Biography
Richard Koechli won the SWISS BLUES AWARD, the SWISS FILM AWARD (for the music to "Der Goalie bin ig"), the GERMAN MUSIC EDITION AWARD and was nominated for the PRIX WALO. His album "The Real Chill, Remembering J.J. Cale" (2020) received excellent reviews worldwide (even from Cale's closest friends), made it into the Blues Top-10 in France and the UK, and the video for the single "Sensitive Kind" is one of the most internationally successful CH music videos with over 2.5 million views.
At the end of 2021 Koechli's latest work "Holy Blues" was released - a bluesy and very personal examination of the subject of gospel, again in a double pack (album & book). As a single release a dreamlike interpretation of the Charlie Rich song "Feel Like Going Home" (in a duet with jazz and soul singer Bruno Amstad), and as a second single the surprise: an idiosyncratic, deeply touching version of the legendary "Schacher Seppli", perhaps the only Swiss Holy Blues song. With a 10-minute video produced in the USA, Koechli sent his Schacher Sepp on a world tour at the end of February 2022, linked to a "Help The Homeless" campaign (media release: https://richardkoechli.ch/de/news/132-schacher-sepp-help-the-homeless)
"Holy Blues" received excellent reviews in the professional world, reached #6 in the French blues charts, made it to #9 in the Swiss charts (best CH albums) and is played by numerous blues radios in the USA, England and France. The title song was recently used (along with other music by Richard Koechli) for the soundtrack of the new documentary film "Return to Alaska" by Beat Bieri, commissioned by Swiss Television SRF1 used.
Richard Koechli's latest multipack will be released on May 19, 2023 - a book about music and transcendence (in a German and an English edition), and at the same time the psychedelic gospel blues album "Transcendental Blues". Plus an 8-minute video clip produced in the USA (by "Relaxing Blues Music"). The single release "Love endures everything" (radio edit) will be released already on May 5, 2023.