Jonas Weber (*1993, Bern) is a multimedia artist, musician, and performer working at the intersection of music, film, performance, and installation. After completing an apprenticeship as a multimedia electronics technician, he studied Music and Media Arts at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB). At the age of 16, he joined Pink Mama Theatre, where he worked for many years as a musical-technical director and performer on numerous dance theatre productions.
His artistic practice moves between experimental pop culture, contemporary art, and the independent music scene, leading him to concerts, tours, exhibitions, and collaborative projects throughout Europe and China. As co-founder of several bands and art projects — including Penkowski, Parker Leftlover and Boyband CHIC — he has performed more than 300 concerts, released multiple music productions, and presented short films and video works in various exhibition contexts.
Alongside his independent artistic work, Jonas works as a sound designer for Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF (Swiss national radio and television) and as a video operator at Opernhaus Zürich (Opera of Zurich), while also creating films, performances, and installation works.
Parker Leftlover’s debut album Obligation of Joy is slow disco for vampires and dreamy romance for broken hearts. Blending vintage drum machines, 80s synths, and bittersweet pop with industrial percussion, the band explores modern love, euphoria, and alienation. Balancing harsh coldness and tender romance their sound evokes OMD, Wong Kar-wai, and the hazy glow of 1990s TV.
collaborative composition project, research trip & tour in China with Basil Anliker a.k.a Baze.
The hiss of a tape and muffled beats of a drum machine, which sound like from a jukebox of a roadhouse in the lost woods. Haunting synths sing like ghosts. A voice echoes like memories of the past, whether it was the 50s or the 80s, you can't remember. Something is falling out of time, out of place. Red silk on a TV-screen. White leather gloves. A midnight disco for the sleep- and restless.
In September 2024 we played an 11-Show headliner tour with my Post Punk/No Wave Band Penkowski.
09-06 Beijing, Omni Club
09-07 XiAn, Loop Festival
09-08 Chengdu, 24D
09-10 Chongqing, NUTS Livehouse
09-11 Wuhan, VOX WILD
09-12 Nanjing, 1701 Livehouse
09-14 Nanchang, Vas Livehouse
09-15 Guangzhou, Flowing Water Festival
09-17 Shanghai, Sound of Youth Festival
09-19 Hangzhou, Loopy
Directed by Liu Zhuoer & Jonas Weber
Camera : Liu Zhuoer 刘卓尔
Driver : Pan Yongquan 潘永全
Editing : Jonas Weber
Thanks to :
Xiang Tong Wei 向桐玮, Song Lin Ru 宋林儒, Pei Wen Dai 代沛汶, Liu Ling 刘玲, Loris Briguet, the city of Chongqing and their beautiful people.
The Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg, a former Wehrmacht barracks of the Nazis and later headquarters of the US Army and NATO, are looking for an identity. Together with the Landscape architect Robin Winogrond, I realised a multi-channel sound installation. A re-staging of history by means of fragmentary sound events of the last 100 years.
"Landzine International Landscape Award"
With the kind support of ProHelvetia I was able to do a 4 week research trip in China.
I was able to connect and do interviews with artists like Carsick Cars, FAZI, Backspace, Hiperson, Lonely Leary, RunRunRun, Lur and many more. These helped me significantly to organize futher tours, collect material for further collaborations and work on my ideas for a Movie.
The hiss of a tape and muffled beats of a drum machine, which sound like from a jukebox of a roadhouse in the lost woods. Haunting synths sing like ghosts. A voice echoes like memories of the past, whether it was the 50s or the 80s, you can't remember. Something is falling out of time, out of place. Red silk on a TV-screen. White leather gloves.
“ la séduction, la nostalgie, la solitude, et, surtout, l’amour, l’amour, l’amour”
Radio Vostok
“Psychedelischer Disco-Vibe mit neuem Touch. Uffff”
Radio3Fach
“PARKER LEFTLOVER perform a surreal supernatural seduction”
White Light / White Heat
2018 mit David Bregenzer, Samuel Rauber gegründete halbfiktive Boyband CHIC. Langfristiges Künstlerkollektiv, das Pop-, Sub- und Hochkultur miteinander verbindet und sich performativ mit den Formen und Mechanismen der Popmusik auseinandersetzt.
