Summer Fades Away (CHN) + Thistle Sifter (UK/NL) + Stromkasten (DE)

Name: Summer Fades Away (CHN) + Thistle Sifter (UK/NL) + Stromkasten (DE)
Start: 2026-05-11T19:00:00+02:00
Location: MTC Cologne

Schedule

Mon, 11 May, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

MTC Cologne | Cologne, NW

Summer Fades Away (Post-Rock, CHN)
++ 2026 European Tour: "Interlude before Acceleration" ++
Support:
Thistle Sifter (Cinematic Post-Rock, UK/NL)
Stromkasten (Post/Mathrock, DE)
Presale: 14€. At venue: 16€
Doors: 19:00. Start: 19:30.

++ SUMMER FADES AWAY ++
Summer Fades Away is one of China’s defining post-rock bands – an unmistakable voice shaped by Eastern aesthetics and emotional depth, and a headliner-level presence at the country’s major post-rock festivals.
Summer Fades Away is a landmark post-rock band from Changsha, China, known for blending Eastern musical aesthetics with contemporary post-rock to find beauty in solitude, fragility, and quiet hurt. Formed in 2008, the quintet creates melodic and cinematic soundscapes shaped by atmospheric guitars, evocative keys, and precise rhythms.
The band has released three albums under 1724 Records, including Endless (2025). Their music has earned two MIDI Award nominations, five tracks surpassing one million streams, and invitations to major festivals such as Offside Festival (twice), Midi, Orange Isle, River, Xiaohongshu, as well as performances at The University of Hong Kong and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Endless sparked multiple sold-out shows on their 2025 tour and drew international attention, with reviews from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Mexico. Its single “June Yui” was selected as one of the year’s best tracks by Arctic Drones and the Post-Rock Instrumental Community.
https://summerfadesaway.com/

++ THISTLE SIFTER ++
Thistle Sifter is the cinematic post-rock project of English musician Pete Barnes (Utrecht, NL).
Catapulted into disarray following a serious cycling accident in November 2020, Thistle Sifter became a platform for Barnes to express his personal struggles and emotions, transporting listeners into an ethereal world of serene post-rock, spacey synth ambience, evolving soundscapes & lo-fi folk.
Forever The Optimist is Barnes’ latest and most ambitious work to date, offering a more eclectic and symphonic sound to his ever-expanding body of work. Where previous albums A Spectral Moon (2022) and Circles (2024) strongly focused on personal struggles with health, acceptance and letting go of the past. Forever The Optimist deals with existential issues caused by man's neglect of our natural environment and fellow humans in the pursuit of neverending growth.
Heavily inspired by writers Jay Griffiths, George Monbiot, Omar El Akkad and Siddharth Kara, the eight compositions touch on themes such as land use, animal rights, cobalt mining in the Congo, climate breakdown, neo-liberalism and the media’s complicity in genocide. Each track on the album is accompanied by thematic visuals. Thistle Sifter has been captivating audiences with its immersive audiovisual live experience throughout Europe in recent years, including AFAS Live in Amsterdam (with Sigur Rós), Le Guess Who? Festival (Utrecht) & Roadburn Festival (Tilburg). The band has shared a stage with God Is An Astronaut (Ireland), Oh Hiroshima (Sweden), Midas Fall (UK), Törzs (Hungary) & Mother of Millions (Greece). The live line-up features Pete Barnes (guitar & synths), Nils Breunese (guitar), Alex Rushmer (bass & synths), Koen Klarenbeek (drums).
New album Forever The Optimist was released on 6th February 2026.
https://thistlesifter.bandcamp.com/

++ STROMKASTEN ++
„Elemente aus Stoner-, Math- und Postrock ergeben ein vielfältiges und nie langweiliges Soundgefüge.“
So beschreibt Visions.de die Musik der vierköpfigen instrumentalen Rockband STROMKASTEN aus Köln.
Gegründet im Jahr 2012 und stets dem Hang zur instrumentalen Musik verpflichtet, spielen die vier Musiker aus Köln und Umgebung, Luxemburg und Italien seit 2016 in der aktuellen Besetzung. Beeinflusst durch zahllose Bands, die sich quer durch alle Genres von Punkrock über Singer-Songwriter bis hin zu Emo, Stoner- und Postrock ziehen, liegt der musikalische Fokus der Band auf ab und an vertrackten, sich abwechselnden und teils atmosphärisch-melodiösen Gitarrenriffs, in Kombination mit treibendem Bass und Schlagzeug. Dem Einsatz von zahlreichen Gitarreneffekten werden diverse Sprachsamples untergemischt.
Seit ihrer Gründung in 2016 veröffentlichten STROMKASTEN zwei EPs sowie die beiden Alben „Digital Na[t]ive“ in 2020 und „être en vie“ in 2023, aufgenommen von Bastian Lindenau (Shipwrecks).
Live teilten sich STROMKASTEN die Bühne mit Bands wie Toundra, hubris., Big Business, Yawning Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, Shipwrecks, Astral Kompakt, Noorvik und anderen.
https://stromkasten.bandcamp.com/