Reema / Mimi Müller-Westernhagen
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About
Sarah Reema Kaydar was born in 1985 in London at Shepherds Bush – and grew up with her mother Polly Eltes. Polly is a photographer, model and musician who has worked with artists such as Brian Eno, Michael Karoli and Jah Wobble. Influenced by this environment, she began writing and performing songs at the age of 7. Along with her passion for painting, writing and performing her own music served as a mouthpiece for multi-layered feelings and experiences of the otherwise introverted artist.
At 17, she and friends formed the post-punk band Battlekat and the energetic group quickly made a name for themselves in London’s underground and was produced by Richard ‘Cass’ Lewis of Skunk Anansie. After Battlekat broke up, she was signed as a solo artist to Warner Music in Germany. Here she released two albums. With her band “Mimi and the Mad Noise Factory” she played numerous own concerts as well as support shows for Kaiser Chiefs, Imagine Dragons and Biffy Clyro. At the behest of the label she moved to Berlin.
What on the surface looked like a well-paved career path was actually an increasing alienation from the actual desire to tell stories unfiltered through language and music and to share them with other people. In the mix of expectations of a pop label operating out of Germany, the heart of her creativity, emotional English-language stories paired with her unmistakably minimalist fine guitar playing, could no longer come to fruition.
After the amicable separation from Warner Music, a period of recollection followed. She began to draw more and more again and to reduce herself musically to the essentials, her voice and her guitar playing, and to dive lyrically into the depths of human emotions and stories. Through her network of musician friends, producers and studios, she created a “pressure free environment” within which her qualities as a writer and performer could come into their own. She made her native second name Reema the project name and developed with her longtime musical companion Stefan Baumann – bass clarinetist, arranger and producer – an acoustic live format that can be performed solo or as a duo with bass clarinet as well as a quintet or sextet with a mixed wind ensemble.
This courage to reduce and reconsider was first made audible with the debut EP “Lioness” in May 2020. The intimate 5 track EP was first heard in both the UK and Germany with radio appearances on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio Ulster, Scala FM, Talk Radio, NDR Kultur, HR2 and Radio Eins.
For the new EP “Rooftops & Riversides” Reema teamed up again with Stefan Baumann. The five tracks were written during the pandemic – Reema spent the lockdown with her mother in England, where she recorded vocals and guitar. Stefan wrote the arrangements in Berlin, recorded almost all the instruments and brought on board Constantin Carstens, a young producer, sound designer and engineer, who contributed subtle textures from field recordings in addition to the mix. The sonic aesthetics of the EP were worked out on the roof of producer Stefan Baumann in Berlin. As with “Lioness,” all five tracks are based on Reema’s crystal clear timbres, her delicate lyrical articulation and understated guitar playing. Sonically and stylistically, the EP is as varied and multi-layered as the people, stories and places it tells about.
“Rooftops & Riversides” will be released in February 2022.
Press
“There’s an ethereal quality to her low mellifluous vocals which blend beautifully with cyclical guitar patterns and dreamy jazz lines on this song.”
– Folk Radio UK
“…honest, brave, and utterly, utterly beautiful…”
– The Vinyl District, US
“Reema’s new EP Rooftops & Riversides is an incredibly relaxing yet melancholic indie-folk album with five highly impressive songs that will have you longing for more immediately.”
– Vinyl Chapters
“Reema’s vocals are flawless on “Killer,” but we love the unpolished feel, hearing the consonants being formed and breaths the microphones pick up. Reema bares her soul, just her and the guitar, pouring her heart out.”
– Get It On Vinyl