About
At the age of five, Leo Köhler sits down at the piano for the first time in his native Bologna. His teachers – Z. Zaccharia, M. Ricci and G. Fugazzotto – quickly recognise his talent and, together with Maestro M. Landi, open the doors to the renowned G. B. Martini Conservatory. Yet however deeply classical music shapes him, Leo never quite feels at home in it. At seventeen he leaves his music studies behind, determined to discover the world.
Leo studies economics and politics for a few semesters at various European universities. But the creative freedom he longs for he ultimately finds in street music. Together with the French guitarist and music producer Krian Dahn he founds the band Cabestreros 944. Armed with a melodica and a guitar, they wander the streets of the Iberian Peninsula and play their way down to the Canary Islands.
Eventually Leo ends up in Berlin — more precisely on a balcony in Berlin-Wedding. It is there that Oreluce is born: at first a cover project dedicated to Italian singer-songwriters, but soon growing into his own compositions. Together with the jazz pianist Dr. Julian Planiker he brings these new pieces onto the Berlin music scene: from the Oberbaumbrücke all the way to small club stages.
In 2013 Leo is drawn to picturesque Tübingen. At the self-run Fichtehaus he meets a vibrant artistic scene and finds companions like Dörte Szuszinski and Vaith Reich. The first concerts in Tübingen are intimate, unusual encounters — as if for a little while the world became something small and manageable, an almost secret space.
Oreluce is exactly that: a project that catches the moments of light in life. The music is sometimes woven with quiet melancholy, sometimes bursts with joy, but always stays curious about the beauty hidden in every instant.