November’s here, bringing cooler days and a good reason to settle in with new music or check out a live show. Whether you’re into local talent at home or abroad, there’s plenty popping up out of Austria this month. Austrian Music Export is once again highlighting key releases, concerts, and projects you’ll want to keep on your radar. Dive into this month’s AUSTRIAN MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS and catch up on what’s new, what’s coming, and what’s worth a listen.
I Shall Be Released
LYLIT will release a new studio album in December. The record puts her clear, soul-leaning vocals at the center, supported by understated, pop-tinged arrangements—piano, subtle electronics, and layered harmonies—that focus on strong songwriting rather than spectacle. Lyrically, the material follows themes of resilience, distance, and renewal with concise, image-led writing and minimal ornamentation. The album arrives on digital platforms on release day, with further format details to follow. A run of live dates is planned around the launch, with set lists built to present the new material as a continuous arc rather than single-by-single showcases. To celebrate the release, LYLIT and her band will play a release concert on December 15th at Wiener Konzerthaus (Vienna).
Remarks on Process (Ventil Records) was recorded in May 2024 at Westbahnstudios in Vienna. The project was a week-long performance workshop led by Mark Fell with members of the Austrian ensemble Studio Dan. Throughout the week, procedural systems were developed to explore group behaveiours and emergent musical aesthetics. This led to a performance on the evening of the final day which is excluded here. Each day was recorded in its entirety and this cassette contains edited excerpts from the sessions in chronological order: including moments of dialogue, experimentation, performance, breaks, and the like.
Elektro Guzzi return with their 11th studio album, Liquid Center (released October 24, 2025) —tighter in focus, wider in scope. Here the trio’s trademark precision and architecture meet unexpected warmth and depth. The sound is more restrained, more nuanced—and, in turn, more present. What’s striking is how different this record both sounds and feels. Over the past year, the band devised a recording approach that carries their analogue live charge into a sonic image capturing the physicality of a band in space and the cool abstraction of techno. The result doesn’t chase loudness; it privileges detail—clear, warm, deep, almost surgically exact. Liquid Center isn’t a loose set of tracks but a coherent album arc. With each pass, it yields another facet: a fresh texture, a shifted vantage, a layer revealing itself between groove and tone. Maybe the music is changing—or maybe it’s the way you hear it.
Lukas Lauermann – Varve (col legno, Oct 24, 2025): On his fourth album, Vienna cellist/composer Lukas Lauermann drills into the idea of “varves” — geological annual layers — to chart slow change, decay, and renewal. The music folds cello with organ and vocal samples and an ensemble of reel-to-reel tape and cassette recorders, yielding textures that feel both tactile and time-worn: fragile repetitions that never return quite the same. Mixed and mastered with Oliver Brunbauer, the record favors detail over loudness—clear, warm, deep—bridging the physicality of a player in space with cool, almost techno-like abstraction. Across ten pieces (“Varve II,” “IIIa,” “IV.5” and variants), Lauermann treats a solo project like chamber music with ghosts—loops, breath, machine noise—creating a coherent album arc rather than a set of cues. Recent notes around the release frame it as music that resists explanation and lets listeners feel how transformation can be both fragile and forceful.
Harry Dean Lewis releases his new EP Stolen Goods and the lead single “Adrenaline” on November 14, 2025 via House of Larrikin (HOL001). On Stolen Goods, the Vienna-based Australian artist strips back personas or role-play with biting irony and soul, pulling deeply personal themes onto the dancefloor. The uptempo indie-soul title track explores vulnerability in a culture that resists it, while “Conversations” channels inner chaos through funk and hook-filled refrains. Lead single “Adrenaline” blends soulful hip-hop with a crooked drag-time groove—its drums recorded 20 BPM faster and then slowed down for a warped, delayed feel—as Lewis reflects on brain chemistry and the restless search for dopamine (“The good life, drink from the waterfall”). Known for sweat-soaked, genre-blurring sets that fuse indie pop, soul, and rap, Lewis arrived in Vienna via Berlin during the pandemic, later collaborating with Joe Traxler and Girondolini before releasing his debut album Three Sides to a Coin. on Futuresfuture Records in October 2024.
Maja Jaku – Blessed and Bewitched (Origin Records): Vocalist and composer Maja Jaku unveils a poised, luminous new album on the American label Origin Records. Blessed and Bewitched pairs clear, expressive vocals with elegant, modern jazz writing—songs that move from intimate confession to widescreen shimmer without losing focus. Early traction in the U.S. is strong, with widespread radio play, while European and international press have responded with notably positive reviews, underscoring the record’s blend of craft, atmosphere, and emotional clarity.
Bad Ida – Ending Things (Konkord, Oct 31, 2025): On their second album, Bad Ida sharpen a noir-tinted strain of art-pop: cool, intimate vocals ride minimalist beats and keys and guitar flicker in and out of focus. The production favors negative space—hooks arrive as afterimages, melodies bloom late, and the mix leaves room for breath and bite. Lyrically, Ending Things circles the fallout of endings—habits, romances, versions of the self—without slipping into melodrama. It’s sleek, emotionally clear, and built for dancing, extending the line they sketched live at Waves Vienna while staying firmly outside indie-pop orthodoxy.
