Today, we present you with an artist who stands for equality empowerment in music from many points of view. She plays bass in the Peter Muffin Trio, acts as the frontwoman of the band Zirkel, and once experienced the golden age of music television in Germany as a camerawoman at VIVA: Caroline d’Orville aka. Cali.
Today, Caroline defines herself as a multimedia artist by combining art, music, and film in a very sophisticated way. "In my work, the narration forms the connecting component.", Cali describes her artistic work. As a graduated designer, she made films for a few years before devoting herself fully to art. "My experience as an educated director of photography, director, musician, and videographer serves me to realize my visions in sound and video works and installations with performative elements.", she describes her multifaceted artistic vision.
She brings this vision to life through a variety of projects - but let's start with her music first. Recently, the Peter Muffin Trio, consisting of herself, Julian Knoth, and Philipp Knot, released its debut album "Stuttgart 21". However, the album's content has nothing to do with the construction debacle station, but with a lot of self-empowerment. Unlike her other project Zirkel, for which she acts as a frontwoman, here, she can fully let herself fall into her role as the band's bass player. Here, it is not her task at the head of the band to keep the energy at a constant high or act as a link between the band and the audience at concerts. Instead, she can let herself fall into the magic of her instrument. It was exactly this magic of the bass that led her to the Peter Muffin Trio. The band played at a festival long before Cali became a permanent member. That day, she felt the urge to play bass and took the initiative with total confidence, and joined the guys on stage for a spontaneous jamming session. A move that earned her a lot of recognition and respect from the other musicians and led to the current band constellation. It is precisely this self-confidence that women in music can't have enough of and for which we can never give the young female musicians enough encouragement.
Her involvement with the Peter Muffin Trio has also helped her band Zirkel, in which she acts as the lead vocalist, synthesizer, and guitarist, to be perceived differently. Because, as Cali tells us, her involvement with the already established punk band also helped her band, Zirkel, to a more open perception. Started as a trio, later evolved to a quartet, Zirkel feels at home in herbaceous realms, wavy dance-punk, and bass-heavy 90s sounds. Alongside Caroline d'Orville, the band is a musical home to multi-instrumentalist Eva Dörr, in this case acting as a drummer, Sophia Sadzakov on bass and Nadja Weber on guitar and the effects units.
The EP "Kreis", featuring the song "Du", is the first official release of Zirkel. Recorded in the summer of 2019 by Julian Knoth (Die Nerven) in the rehearsal cellar at the Stuttgart Art Academy, the five songs fermented under the hands of Thorsten Puttenat (Putte & Edgar) into the listening delicacies that are now finally released on cassette. Somewhere between Western Pop, Reggae-Downbeats, and dark Psych-Waves, the songs come across as sometimes poppy euphoric, sometimes oppressive psychedelic, mostly reduced and very direct. As Cali tells us, the band Zirkel is always very self-critical of itself, which leads to a very critical view of their artistic work. "For me, Zirkel is an experimental space where a continuation of the complete critical attitude towards our own work can take place."
There is another very empowering aspect to Caroline d'Orville that we of course don't want to have you miss out on. She is a member of the Women* of Music, W*oM for short. Women* of Music is a Baden-Württemberg-based women's* collective. The initiative defines itself as an open collective that unites different music styles and expertise within the music industry as well as (trans-)cultural backgrounds. W*oM's mission is to empower women* from the music industry by providing and embedding them in a local network. Of central importance here are the events, which are intended to help women* in music gain more visibility through a supra-regional impact. "I feel like as a woman in the field, I can let go of this lone wolf thing, network, support each other, be there for each other," is how Cali describes her involvement with W*oM to us.
In the end, it's about that feeling of togetherness and being there for each other that there can never be enough of in the music world. This makes Caroline d'Orville a perfect example of how good mutual empowerment in music can do us all, and how it can help you find your musical voice and ultimately yourself in music.
music is her passion is the magazine of music is her passion society e.V. The Berlin-based music is her passion society e.V. is a non-profit association supported by membership fees, subsidies, and donations. All the content you can see here is the result of the purely voluntary and passionate commitment of all members to equality empowerment in music.
