Lounge? Drum & Bass? Neo-Soul? Easy Listening? Progressive Pop? Electronica? NuJazz? Before you agonize how to label sounds and songs of bartmes listen to your guts and the answer is simple: Intelligent heartfelt soulful music never predictable and always tasty. The sensual wooden sound of a bassclarinet, the futuristic retro sound of an old hammond and all kinds of old school keyboards, the hard driving beats of a young genius jazz and groove drummer, mesmerising single note guitar, funkiest basslines and the beautiful and authentic voice of a highly gifted singer blend organicly with computergenerated soundideas of another dimension and make you move and listen and wonder and smile.
Bartmes was one of 10 selected German bands to showcase their music at the German Jazz Expo JazzAhead 2014 in Bremen and participated at diverse Festivals such as Enjoy-Jazz/Heidelberg and Sudtirol Jazzfestival.

Fola Dada (vocal) was born in Stuttgart/Germany. She learns tap and jazz dance as member of the prestigious New York Citys dance school/Germany. Fola attends her vocal study at the Academy of Music Mannheim and
plays in Germany and abroad with Hellmut Hattler, Katja Riemann, Edo Zanki, Joy Dena Lane, Cassandra Steen, JSRG tab, Lillo Scrimalli, Max Herre, Frank Kuruc, etc. She was vocal coach at "American Idol" and "Super Talent"
and teaches voice at the conservatories of Freiburg, Stuttgart and Nüremberg.

Johannes Bartmes (hammond) was born in Biel / Switzerland. He studies jazz and composition in New York with Maria Schneider, Kenny Werner, Sir Roland Hanna, Charles Tolliver, Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Fred Hersh, Cecil Bridgewater, Reggie Workman, Jerry Gonzales, Jamie Haddat, Bernard Purdie, Walter Mossman, Gunther Shuller, George Cables, Gary Dial, Henry Martin, Armen Donelian. He played with Fola Dada, Frank Spaniol, Seb Merk, Kosho, Kim Sanders, Jimmy Heath, Reggie Workman, Tony Malabe, Ed shuller / jon sass / john bollinger / seb gramss / markus bodenseh / holger nesweda / erwin ditzner / christina Lux, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Curt Hasselbrink, Joo Kraus, Fabio Morghera, DJ Mahmut, Holger Nesweda, Hans Ermel, Jason Dimatteo. He works on diverse bandprojects, composes music for theatre / dance / film and teaches workshops at the Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg and Deutsche POP Frankfurt. He owns the record label blisstone.

Frank Spaniol (bassclarinet) was born in Saarland/Germany, studied jazz at Hochschule für Musik Mainz
and since 2013 he lives in Berlin and plays in Benedikt Reidenbachs project. He composes and do the arrangements for his own project Spaniol4 (Second Prize Award of Neuen Deutschen Jazzpreises 2008). Other projects and Cooperations are the Quartettalbum Acoustic Jazz (2004 Rodenstein Records, with Markus Bodenseh, Ulf Kleiner, Sebastian Merk) in colaboration with Saarland Radio, Polyphonix (with Thomas Siffling), Diethelm Duo (mit Ulf Kleiner), DePhazz (Daily Lama, 2002). He cooperates with Ernie Hammes and Johannes Bartmes (Me We, Fante-Records). He also plays in Saarland with Roland Gebhard and in the Christoph Mudrichs Europool Orchestra.

Oli Rubow (drums) was born in Waiblingen/Germany. He studied drums with Udo Dahmen at the "Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst". Oli is a skilled and creative performer in the modern club music scene and he is interested in music like trip-hop, R&B, house, drum&bass and broken beats. He developpes his own style of imitating the sound and aesthetic of electronic music and plays usually programmed grooves/loops on his minimalistic acoustic drum set.
artists he performed and/or recorded with:
Ayla, Bürger Lars Dietrich, Christian Prommer's Drumlesson, DaNaCeE, De Phazz, Dieter Seelow, Dublex Inc., El Houssaine Kili, Die Fantastischen Vier, Phil Fuldner, Funkbrueder, Marla Glen, Hellmut Hattler ("Kraan", "Tab Two"), hr-Bigband, Marque, Netzer, ndr-Bigband, DJ Illvibe, Wolfgang Schmid ("Passport"), Turntablerocker (Michi Beck & DJ Thomilla).

Sebastian Merk (drums) was born in Frankfurt/Germany. He was rewarded with a scholarship from the city of Frankfurt to attend workshops in New York City. His teachers were Keith Copeland and Jo Thönes at the Fransz-Lizt School of Music in Weimar. He studies at the Hans Eisler Conservatory in Berlin and plays with Lee Konitz, Till Brönner, Ack van Rooyen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eddie Henderson, Don Friedman, Mark Murphy, Johannes Enders and Ernie Watts.
Tours: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Central and Southamerica, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Malaysia, Turkey, U.K., U.S. and Russia.
He appears on over 40 CD Recordings and played on several international Festivals (German Jazzfestival, Jazzfest Berlin, Jazzbaltica, Gexto Jazzfestival, Stuttgart Jazz Open ,Neuer Deutscher Jazzpreis, u.v.a.. Projects: „MERKUR“, Johannes Enders Trio/Zeitgeistmaschine, Kempendorff/Lang/Merk, Spaniol4, Walter Lang Trio, Gee Hye Lee Trio, Kai Brückners "Micro Bazaar" and Bartmes.
He cooperates in diverse projects with Kalle Kalima, Carsten Daerr, Pepe Berns, Ronny Graupe, Sebastian Studnitzky, Michael Wollny, Tilman Ehrhorn, Silke Eberhard, Daniel Erdmann, John Schröder, Uli Kempendorff, Matthias Schriefl, Christian Weidner and many more.
Since 2006 he is composing for is own Band „MERKUR“ which streches the Elbow from Contemporary Jazz to Alternative Rock.
Since October 2010 Sebastian Merk holds a professorship for Jazz/Rock/Pop drumming at the HfM „Carl Maria von Weber“ in Dresden.