For the past ten years now, I’ve celebrated my birthdays by inviting all my favorite cats to play – we started off at Kater Holzig before moving to our home at Kater Blau in 2015. For the first time since it started, and for obvious reasons, 43 Katzen tanzen auf’m Tisch won’t be happening, on what would have been the tenth anniversary of the series. I’ve been wondering for a while now how I can make up for the missed year - streams already feel a bit outdated, and you just can’t imagine the vibe of the event without actually being there, getting beautifully lost in those days and nights, hugging old friends and making new ones. You can’t even explain that feeling, so you definitely can’t livestream it. Instead, this year 43 Katzen tanzen auf’m Tisch will be a compilation of some of the amazing artists from the past ten years, and even some of the new faces I would have booked this year. In a way, it’s the perfect souvenir of all the nights we’ve had so far, and an idea of what to look forward to in all the nights to come at Kater Blau somewhere in the future. The compilation will be split into two sections: Heinz Hopper and Acidbogen, reflecting the two floors of Kater Blau, each with their own special flavor and sound. The whole record is programmed the way I would schedule the artists across the two floors for my birthday, warming up at the start before things start getting more intense later on. I guess you could say it’s a concept album, in which the audience wanders into our lovely little circus on the river Spree, and experiences one of my birthdays from start to finish, split across both floors of Kater Blau. Much like my parties and my sets, the idea is for the listener to get lost in these tracks and to experience them as a whole piece. At the end of it all you leave with a feeling that maybe, just maybe, cats & music were the answers after all. Even in times like these.