This SoundCloud account is for sharing the personal creative work of Mark Simos - songwriter, tunesmith, composer, accompanist, modal philosopher and currently Associate Professor (ahem ahem!) of Songwriting at Berklee College of Music. I will be setting up other SoundCloud accounts in future for various Berklee-related projects.

Over the past three years Hans has navigated non-stop across the U.S. on a continuous tour of clubs and concerts. Captivating audiences with his confiding voice and easy charm, he has made lifelong friends while witnessing the vast territories of the country that has become his adopted home. 

This love affair with America is long-standing. German-born Hans says that the tepid local pop music of his youth was no match for the sensational rock of the UK and the states. Although he didn't yet speak the language, he would improvise lyrics, knowing that his audiences didn't understand them. Growing up near Ramstein Air Force base, headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe, Hans left home at 18 and began playing and living with American musicians. "After a short period I was dreaming in English," he says.

While he subsequently performed everything from theater to classical music as a bass player, it was as the co-founder of the German World Music cult band Moka Efti that Hans made his mark as an artist with three CDs. But he knew there was a wider world panorama, and he explored it while living for six for months in Brazil. 

Hans returned home to Germany and recorded his solo debut, Hazzazar and a well-received follow-up, Sau Gut, but his creativity demanded movement and motion. And so with only a smattering of contacts, he moved to the United States. 

His first American release, Inside Out, established him as a masterful storyteller, multi-instrumentalist and a producer with a deep musical palette. As one writer said, it introduced an artist who was "… delicate, expressive and highly evocative." His next release, Young Amelia, was a natural progression as Hans was lauded for his "sweet, comfy tenor and expressive acoustic guitar work that place him in the upper echelon of music makers." 

With Heard or Herded?, Hans has settled down from the road in Dallas, Texas. Energized by the camaraderie of a band, he anticipates enlisting a strong group of players to animate his songs.

The sound of Hans York is the sound of a man at peace with himself, and remarkably interested in those around him.

"There's movement in the heavens where the winds have taken shape
Swirling dust and devils, dragons that awake
And they rage through crowded streets, leave nothing behind
Only the weak, the opened hearted kind"

from "Walk This Way"

"The heart space is what's important," he concludes. "The more that an artist can find that in himself, the better then that the art transcends and people will find strength in listening."


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