SUM’N Special
Debut on Deutschlandfunk Kultur with conductor Barbara Dragan, Jérémie Moreau (piano), and Valerie Fritz (cello): Austrian cellist Valerie Fritz took the spotlight in the season opener of “Debut at Deutschlandfunk Kultur” with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on November 13, 2025 at the Berlin Philharmonie. Known for exploring her instrument from gut strings to electronics and for close collaborations with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Georg Friedrich Haas, Jennifer Walshe, and Thomas Larcher, Fritz makes her Berlin debut performing Johannes Maria Staud’s Segue for cello and orchestra in the composer’s presence. A member of NAMES (Ernst von Siemens Ensemble Prize) and a regular with Camerata Salzburg, she appears across Europe in 2025/26 as an ECHO Rising Star. The program, conducted by Barbara Dragan, also includes Akimenko’s Poème-nocturne “Ange”, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (soloist Jérémie Moreau), and Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture “Romeo and Juliet.” Radio broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, including the artist talk prior to the concert, will be aired on Nov 21, 8:00 p.m.
To everything tour, tour, tour
Buntspecht spread their vibrant wings once again, embarking on a wide-ranging tour with dates across Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Austria. Highlights include Nov 20 in Münster, Nov 22 in Paris, further stops in Amsterdam and Graz and additional dates that invite audiences to unforgettable nights of surprises and vivid storytelling. Buntspecht consist of six musicians from Vienna who craft playful lyrics for grown-ups — and for grown-ups who never really grew up. Blending gypsy swing with indie pop and Viennese folk influences, their concerts are a stroke of musical luck: neither head, heart, nor feet can escape their rousing energy, celebrating life in all its melancholic and ecstatic forms.
Cari Cari return to the stage with One More Trip Around Europe, beginning with sun-soaked Southern stops in Barcelona on 20 November 2025 and Madrid on 21 November 2025, before continuing through Portugal, Sweden and Austria this year. Their upcoming dates promise atmospheric nights shaped by raw energy, hypnotic grooves and that Cari Cari magic. Their sound is a fusion of the boldness of East London, Melbourne’s DIY spirit, and the mesmerizing strangeness of Tokyo. Cari Cari’s music feels both intimate and epic, carried by a duo whose artistic world is as striking as it is unforgettable.
This winter, Conchita Wurst brings her emotional depth and vocal brilliance to the stage with Conchita Sings, The Classics – X-Mas Special, opening with a festive night in Graz on 2 December 2025 before enchanting Vienna on 13 December 2025. Audiences can look forward to shimmering evenings filled with timeless pieces, warmth, and Conchita’s unparalleled stage presence. Conchita Wurst is a boundary-pushing artist and Eurovision icon whose powerful voice and unique persona inspire fans worldwide. Blending pop, electronic elements, and soulful ballads, Conchita breaks musical and cultural barriers — celebrating self-expression, authenticity, and resilience.
folkshilfe are hitting the road once more, starting their run with shows in Bern on 25 November 2025 and Passau on 26 November 2025, bringing their unique “Hau di her!” spirit to stages across Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The trio promises warm nights, loud choirs, and powerful live moments that linger long after the last encore. Known for hits like “Mir laungts”, “Seit a poa Tog” and “Simone”, folkshilfe have become a defining voice in the German-language music world. Their accordion-driven pop blends groove, wit, and heart, earning them a dedicated following. After launching the year with Paul Pizzera and “Najo eh”, they released their fourth studio album and completed their biggest tour to date.
From late 2025 through 2026, Golnar Shahyar brings her border-defying artistry to audiences across Europe, beginning with Vienna on 20 November 2025 and continuing shortly after with a collaborative concert in Schwaz on November 28, then to Norway on December 21st.. Each appearance offers a rare opportunity to witness her deeply expressive musical storytelling live. Golnar Shahyar is an Iranian–Canadian vocalist, composer, poet, producer, educator, and cultural advocate based in Vienna. Her music weaves together improvisation, narrative, and activism. Drawing from Western Asia, North Africa, Europe, and the Americas, her sound fearlessly explores identity, belonging, and imagination.
HVOB return to the international stage, starting with Beijing on 26 November 2025 and Shanghai on 27 November 2025, before continuing on to Shenzhen and eventually heading to Argentina in December. These performances offer fans a chance to experience HVOB’s immersive, atmospheric live presence. Behind the project are Anna Müller and Paul Wallner, whose songs are defined by restrained, minimalistic soundscapes that live between house, electronica, and pop. Their gentle vocals and slow-burning arrangements create an emotional pull that feels both delicate and powerful — music that sends shivers down your spine.
Klangkarussell are embarking on an international series of club nights this November, kicking off with a late-night set in Juárez on 20 November 2025 before heading north for a show in Seattle on 21 November 2025. The tour continues on 22 November in New York at Sonic Jungle, followed by an early evening performance on 23 November in Miami at ZeyZey Miami. These dates give fans worldwide the chance to experience their atmospheric, groove-driven sound.
The Salzburg producer duo Tobias Rieser and Adrian Held need little introduction. Since their global hit “Sonnentanz” took the world by storm in 2012, they have become known for crafting warm, melodic tracks at the intersection of deep house, pop and cinematic electronica — performances that blend flow, emotion and dance-floor magnetism.
Arianna Alfreds & Romy Theune