It was clear that LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL is not a live album. Fortuna Ehrenfeld make a translation error and don’t sing “live” in the title song, but rather about their “life” between “pleasant and interchangeable” – and with the somehow comforting conclusion: “I saw the whole world die in beauty.” The Cologne formation around Martin Bechler wants to “fuck up the internet”, but then they have to realize: “We live in something in between.”
This ambivalence runs through her new album, whose poetic lyrics this time look at society with concern. Bechler observes people who try to give up sugar and then come out of the swingers club tired (“Ciao Cocoa”). A rusty beatbox rattles along, nicely illustrating how ragged and uneven this world is right now, and that you can hardly counteract the generally catastrophic outlook other than good intentions: “Warm-strung empathy versus right-wing policy,” recommend Fortuna Ehrenfeld in “Ray Of Fukin’ Sunshine,” and in “Bosch Blau” they try to repair hearts.
Another tip is: “We can only win if we escalate everything.” But in the end all that remains is “a last spark of hope and a big, warm bed”, a promise from the wonderful “I carry so many pictures”, a duet that is balm for the soul – like this entire album.
This review appears in Musikexpress 4/2026.