Ausstellungen unter anderem in:
Centre Pasquart, Biel
Kunstmuseum Thun
Videokunst.ch
Schlachthaus Theater Bern
Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf
A music video I've made with my dear friends Flurina Leuchter (animations) and Elias Gamma (camera & editing) for the song Butterfly of my quintet Penkowski. Edgy and hilarious.
Parker Leftlover
China Tour 2023
09/02 Loop Festival XiAn
09/08 Yestoi Chengdu
09/12 Stereo Room Chongqing
09/17 He Tu Festival Nanjing
09/20 Yuyintang Shanghai
09/27 Dusk Dawn Club Beijing
WINNER OF THE AUDACITY AWARD 2021 at FILM FESTIVAL OLDENBURG
I did part of the sound design / foleys for the first full Length movie of Polish director Patrycja Planik and my long time working partners Dominik Krawiecki & Slawek Bendrat. FAGGOTS premiered at the Filmfestival Oldenburg 2021 and won the Audacity jury price.
In einer dystopischen post-pandemischen Realität überlebt nur eine Schar von gender-fluiden Charakteren. Eine groteske Beerdigung der letzten Frau der Erde, Maria Magdalena Wysocka, auch bekannt als Pink Mama, offenbart die wahre Natur der modernen Gesellschaft und leitet eine neue Ära ein. Planik und Krawiecki entwerfen eine Utopie, die wie der ultimative Albtraum rechtsextremer Fantasien anmutet. Diese furchtlose Attacke gegen Intoleranz ist nicht nur in Polen mutig und visionär.
In the third Album of Penkowski the amusement park and its attraction act as an image of our world. The opener "Liberal" starts distorted and pushy. Lyrics written by AI whip the listener trough the beginning of an album that, later more personally, shows the new turn of the band towards a sound that is driven by funky oscillating Bass-riffs, machinelike drums, razor sharp guitarlicks and the sometimes preaching, sometimes crooning voice. Songs in which the facade becomes reality and supposedly infinite possibilities expose our own solitude. The intransparent and hallucinatory imagery of the beautiful artwork by painter Daniel Schoch expands the unconventional sound of the band.
Listen to the full album here
Musik geschrieben von Leonard Evers (*1985)
Auftragswerk des Opernhauses Zürich
Nach dem Ende des Trojanischen Kriegs macht sich Odysseus auf den Heimweg nach Ithaka. Doch der Meeresgott Poseidon lässt Odysseus und seine Gefährten nicht so schnell an ihr Ziel gelangen und schickt sie auf eine Reise voller Abenteuer. Ganze zehn Jahre dauert es, bis der griechische Held endlich zu seiner Frau Penelope und seinem Sohn Telemachos zurückkehrt.
Since its foundation in 2018, Boyband CHIC has realized numerous exhibitions and performances. “Boyband CHIC - VR Expirience” is simultaneously a mini retrospectice and the lastest work of the collective.
"up & coming" article about the Project
Boyband VR Experience
I recorded the two songs “Night Walk” and “You Turn My Face to Another Day” at my studio in Biel when I was on Tour with the chinese Post-Punk Band FAZI. I also played synth and drummachine on the tracks.
Released on LP/CD & Digital on
Big Romantic Records,
Tokyo
Wenn der Sand von der Nagelfluh herunter rieselt, leise wie eine Sanduhr, hört man den Klang der Ewigkeit. Dann lässt es sich gut über einen Neubeginn nachdenken; über das Alter, die Träume, Ziele und über die Zeit, die so kompakt ist wie der Herrgottsbeton.
Hörspiel von Peter Weingartner
Aufnahmeregie: Päivi Stalder
Produktion: SRF 2021 - Dauer: 50'
Listen to it here
Video 4”01’
Der Ausdruck Strategie der Spannung bezeichnet einen Komplex aus verdeckten Maßnahmen zur Destabilisierung des gesellschaftlichen Gefüges oder Verunsicherung von Bevölkerungsteilen, einer Region oder eines Staates, ausgeführt oder gefördert durch staatliche Organe.
