Cardinal Sessions From Home

From now on, we want to upload a new session every day, coming from some living room or garden all over the world.


Cardinal Sessions Festival 11, 28.11.2020 Stadtgarten Köln ABGESAGT!

Das Cardinal Sessions Festival findet am 16.01.2020 zum zehnten Mal statt - diesmal in der wunderschönen Kulturkirche in Köln!


Cardinal Sessions Festival 10

Das Cardinal Sessions Festival findet am 16.01.2020 zum zehnten Mal statt - diesmal in der wunderschönen Kulturkirche in Köln!


The Brian Jonestown Massacre Live in London

Full live recording of The Brian Jonestown Massacre concert in London, October of 2018, including hits like "Anemone" and "Nevertheless".


Cardinal Sessions Festival 9

Das Cardinal Sessions Festival geht am 18. Mai bereits in seine neunte Runde. Nachdem die letzten Ausgaben in Köln restlos ausverkauft waren, freuen wir uns, die nächste Runde ankündigen zu dürfen.


Gregory Alan Isakov live session in a church

Colorado singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov returns to Cardinal Sessions to perform "Chemicals" live in a church in Cologne, Germany.


Peter Doherty live acoustic session

Peter Doherty has a new record coming out, with his band, the Puta Madres. It's amazing proof that he's still one of the top songwriters around. We took the opportunity to meet again, this time at the wonderful store of Herr von Eden in Cologne, Germany, to record some songs.


Sharon van Etten Live Piano Session

Sharon van Etten, one of the best singer-songwriters around, performs a beautiful version of "I Told You Everything" solo on the grand piano.


Better Oblivion Community Center

Both Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers have been hinting at a thing called "Better Oblivion Community Center". Rumours are, it's a collaboration project of the two indie singer-songwriters.


Fil Bo Riva theatre session – „Go Rilla“ & „L’over“

Lewis Capaldi is a british singer-songwriter with an amazing voice. He's one of those new talents everybody talks about right now, and we had the pleasure to meet before he played a sold-out show in Cologne, Germany. We took a walk through a park while Lewis performed "Grace" for Cardinal Sessions in an acoustic one-take.


Lewis Capaldi Live Acoustic Session

Lewis Capaldi is a british singer-songwriter with an amazing voice. He's one of those new talents everybody talks about right now, and we had the pleasure to meet before he played a sold-out show in Cologne, Germany. We took a walk through a park while Lewis performed "Grace" for Cardinal Sessions in an acoustic one-take.


Hollow Coves at Cardinal Sessions Festival

Hollow Coves from Australia are an indie-folk duo that played Cardinal Sessions Festival in October of 2018 in a church. Before they opened the big stage that night, we recorded a song called "The Woods" acoustically.


THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2018

We present the 25 best albums of 2018, as picked by Cardinal Sessions, including records by Kurt Vile, Jack White, John Prine and Snail Mail.


L’aupaire at Cardinal Sessions Festival

L'aupaire at Cardinal Sessions Festival.


The Tallest Man On Earth at Konzerthaus Dortmund

The Tallest Man On Earth is one of those Indie-Folk icons we've been listening to forever. We had the opportunity to record a song with him in fall of 2018.


Exploring church reverb with Shakey Graves

Shakey Graves is the man - here he is, performing a song called "Cops and Robbers" in a church in Cologne before his show. His americana-blues-folk is wonderful to listen to, his new record is amazing. Welcome back to Cardinal Sessions!


A walk through the park with Snail Mail

Snail Mail is one of those rare-to-find musicians - she writes incredible songs and we're very happy to have met her during her stay in Cologne. She performed "Heat Wave" in a park, one take.


With an open heart – female singer-songwriters take over the world

Folk singer-songwriters have always been the ones to be the most personal, the most fragile lyricists. And women of course have always been part of it - but it feels like there is a new strength to dig deep, to sing about flaws, desires, depression, anxiety, love and hate.


Stella Donnelly Live Acoustic Session

Stella Donnelly is an australian singer-songwriter who has just released her first EP called "Thrush Metal" on Secretly Canadian. We've met her in the empty philharmonic in Cologne, Germany, at C/O Pop Festival, to record her song "Mean To Me".


