| Celebrating Success: 5 Year Anniversary of Newspaper |
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24/11/2009 13:56 (77 Day 06:16 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- “Hello Georgians, this is Louie Austen - the electro crooner of hearts - I'm looking forward to entertaining you all on Tuesday, 24 November at The FINANCIAL’s Glamour Night in the Tbilisi Philharmonic Hall,” Louie Austen’s message is getting guests excited about the event and making them plan what to wear.
On November 24 The FINANCIAL and publishing company Intelligence group is celebrating their 5th anniversary. For its devoted partners the company is organizing a magic evening in the Tbilisi Event Hall.
The FINANCIAL has invited well known singer Louie Austen whose magical voice and performance will make this celebration unforgettable. The evening will host 400 persons and will be private.
The guests of the evening are required to dress in 30s fashion styles. The FINANCIAL will host guests with drinks and a large cake for the occasion.
The event is sponsored by Insurance company Aldagi BCI and Advertising Company Vellagio. Official carrier of the evening is Austrian Airlines. The hotel hosting Louis Austen is the Tbilisi Marriott. The evening will include prize-draws with the involvement of the Radisson SAS Iveria Hotel, LUKOIL , Roniko, Oriflame, Sheraton Metekhi Palace, Koton, Safilo and Villeroy & Boch. The best photos of the evening will be published in The FINANCIAL’s glamour magazine.
“Thanks to our partners The FINANCIAL’s anniversary will be very glamorous,” commented Zviad Pochkhua , Editor-in-Chief and Director of The FINANCIAL.
“This event is dedicated to our partners, closest friends and those people with whom our newspaper has achieved a lot of success. We are 5 years old. It’s a wonderful occasion for us. I would like to thank our long term and new partners for buying and promoting our services.
My special and personal thanks goes to Mr. Vakhtang Butskrikidze, TBC Bank , Gilbert Hie, Bank Republic, Mr. Irakli Gilauri and Nikoloz Enukidze, Bank of Georgia , Mr. Giorgi Glonti, KorStandard Bank, Mr. Samson Pkhakadze, WISSOL, Mr. Lasha Papashvili, Redix, Rusudan Chergoleishvili, ArtX, Gocha Gogilashvili, PSP, Mr. Lado Kvilitaia, Greenet, Zaza Katamadze, LUKOIL , Dan Voicu and Alexander Albin, Rompetrol, Paata Kikodze and David Khubuluri, DeltaCom, Michael Cowgill, GAU, Giorgi Gugunishvili, United Telecom Georgia , S.K. Chatterje, Rakia Georgia.
Dear partners, thank you for your support! We continue to grow and prosper only because we have partnerships with such great friends as you, who have given us your loyal support all along the way.”
Louie Austen has been around for longer than you may realise. 10 years ago, Austen leapt from thriving as an enigmatic night club crooner to one of the most exhilarating performers electronic music has to offer and this being in his 60s! “Art must be a matter of life and death - otherwise it’s not art,” is Louie’s sincere conviction. Just like “I´ll never retire, I´ll probably die on stage but I don´t give a damn!” One thing the Viennese Electro-crooner doesn’t go for is doing things by half. Whatever he does is done with his fullest commitment - and often regardless of the consequences. Admittedly, this reckless attitude has gotten him into serious trouble time and again. And yet it also made him what he is today: a man who finds himself an upcoming and sought-after artist whose career hasn’t yet reached its climax.
There’s a hell of a lot going on in the life of Louie. In early 2007 he even founded his own label LA Music - Louie Austen Music - which has given birth to three EP releases thus far; the “Summer Love” record, the “(Dreams Are My) Reality” Richard Sanderson cover feat. Senor Coconut & His Orchestra and in the summer of 2008 a coop with Commercial Breakup from Berlin, former keys-man of Blumfeld as on the “Too Good To Last EP”. With the cool cats of Senor Coconut Louie’s been touring on their “Around The World” tour and was featured on their album by the same name.
