lali puna

Munich, Germany

Billboard

Lali Puna was good for an indie hit record. A shiny star called "Faking the Books"
released by the Berlin based label Morr Music in 2004. A record that was playing
tricks with its listeners by growing bigger with every play. Simple patterns, euphoric
but melancholic at the same time. Fragile structures, electronic, electric, analogue
and acoustic.

Valerie Trebeljahr, who started Lali Puna on her own in the late nineties, plays the
complex politics of an everyday life. Her songs are statements, excellent examples of
how nice things can fall into place. "Scary World Theory" was the programmatic title
of the second LP released in 2001. That time Lali Puna was already grown to a duo
with Markus Acher (The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio) and also to a live band
(actually) together with Christoph Brandner (Tied & Tickled Trio) and Christian Heiß.

Guitars moved in and moved the sound away from the electronic simplicity of the
early days. Many people were met to work with. Collaborations with Styrofoam and
Opiate, with Dntel, To Rococo Rot, Tim Simenon (Bomb the Bass) or Two Lonesome
Swordsmen (Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood) made Lali Puna a well-
known region in different musical landscapes. From clubbing to indie and many
things in between. "I thought I was over that" is the latest release of the band from
2005, an album full of remixes, come-togethers and (musical) friendships. Along with
the Vienna based electronic artist Bernhard Fleischmann Munich based Lali Puna
and its specific electronica aesthetic was and is a main fundament of the musical
(and cultural) identity of Morr Music. Label and band grown side by side - and ear to
ear.

Unlike so many female-led indie-pop outfits over the years, Lali Puna's music has an
underlying self reflection that defies the saccharine coating you might mistakenly
register on first listen. These songs shy away from tales of girly broken hearts and
bubblegum storyboards, instead exposing a world-weariness - an "Ageing out of
Time" that's often at odds with the adrenaline the band ignite musically. Lali Puna
get lost in different sounds, ideas and interventions - and still finds its way home.