Cardinal Sessions Festival 8

Das Cardinal Sessions Festival geht am 5. Mai bereits in seine siebte Runde. Nachdem die letzten Ausgaben in Köln restlos ausverkauft waren, freuen wir uns, die nächste Runde ankündigen zu dürfen.


Young Talent Stage

Sipgate presents the Open Source Festival - Young Talent Stage studio recordings. A Cardinal Sessions Showcase. Recorded at the Sipgate Headquarter.


30 under 30

The world of music is full of great talents and brillant artists, and a lot of them are under the age of 30. We'd like to share our personal favourites.


Jonathan Wilson Live Acoustic Session

Jonathan Wilson is an american singer-songwriter and producer. He worked with lots and lots of our favourites, like Dawes, Conor Oberst, Father John Misty and Johnathan Rice. His solo records are a real treat, too - Wilson stripped down two songs for Cardinal Sessions, "Living With Myself" and "There's A Light".


Down By The River Festival Special

We've been to Venlo's Down By The River Festival to record live acoustic sessions with Andrew Combs, The Deep Dark Woods and The Yawpers.


Ilgen-Nur Live Acoustic Session

We've met german singer-songwriter Illgen-Nur in a Café in Cologne, Germany while the band was on tour supporting Tocotronic - we recorded this song called "Matter of Time".


Lissie Acoustic Session

We've met US-singer-songwriter Lissie in Cologne, Germany to record two songs acoustically. She sat down in a tree in a park next to the venue and performed "Blood & Muscle" and "When I'm Alone".


Cardinal Sessions Festival 7

Das Cardinal Sessions Festival geht am 5. Mai bereits in seine siebte Runde. Nachdem die letzten Ausgaben in Köln restlos ausverkauft waren, freuen wir uns, die nächste Runde ankündigen zu dürfen.


AnnenMayKantereit in Los Angeles

In October of 2017, we were invited alongside photographer Jean Raclet to join the german band AnnenMayKantereit on a trip to Los Angeles.


Noah Gundersen Live Acoustic Session in a Church

Singer-Songwriter Noah Gundersen returns to Cardinal Sessions to perform three wonderful songs in a church in Cologne, including a cover of Sade's "By Your Side".


Cardinal Classics: Nathaniel Rateliff

We've collected all the acoustic sessions that Nathaniel Rateliff did for Cardinal Sessions, including songs with his band The Night Sweats and Matthew Logan Vasquez.


SYML Live Acoustic Session

Brian Fennell has a solo record out and performed "Wildfire" exclusively on a piano for Cardinal Sessions in Cologne, Germany.


Iron & Wine Live Acoustic Session

Ever since his version of The Postal Service's "Such Great Hights" played on the radio for the first time, we're huge fans of Iron & Wine. After all those years, we finally managed to set up a session with mastermind Sam Beam, who performed for us right before his sold-out show in Cologne, Germany. His intimate, warm songs often feel very real and raw, especially in acoustic versions.


DMA’S exclusive acoustic session with new single „In The Air“

One of the best bands around, DMA's, performed for Cardinal Sessions in Berlin.


Musikschutzgebiet August 30th – September 2nd 2018

Cardinal Sessions is presenting Musikschutzgebiet Festival from August 30th till September 2nd 2018. They've also just announced the first bands for 2018, including our friends from Giant Rooks and Die höchste Eisenbahn.


Bonaparte Live Acoustic Session

Swiss band Bonaparte headlined 2017's At The B-Sites Festival and recorded two songs exclusively for Cardinal Sessions backstage.


Tour presentation: ORI „1986“ Album Release Tour

Cardinal Sessions are presenting the ORI "1986" Album Release Tour through Germany and Switzerland.


10 Songs you didn’t know were a cover

Listen to ten songs most of you might only know from other artists - here are the originals!


Frère Live Acoustic Session

German indie band Frère perform a song on a cliff in Essen, Germany, live for Cardinal Sessions. The song is called "Portugal".


How to record an acoustic session

Learn how to record an acoustic session and what gear to use - Cardinal Sessions


Damien Rice performed in a living room in Paris

The french acoustic-session website La Blogothèque recorded one of their famous concerts in a series called Soirée de Poche with one of our favourite artists Damien Rice.


