Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany 9th May 2026
She Past Away & Special Guest: Isla Ola
SHE PAST AWAY returned to Hamburg with a night of Darkwave and Post-pPunk intensity, joined by ISLA OLA at Markthalle. Minimal, driving rhythms, shadowy melodies, and a strict, almost ritualistic live presence turned the evening into something hypnotic and cathartic - less a concert than a descent into a beautifully lit underground.
Isla Ola
ISLA OLA is a German Coldwave / Darkwave duo from Dortmund, formed by Stefan and Jesmari. Their sound moves through the shadowy territory of Wave music, built on Stefan’s hypnotic synth rhythms, distorted guitar textures, and the deep, mournful voice of singer Jesmari. The duo started almost by accident after an attempt to form a band with friends did not work out, but their shared musical references and similar understanding of sound soon developed into ISLA OLA.
Their music combines melancholy, isolation, and dreamlike atmosphere, often drifting between heaviness and fragile light. Known especially for their live performances, ISLA OLA create an immersive stage presence where sound, voice, and blue haze seem to merge until the band almost disappears into the fog. Their discography includes releases such as ‘Nebelmond’, ‘Gelaufen’, ‘Wo Bist Du Hin?’ and ‘Zerteil Mein Herz!’, placing them firmly within the German underground Coldwave and Darkwave scene. https://www.facebook.com/IslaOla
Music & Performance
ISLA OLA opened the evening with a cold, hypnotic set that perfectly prepared the ground for the headliners. Their music was powerful - Darkwave, Coldwave, distorted guitars, pulsing electronics, and Jesmari’s deep, mournful voice cutting through the fog. The light, however, was probably the most difficult I have experienced so far: heavy haze, deep shadows, and constantly disappearing silhouettes. Well, this kind of experience is also needed.
The set moved through the band’s shadowy world of distance, longing, loss, and emotional grey zones. Songs like ‘Warum kommst Du nicht vorbei zu mir?’, ‘Alles Grau’, ‘Augen Körper Herz’, ‘Gelaufen’, ‘Nebelmond’, and ‘Versinken’ came from their debut album ‘Nebelmond’, building a dense atmosphere between melancholy and movement. ‘Rob me of Desire’ added a darker English-language moment, while ‘Zerteil mein Herz!’ and ‘Wo bist Du hin?’ brought sharper, more direct emotional tension toward the end of the set.
By the final song, ISLA OLA had turned the room colder, darker, and more electric - exactly the right state for SHE PAST AWAY to take over the night.
Setlist
01. Warum kommst Du nicht vorbei zu mir?
02. Alles Grau
03. Augen Körper Herz
04. Gelaufen
05. Durch den Nebel
06. Nebelmond
07. Rob me of Desire
08. Versinken
09. Zerteil mein Herz!
10. Wo bist Du hin?
She Past Away
SHE PAST AWAY formed in 2006 in Bursa, Turkey. The band’s Avant-Garde music and image gained underground attention internationally in 2010 with the release of the EP ‘Kasvetli Kutlama’. The early Post-Punk electronic sound gravitated to a darker Disco-influenced sound by the 2019 release of the third and most recent album, ‘Disko Anksiyete’. Vocalist / guitarist Volkan Caner played in Extreme Metal and Electronic bands in the early 1990s and moved into Darkwave by the end of the decade.
Unable to find fellow musicians interested in committing to this genre of music, he started composing songs alone, under the name PSYCHOMA. These songs later evolved into SHE PAST AWAY. Caner has paired with keyboardist and electronic percussionist Doruk Öztürkcan since 2015 for live performances. https://shepastaway.org
Music & Performance
SHE PAST AWAY, the Turkish dark-wave/post-punk duo of Volkan Caner and Doruk Öztürkcan, have always existed in a space of cold precision and emotional pressure: sharp guitars, vintage synth textures, drum-machine pulse, and Turkish lyrics delivered like fragments from a noir dream. Their music does not beg for attention. It stalks the room, waits in the dark, and then takes over.
Before the band appeared, the hall was already charged with an unexpected kind of electricity: songs by Viktor Tsoi were playing through the speakers. It was a striking moment - Russian-language songs echoing across a Hamburg crowd, and yet people in the room were singing along. It felt strangely perfect: post-Soviet melancholy meeting Turkish dark wave in a German venue, different languages tied together by the same cold pulse. Then SHE PAST AWAY walked on stage, and everything dropped into half-light.
