Kaleidoscopic Odyssey

We had to wait a while for Yet No Yokai's debut album. However, the result is so powerful it could kickstart a dead star while proving: Rock isn't just dead yet.

Kaleidoscopic Odyssey
Yet No Yokai released their debut album Wir Sind Da. Photo: Sam Aebi

For almost 15 years, Thomas Seidmann, Samuel Birrer, and Simon Pfister have been on their musical journey. But in 2018, they came to a crossroads that would determine their future: A change of sonic style, a new name, followed by initial success.

As Yet No Yokai, hailing from Lucerne, Switzerland, the trio won the prestigious m4music Demotape Clinic category «Rock» with their song Fahrenheit and singed with Hummus Records.

After releasing a first EP, Post Apocalyptic Promenade, PT. 2, in 2018, they followed up with an array of singles like Vagus, Yet No Yokai's first entry into Weekly5 in 2020.

Sonic Lego

In some ways, the long-awaited debut Wir Sind Da undermines a nostalgia-tainted understanding of how one creates a rock song but simultaneously offers us a way forward for the genre.

At its core, Yet No Yokai's songs originated in a romantic, old-fashioned way: jam sessions. So one would assume that the band ended with final compositions through refinements and clean-ups. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

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