Florian Herzog

Florian Herzog has already made a name for himself beyond the borders of Cologne. Not least because his journey took him via Maastricht all the way to New York. Along the way, he found collaborators who continue to help shape his musical output to this day. The best example of this is his trio project with Lesley Mok on drums and percussion from Brooklyn and M Alberto on vocals and saxophone from the Netherlands. Under the name Vehicle/Passenger, the band explores the interplay between spoken word and sound textures. Radical poetry and political content are by no means a by-product of this. The trio creates a charged tension between the past, present and future of experimental music, free jazz, hip-hop, live electronics and poetry. Yet this is just one of many projects in Florian Herzog’s CV. He is also a key member of the groups Trillmann, Room Another and Just Another Foundry. *Almost Natural* is the most recent album to have been entirely written and produced by him, released in 2024. Recorded as a quartet, the album showcases the dynamism of contemporary jazz. The second album, featuring Chaerin Im on keyboards, Sebastian Gille on saxophone and Leif Berger on drums, is due for release in October 2026. “Even though these projects arise from my own impulse, they are based on trust and friendship and become something greater than the sum of their parts. That’s why collectives are my preferred way of working,” says the musician himself.

Despite his international focus, Florian Herzog is based in Cologne, where he also curates his own series of events. He has warm words for his musical community: “For me, Cologne is above all a collegial, generous scene where people support one another, collaborate over the long term and are perceived externally as a united scene. As curator of the CGNYC series, I try to give something back to this scene and connect it with the New York avant-garde.”