This was Post-Punk in its purest modern form: no excess, no fake drama, no unnecessary movement. SHE PAST AWAY do not perform chaos - they control it. Everything lives in shades, in semi-tones, in half-shadows: in the sound, in the lighting, in the aura of the band itself. The set opened with ‘İçimdeki Düşman’, from the 2026 album ‘Mizantrop’, and it immediately set the tone: internal conflict, paranoia, and the enemy within. The new material carried a colder, more introspective weight, and the audience received it not as a “new songs” section, but as a continuation of the same dark mythology SHE PAST AWAY have been building for years.
‘Mizantrop’ includes tracks such as ‘İçimdeki Düşman’, ‘Mizantrop’, ‘Sessiz Orman’, ‘İnziva’, and ‘Kaygan Kayalıklar’, several of which formed the spine of this Hamburg set. ‘Durdu Dünya’ shifted the room into motion - one of those tracks where the beat feels both club-oriented and doomed. From there, ‘Katarsis’ hit with exactly the force its title promises: a purge, a release, a controlled collapse. The crowd responded with growing intensity, not only dancing but almost moving as one body. SHE PAST AWAY’s audience is not loud in a classic rock way; it is devoted, concentrated, and physical. The energy rises from the floor, not from shouting.
‘Mizantrop’ was one of the key moments of the night. As the title track of the new album, it felt like a statement piece: misanthropy not as pose, but as atmosphere - a dark meditation on distance, isolation, and the human condition. The song’s live version had more muscle than on record, with the bass pulse cutting through the room and Volkan Caner’s voice sounding severe, detached, almost prophetic. The middle of the set moved between different eras of the band. ‘Asimilasyon’ and ‘Katarsis’ come from Narin Yalnızlık, while ‘Durdu Dünya’ and ‘İzole’ are connected with Disko Anksiyete. Earlier classics such as ‘Ritüel’, ‘Kasvetli Kutlama’, ‘Ruh’, ‘İnsanlar’, ‘Bozbulanık’, and ‘Sanrı’ reach back to Belirdi Gece and the band’s first period, when their sound was already fully formed: cold, direct, and unmistakable
‘Ritüel’ was exactly that - a ritual. The lights narrowed, the rhythm locked in, and the audience answered with full devotion. This is one of the reasons SHE PAST AWAY remain among the strongest representatives of contemporary post-punk: they understand repetition not as limitation, but as hypnosis. A guitar line repeats until it becomes architecture. A drum pattern continues until it becomes fate. ‘Sessiz Orman’, ‘İnziva’, and ‘Kaygan Kayalıklar’ brought the new album’s emotional landscape into focus. These songs feel less like places you visit and more like states you fall into: silent forests, retreat, slippery cliffs. Live, they sounded more spacious and dangerous, with the venue’s darkness working in their favour. The themes of withdrawal, isolation, and inner pressure were not explained - they were staged through sound.
The audience was especially euphoric during the band’s hits. ‘Kasvetli Kutlama’ carried that familiar dark celebration energy, while ‘Ruh’ opened a deeper emotional current. ‘İnsanlar’ was one of the strongest crowd moments: minimal, sharp, and instantly recognisable. People were singing, moving, raising hands - not in a festival-pop way, but with the kind of recognition that belongs to cult music. The encore pushed the night even higher. ‘Bozbulanık’ returned the set to a rawer, older darkness, while ‘İzole’ brought the more dance-driven ‘Disko Anksiyete’ pulse back into the room. ‘Sanrı’ sounded like a fever dream, and closing with ‘Hayaller?’ was a beautiful choice: fragile, haunted, and open-ended. The question mark in the title felt almost visible in the air.
By the end, SHE PAST AWAY had not broken the darkness - they had shaped it. The concert was not about spectacle. It was about control, mood, and pressure. A perfect Post-Punk night: cold lights, heavy shadows, bodies moving in rhythm, and songs that feel like they have been carved out of anxiety itself.
Setlist
01. İçimdeki Düşman
02. Durdu Dünya
03. Katarsis
04. Mizantrop
05. Asimilasyon
06. Ritüel
07.mSessiz Orman
08. Kasvetli Kutlama
09. İnziva
10. Ruh
11. Kaygan Kayalıklar
12. İnsanlar
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13. Bozbulanık
14. İzole
15. Sanrı
16. Hayaller?
All Pictures by Iryna Kalenska
