HASA Releases New Album STREIK, Blending Funk, Jazz And Swabian Dialect
Vocalists Ellen Reinhardt and Caro Saia lead ballads and duets on the band's latest release.
German band HASA has released its second album STREIK, blending funk, jazz, blues, reggae, and dialect lyrics under the banner 'SPACE POP FROM DÅHANNA.'
Combining the reimagined sound of the 70s with the sometimes tenderly sounding Swabian dialect, the band—also known as Heiner's All-Star Ensemble—blends elements including danceable jazz, rock, blues, reggae, and funk with dialect lyrics that, in their onomatopoeic playfulness, often sound like poems, sometimes in Swabian dialect, sometimes drawn from real life.
This SPACE POP FROM DÅHANNA is presented in a multimedia-enriched, passionately humorous stage show, including illustrated guides through the HASA universe with comics illustrated by Dieter Hermenau and the complete song lyrics as an aid to understanding.
Since the band's founding in the summer of 2017, the group has played numerous concerts, won the Baden-Württemberg Cabaret Prize 2022, and released the first instalment of its SPACE POP FROM DÅHANNA with its first album.
The second album, STREIK, named after the title track, was released on March 13, 2026, on CD and all streaming platforms.
The title track, STREIK, is described as a HASA hit in the best sense: set to a driving hip-hop groove, it features a powerful lament about the downsides of (auto)mobility, alternating breathtakingly with virtuosic ensemble passages, captivating whistles, and spoken-word quotations.
EWIG ON DREI DAG, an earworm sung by Ellen Reinhardt and Caro Saia, comes in a relaxed West Coast sound and lyrically features a mantra emanating from the back seat of a car, which the release notes should immediately trigger flashbacks to various holiday trips in all parents.
With MOON IN THE CLOUDS, HASA indulges its penchant for offbeat humor, paired with a driving groove in a Japanese-Swabian symbiosis. It begins with a couplet reminiscent of Japanese haiku poetry, the interpretation of which, in a Swabian New Age meditation monastery, is brought to light by the abbot and his novices, revealing surprising insights into the Tübingen subculture slang of the 1970s.
The album closes with THANK GOODNESS THAT WAS IT. Based on a quote from Goethe's Faust, an astronaut and a showgirl experience the various stages of farewell in fast-forward against an impressive Las Vegas backdrop, culminating in a captivating audio cinemascope outro.
Besides songs with hilarious lyrics, HASA's second album also extensively showcases the band's penchant for romantic ballads and hippie-folk duets by Ellen Reinhardt and Caro Saia, who, in addition to the humorous potential of the 'Sound of Swabian,' also coax very subtle, lyrical timbres and moods from it.
Lineup
Heiner Reiff - guitar, vocals, music & lyrics
Ralf Schuon - Keyboards, Vocals, Arrangements
Ellen Reinhardt - Space Toys, Vocals, Bass
Daniel Jakobi - Drums
Caro Saia - Vocals, Naughtylus