Milky Chance Live Acoustic Session

German band Milky Chance performed "Firebird" from their new record "Blossom" in a live acoustic session for Cardinal Sessions in Cologne, Germany.


Laura Marling covering Bob Dylan for „Peaky Blinders“

Laura Marling, one of our favourite singer-songwriters, decided to cover a Bob Dylan song for a new episode from "Peaky Blinders".


THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2017

After a very busy 2017 in every possible way, let's take the time to look back. We love music. We love more than 30 records. But we can't write about every single one of them.
So here's our TOP 30 best albums of the year. Let us know about yours.


Käptn Peng returns – Session at Haldern Pop Festival

Käptn Peng & die Tentakel von Delphi performing "Tier" at 2017's Haldern Pop Festival, acoustic in the woods, with a guitar and a double bass.


Alexi Murdoch announces new album

We met Alexi Murdoch three years ago at the Haldern Pop Festival to record two hauntingly beautiful new and unreleased songs called "Golden Mountain" & "At Night My Heart" which seem to make it on the new album.


Mighty Oaks session in an artists community

Mighty Oaks teamed up with Cardinal Sessions again to record two songs off their new record live and acoustic in an artist community.


Langhorne Slim Session in New Orleans

Langhorne Slim returns to Cardinal Sessions with a wonderful video for his new song "Lost This Time" - Casey Jane is singing with him in New Orleans.


Top 20 Tracks of 2017

Cardinal Sessions 20 Top Tracks of 2017 - The list is featuring bands like Courtney Barnett, The War on Drugs, Future Islands, Baxter Dury and Warhaus.


U2 Session – performing in a Berlin Subway Station

U2 have released a new record earlier this month and they went on the Berlin Subway to promote it. The record entitled "Songs of Experience" was presented, but Bono and The Edge played some more songs to the surprised audience. They first took the train with the same name - U2 - to Deutsche Oper station and started performing in the middle of the subway station.


Mac DeMarco is back for a session

In the beginning of 2017, we met Mac DeMarco in Berlin - he was on tour all year, until he stopped by in Cologne to play a sold-out show at Kantine. We decided to shoot another video, this time for his song "One Another".


Get lost in acoustics with Amber Run

We met with british rock-pop band Amber Run in a run-down house in Cologne to record two of their songs called "I Found" and "No Answer".


Giant Rooks Live Acoustic Session

Giant Rooks are a young, exciting new band from Hamm, Germany. We've invited them to play our Cardinal Sessions Festival in january 2017 and after that arranged a session in may that same year. The band came to a park in Cologne to perform two songs "Bright Lies" and their brand new single "Mia & Keira (Days To Come)".


CARDINAL SESSIONS FESTIVAL 6 – A LOOK BACK

Our very own Cardinal Sessions Festival has seen it's sixth installment this October - we started with six bands in Cologne, took five of them with us to Hamburg and then to Berlin the days after. Our Festival is an experiment - we drive through half of Germany, like a circus of music, and present the same bands in three different cities.


Hayden Calnin session with breathtaking acoustics

Hayden Calnin is an australian singer-songwriter with an amazing voice - we've met him at New Fall Festival in Düsseldorf, Germany. In a church. The reverb fits this beautiful song very well, as he sings it in front of a big church window. It's called "You Believed".


Seasick Steve plays a rare live acoustic session

Cardinal Sessions met Seasick Steve for a live acoustic sessions in Cologne a while back. He has come a very long way in 10 years. Since his first appearance on British TV, his popularity exploded, and he was put on the path to becoming the powerful live force that he has become today around the world in arenas, festivals and concert halls.


Nahko Live Acoustic Session

We met Nahko and Medicine for the People almost two years ago to record a session with Nahko and his trumpet player on a cold day in January. As Nahko released his solo record in 2017, we decided it was time to team up again, this time in a church.
His new song "Dragonfly" fits the location in a perfect way as we thought a one-camera-shot could tell the structure of the song - Nahko ends singing in an empty church and the echo sounds wonderful.


Matthew And The Atlas Live Acoustic Session

It was a foggy morning in Haldern, Germany, where we met Matthew and the Atlas. The whole atmosphere was very fitting to his music and it felt really special.