Watch it here
"People make clothes, and clothes make people" - Fashion has always accompanied mankind! It reflects, like religion and art, exemplarily the zeitgeist. Its purpose may be of a practical, ethical, sexual, aesthetic, or representative nature, allowing us to turn our inner self into a manifesto which we carry through life to the grave.
The dance theater piece “Fashion” by PINK MAMA THEATRE sheds light on all these aspects.
Website
The Music Video for the song Telephones by my band Penkowski. Released on our second LP "Please don't call me human". Shot in Lugano at Spazio Morel.
Directed by Radiana Basso
Watch it here
Neue akustische Corporate Identity für das Aarauer Ausbildungs-, Community- und Musik-Radio Kanal K. Sendungen und Musik fernab vom Mainstream.
Kanal K
The Split-Single series on Fiasko Ltd. brings Swiss and Chinese underground Music together and brings them to a new context.
Listen to the whole Catalogue here
It would have been a long time dream for me to play a tour in china. This one would have gone from Beijing to the border of North Corea, passing the east coast trough Shanghai, then westwards along the Yangtse river trough Wuhan and Chongqing, finally to Chengdu. 12 gigs in 14 days... Cancelled due to COVID regulations but still a big project of mine.
Large Project at Grosse Halle, Reithalle Bern.
Two actors and five dancers depict a world catapulting toward war; an eerie state of calm before the storm. An unavoidable tension seems to be kindling and no-one can predict when and to which extent it will inflame.
Eine Geschichte wie aus einem Horrorfilm aber sie ist wahr: Ein Zug der BLS rattert durch die finstere Nacht, die Bremsen funktionieren nicht, es geht nur noch bergab. Wenige Minuten bleiben zu entscheiden, wie der Zug gestoppt werden kann. Es kommt zu einem wuchtigen Aufprall – drei Menschen hatten keine Chance und verlieren ihr Leben.
Listen to it here
Livehörspiel 56”25’
Auftragsarbeit für werkhof3000 in Bern
The intervention went along lectures by the curator Geraldine Tedder, one lecture by Marc Atallah (director Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon) titled On World-Building: Pragmatics of Science Fiction and one lecture by art historian Toni Hildebrandt titled A World And Not The World, followed by a screening of Ben River’s essay film Slow Action (2010).
Listen to it here
The Theatremovie was a Collective Work of Kollektiv leerraum.offen contributing with artists of all genres. I recorded the sound on set and coworked on the sounddesign and final mix of the movie.
„Der Theaterfilm «#FollowTheRevolution – Eine Anleitung zum Aufstehen» ist keine Anleitung zur Revolution, sondern Anstoss zu Diskussionen. […] Ein Plädoyer für die Tätigkeit in einer Welt in der viele spüren, dass alles schief läuft, aber niemand etwas tut.“ - kultz.ch
Full Movie
In the cold Beijing-winter of 2017/18 I grabbed a small Casio keyboard, a delay pedal and recorded a small EP and played some concerts with the band “Backspace”.
Released digital Beijing
Listen to it here
Acting for a Musicvideo for the great swiss Trio Film 2.
Directed by Cassandra Schurtenberger
Watch it here
Experimenteller Kurzfilm 10”40’
Kryonik (kryos altgriechisch für 'Eis'): Ein Körper wird eingefroren um ihn in der Zukunft - sofern möglich - wiederbeleben zu können. Eine Scheinwelt zwischen Erinnerung & Vorahnung, ausgehend von Super8-Aufnahmen meines verstorbenen Grossvaters Albert Nyffenegger.
Watch it here
Inspiriert von Berechnungsfehlern und Unregelmässigkeiten geht das Stück dem Verhältnis von Logik und Intuition nach und sucht nach dem Menschlichen in der Computermusik.
Sinustöne und Impulse werden vom Computer getaktet und erzeugt, jedoch von Menschenhand gesteuert. Das Klangbild ändert sich graduell durch subtile Prozesse und der starre Takt wird durch Verschiebungen auf der Ebene der Zeit aufgebrochen.
Listen to it here
