work with it.

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