Louie is not only involved in music - at the Viennese “Burgtheater” he had a part in an adaption of Johann Nestroy’s play “Höllenangst” which is to be taken back into the programme this summer as it’s been so popular with fans. He’s also got his fingers in film business – “The Counterfeiters / Die Fälscher” of Stefan Ruzowitzky got an OSCAR for best foreign movie and includes a cameo of Louie as a casino gambler. Louie also appeared as Karl in the Austrian short movie “Lounge”, homage to the film noir movies of the 1940s directed by Armin Pointner of Progressive Pictures.
Of course Austen has many aces of spades up his sleeves; he’s working on several coops and on another studio album for release in 2010. On top of this all he is regularly swooning and crooning in clubs worldwide and has a weekly residence at the Cascade Bar of the Marriott hotel in Vienna by the name of “Louie’s Saturday” with various programmes, including Best of the Ratpack songs.
But how did it all get started? Louie’s still astonished about the formidable status he’s achieved, in a scene whose very existence he was not even aware of ten years ago.
Time for a flashback: In 1999, the bustling Viennese Electro scene gives birth to a new and surprising idea. A Viennese electronic producer contrasts his experimental electronic tracks with Louie Austen’s velvety voice. He had run into the classic jazz crooner in a studio and immediately proposed a collaboration.
Austen, then 53 years old, had already led an eventful life in various parts of the world and could look back on an equally eventful performing career. After immigrating to South Africa and Australia he had performed in clubs and on stages in New York, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas during the 70s. After his return to Vienna, the crooner entertained guests at the Klimt-Bar of the Vienna Hilton before he took over the entire entertainment for the Marriott Hotel. A safe job and well paid, too. Additionally, Austen wrote and produced shows like “Viva Las Vegas“ or “American Superstars”, played parts in several movies and toured both Europe and the USA with show programmes.
Yet Austen is intrigued by the electronic beats and sounds of the young generation. When the first album “Consequences” (1999) is well received in the club scene and the first concerts turn out promising, Louie makes a courageous decision. “I decided there and then to resign from all other jobs and to completely dedicate myself to this new project for a period of two years,” he recalls. “I reflected that, if I’d find myself in the street after those two years, I’d have to go back to my old jobs. But I wanted to try out this new direction under all circumstances - I simply had to.”
It was a decision that was true to the nature of a man who sees himself as always searching and filled with a childlike curiosity. Who is always ready to accept new challenges and gladly accepts the fact that not all of them can pay off. But Austen simply abhors routines and artistic stagnation. “To try something new every single day - that’s what keeps me alert and on the ball, young and active.”
Naturally Austen wasn’t prepared to terminate the experiment after two years. Instead he collaborated with Viennese electronics pioneers on two more albums, “Only Tonight” (2001) and “Easy Love” (2003). Austen appreciates that his involvement with electronic music was a stroke of luck for him. “A very special phase of my career began when I was 53,” he gratefully acknowledges, “from which my life has enormously benefited over the last years, since I can perform my own songs and find an audience for them.”
His new music allows Austen a transformation from a pure entertainer, who assumes the roles of those he pays tribute to, into an artist in his own right, no less. “I’m quite grateful for having followed my instincts back then, despite the fact that some of my friends tried to dissuade me,” he says retrospectively.
Part of Louie Austen’s appeal lies in the fact that he has not entirely discarded the entertainer in this metamorphosis. He brought many things along for the ride, and his know-how of how to entertain with verve and how to put on a great show, his charm and charisma, the style and vocabulary of the urbane entertainer he had cultivated so long serve him equally well in the electronic underground. He is a mediator who mixes various genres, some of which were previously regarded incompatible. For several years now he has managed to resolve alleged contradictions and break down prejudices - jazz and dance beats, advanced age and youth culture, smart style and underground. “In a way I stand for a kind of reconciliation,” he describes his unique position, “a bridge between old and new or between young and old.”
And indeed, Louie Austen does have a talent for bridging differences, which makes his role in the music business all the more important. And that’s not all - Louie even has the ability to dispel existential angst. “Now that I’ve seen you,” so many young people tell him after a show, “I’m no longer afraid of growing old”. It’s hard to think of a better compliment.
DISCOGRAPHY:
“CONSEQUENCES” (Album - Cheap 1999)
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