New Neufundland Video For ‚Alles Was Bleibt‘

We made a music video for emerging german band Neufundland for their song 'Alles Was Bleibt'.


Die Höchste Eisenbahn Live Acoustic Session

Die Höchste Eisenbahn is a german band formed in 2011 consisting of four brillant and experienced musicians. They have released two LP's and an EP, the latest record came out in 2016 called "Wer bringt mich jetzt zu den anderen". We've met the band at 2017's Haldern Pop Festival, decided to record on the very same spot where we also recorded Conor Oberst three years earlier.


Isaac Gracie Live Acoustic Session

If you close your eyes, you might think it's Jeff Buckley singing to you, while really it's one of UK's best new singer-songwriters called Isaac Gracie. We've met him at Haldern Pop Festival 2017, where he performed in a church. His beautiful, heartfelt songs sound even bigger there, but we wanted to try something different and walked in a nice little backyard, surrounded by dark trees.


Voodoo Jürgens Live Acoustic Session

Voodoo Jürgens from Vienna with his morbid sense of humor is one of Austrias most exciting artists right now. He played a wonderful tune just seconds after his gig at Haldern Pop Festival 2017 in a caravan, still sweaty and full of energy. Enjoy!


Bear’s Den Live Acoustic Session

In 2015 we've met Bear's Den for the first time. They played a great show in Cologne after our session, Alex Vargas opened for them and we felt that this was something special. Since then, a lot has happened, and the band is back with a new record that is, in our opinion, their best yet. We met again, two and a half years after our first session, to record two new songs at Haldern Pop Festival.


Swans – The Seer LP

Lets make this text as short as possible cause this album takes time. 1h 59min and supposedly longer. Get your headphones, power on your krk studio monitors or whatever you are using for some quality listening plus a drink and fall in love if you haven't already.


Taylor Hollingsworth Live Acoustic Session

Taylor Hollingsworth from Birmingham, Alabama, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who has a couple of bands and played guitar in Conor Oberst's Mystic Valley Band. He's back on tour with Conor, and performed two songs exclusively for Cardinal Sessions at 2017's Haldern Pop Festival.


The Amazons Live Acoustic Session

The Amazons from the UK are one of the most important new rock bands the UK has to offer right now. They were included in the BBC's "Sound of 2017" and MTV's "Brand New 2017" lists, they have an amazing live show. It's really interesting to see a rock band like them to strip down, to show the bones of the song, to listen to "Junk Food Forever" when it's just played on two acoustic guitars.


CLASSICS – The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain from Scotland have always been one of the Greats in not giving a fuck - it's even more surprising that they recorded "Sometimes Always" in 1994 on their fifth record "Stoned and Dethroned", as it is not as heavy as most of the bands songs. It's heartfelt and touching and one of the most interesting things to happen to love songs as it describes kind of a one-way relationship. This Letterman performance features Hope Sandoval, singer of Mazzy Star.


Artists To Watch: Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers is an artist from Los Angeles who really stands out for us when it comes to singer-songwriters. Every word she sings feels very real and raw and, positively, a little out-of-time. She recorded with Ryan Adams, toured with Julien Baker and Conor Oberst, but what's most important: She's gonna release a record really soon. Our favourite song might be "Steamroller", a sad tune about love that strikes just the right tone.


Peter Doherty Live Acoustic Session

"Is it cruel or kind not to speak my mind, and to lie to you, rather than hurt you?"


John Smith Live Acoustic Session

English folk-guitarist and singer-songwriter John Smith first got our attention some years ago when we filmed a session with the wonderful Lisa Hannigan. We went to her show afterwards and John was playing guitar in Lisa's band - and did an amazing job. His backing voice was always so subtle, but rich and unique. Two years later, the same thing happened again - but John was this time playing in the band of David Gray, who we met for a session.


Sion Hill Live Acoustic Session

Early 2017, we managed to film Peter Doherty in Cologne, shot the session and went to his show afterwards. This irish guy called Sion Hill was supporting Peter on this tour and it was the first time we heard him play - and fell in love instantly. Only some days later we announced Sion Hill for our fifth Cardinal Sessions Festival in May of 2017.