On Saturday, December 21, 2024, Cologne bassist Oliver Lutz and his band RE:CALAMARI played their last concert of the year at LOFT.
Before the concert began, the LOFT’s artistic director, Dr. Urs Benedikt Müller, welcomed the full house and thanked everyone who had made the 192 concerts of the past year possible::

Welcome to the LOFT for the last concert of the year. It couldn’t be nicer: a full house, wonderful musicians, but the note in my hand might be foreboding, because unfortunately I’m afraid I won’t be able to remember everything for the following speech, so I’ve made a few notes.
The last concert of the year, you’re actually already thinking about January, but there’s this break at the end of the year, the Christmas days, when you look back: what have we done in the past year and to whom do we want, indeed need, to thank?

I would like to start here with the Cologne Cultural Office, our most important and only partner, the now retired music officer Dr. Hermann Christoph Müller and Silvia Hecker and her colleagues. The Cultural Office has provided us with an operating grant every year for the past six years so that we can open the door at all – we enjoy working with our partners at the Cultural Office and it’s a wonderful collaboration.
Thanks also go to the Cologne cultural politicians responsible for this operating subsidy, but – as you may have read – there will be cuts in the next budget – also in culture, and especially in the independent scene. We will not be affected numerically by these cuts next year. In fact, however, we have not received an increase in our operating grant for six years. So this is effectively a cut in the amount of the annual inflation rate. Nevertheless, we are pleased that we will be able to continue working with the same budget next year.
A big thank you to all the musicians who played here last year, and under the conditions that we can “only” open the door here. We are not organizers in the usual sense, but an infrastructure venue. Together with the musicians, we are the co-producers of the concerts. As you may know, the bands play here “on the door”, which means they receive 100% of the ticket revenue without any deductions. We take care of the infrastructure, advertising, artists’ social security, instruments, the recording studio and the whole environment that makes this place attractive for musicians and audiences. So I’m delighted that so many people have turned up again today and that you, the musicians, have been doing this for more than 35 years now, which is actually unimaginable and wonderful. We hope that the conditions for the bands will improve in the future, but these are decisions that not only we can make. We are working on it.
192 evenings were played here, on the door. That’s the figure for the year. Last year it was over 220, which was nice, but too much for our possibilities, so we had to reduce the number.
I am grateful for the wonderful team that I can work with here.
I would like to start with the piano technicians, even though the grand pianos are not in use today and Pablo doesn’t play the piano at all, but is completely electronic. Nevertheless, the piano tuners are usually on duty almost every evening and are appreciated by us accordingly: Hans Giese, Johannes Jee and Martin Lintzen, thank you very much for the fact that we can offer the pianists two top-quality instruments every evening.
What would the LOFT be without its recording studio? We have a wonderful team of sound engineers Stefan Deistler, Christian Heck and Georg Bongartz, who is more responsible for the classic areas when he’s not on tour with the band “Kraftwerk” as the new wheel on the four-wheeled Kraftwerk wagon. And today the fourth member of the team, Lukas Lohner, is recording. He’s now sitting at the back of the control room – ideally you won’t see him much, because that means everything is going well. If you do see him, then something (technical) is going badly here at the front and he will correct it as quickly as possible. Last Monday, Lukas Lohner, who is not only an outstanding visual and sound engineer, but also a passionate musician, composer, songwriter and pianist himself, was awarded the City of Düsseldorf’s sponsorship prize. “Jule Blumt” is the name of this project by Lukas, together with the singer Jule Blum in Düsseldorf.
The concert operations here are supported by the 2ndFLOOR e.V. association, which, in addition to its board members Shannon Barnett, Sebastian Sternal and Susanne Trautmann, has numerous members, some of whom are also involved here, who donate, who regularly come to the concerts and make our work easier here and there – a big thank you also goes to them.
And I would like to continue directly with the jungesloft team. It consists mostly of young students from the Cologne University of Music and Dance, one of whom you met, Paul Walke, who has just sold you the ticket and perhaps a drink too. The members of the jungenloft support me here evening after evening and have my back, without them 192 concerts a year would be unthinkable and now I actually had to write down who I want to thank here so that I don’t forget anyone:
Carlotta Armbruster, Konrad Noll, Eva Swiderski, Felix Hauptmann, who is also here today, thank you Felix, you and Paul are accepting this on behalf of the whole team, Florian Herzog, Jakob Görris, Jan Lukas Rossmüller, Jonas Engel, Jonas Kaltenbach, Jorik Bergman, Kira Linn, Luci Graehl, Maxi Shaikh-Yousef, Pascal Klever, Paul Walke and Simon Bremen.
Of course, we also have Christopher Ullrich, our soul man, so to speak, who is always here and ensures good karma, good vibes and, above all, tidiness and cleanliness and there is always a need for this at 192 concerts. Christopher isn’t here tonight, he’s already gone on his winter vacation. I should say hello to everyone, you’ll see him here in the new year. I’ve already thanked Christopher profusely, but I can say it again here, without Christopher there would be no LOFT, not in this condition.

My father Hans-Martin arrived late today, but he is here. His spirit always surrounds us here and, thank God, so does his personality and presence. We shouldn’t really judge the quality of the concerts by whether he comes and how long he stays, he’s here today and he’ll certainly stay until the end. So much for the quality of tonight’s concert.

Dear Dad, thank you for initiating, setting up, running and now handing over this place for 35 years. Letting go is not easy and I think you did a great job. Bravo.

And now my biggest thanks: she is often not here because she has my back at home and elsewhere, supports me and without her I wouldn’t be here: to my partner Dana. She’s here today with our two children. It’s the school vacations, so they can stay up late.

I wish you a happy New Year that fulfills your wishes and hopes