Biography
Born in Erfurt, Germany, in 1979, Martin Sommer started writing and performing his own songs at the age of 16. Over the years, he has participated in many songwriter festivals and earned numerous prizes (1997-2005: total of 10 prizes and audience awards at songwriter festivals in Hoyerswerda, Brandenburg, Hildesheim, Kiel, Stuttgart, Zurich, Lübeck). His work has been portrayed in a feature broadcast on German public radio. Martin Sommer has officially released 2 albums, "Wort- & Tonschlag" (2003) and "Chansons" (2005) with self-penned material. Private recordings of his early work and concert bootlegs are in circulation as well.
Among Sommer's influences are German singer/songwriters and poets Reinhard Mey and Hannes Wader. When playing concerts, Sommer usually sings and plays an acoustic guitar, though the orchestration of his songs has become more complex over the years, both on his albums and in live performances, adding instruments such as harp, accordeon, violin, oboe, bass and percussion/light drums to the arrangements.
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In his songs, Sommer sings both light- and heavy-heartedly of love, dreams and the ups and downs of everyday life, painting little portraits of characters and situations. Musically, his styles range from pop and folk to excursions into bossa-nova, waltz and rap.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.