Roland Zoss (born 2 August 1961) is a

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. He studied

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

and

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

. He lives in the

Aeolian Islands The Aeolian Islands ( ; ; ), sometimes referred to as the Lipari Islands or Lipari group ( , ) after their largest island, are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, said to be named after Aeolus, the mythical ruler of ...

Songwriter and novelist

Roland Zoss started his songwriter career in the late 1970s in Switzerland and Germany. After travelling the world, performing in hotspots as the Troubadour in L.A., he made success in Europe in 2004 with the album ''Härzland'' (Heartland) with

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

translations of the

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

songs " First We Take Manhattan" ("Zersch näh me mer Manhattan"), " Halleluja" and the

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

song "

In the Ghetto "In the Ghetto" (originally titled "The Vicious Circle") is a 1969 song written by Mac Davis and recorded by Elvis Presley. It was a major hit released in 1969 as a part of Presley's comeback album, ''From Elvis in Memphis'', and was also relea ...

". He works with musicians and artists like Gottfried Helnwein, Michael Mish, Clare de Lune, Mauro Guiretti and Shirley Grimes. With

Idan Raichel Idan Raichel (, ; b. 12 September 1977) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and musician known for his "Idan Raichel Project" (Hebrew: ), distinctive for its fusion of electronics, traditional Hebrew texts, and diverse musical influences. Prior ...

, Anna Murphy, Marta Gomez he is producing a children's world music lullabies album, ''Slumberland''. The latest work is two song albums ''Baumlieder'' about the mythology and character of 28 trees. He was the first singer to compose an only tree songs album and put them into music. A children's book about the secret of the trees with Swiss mouse ''Jimmy Flitz, das Geheimnis der Baeume'' comes with it. Plus various novels, including the awarded: ''The Island Beyond the Moon''.

Swiss Mouse Jimmy Flitz

Between 1999 and 2020, he released three dozen song albums and books for children, some in English, some Spanish, some French, becoming one of the most known

singers for children. His brand became the mouse Jimmy Flitz known in the multi-awarded radio play series about Swiss mythologies ''Jimmy Flitz'' ("a journey through Switzerland") in 2007, starring his famous mouse on airlines. In 2010, the book ''Jimmy Flitz, die Schweizermaus'' (The Swiss Mouse) was released. Zoss represents Switzerland in his native Swiss dialect on the world music children's CD ''European Playground'' with the songs "Baerengeburi-Bubuland" and "Krokodil". Some songs are covered in English, French and Spanish.

Swiss ABC Dino ''Xenegugeli''

After three highly acclaimed recordings, ''Muku-Tiki-Mu'', ''Schlummerland'' and JimmyFlitz-'' Swiss Christmas'', in 2014 the app "ABC Dino Xenegugeli" became a worldwide success. The international educational app for children shows handcrafted art pictures, animated and combined with animal songs to each letter of the alphabet in five languages, plus e-books. The ABC Dino was nominated at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 as best children app, age 4-6. The German Youth Institute Munich does "highly recommend" the Ap
Youth Institute Munich/Germany

Discography

*1981 LP ''Roland Zoss'', cover art work by Gottfried Helnwein *1983 LP ''Sternstunde'' *1985 LP ''Die Ewigkeit klopft an'' *1989 CD ''Fly my soul'', ©RZ 004/RZ 005 & videoclip *1993 Radio feature and e-book ''Die Insel hinterm Mond'' (The Island beyond the moon) *1998 CD ''Saitenstrassen'', songs and novel about the 1970s *1999 CD ''ABC Xenegugeli'', 28 animal songs, incl. ''Krokodil'' 2012 on a Putumayo world music album *2001 CD 1 & 2 ''Muku-Tiki-Mu'', world children's music, UNESCO patronage *2002 ''Güschi'' 1-6, a Swiss dialect radio play series *2003-06 ''Liedermärli'', 8 CDs fairy tales, musicals in Swiss dialect *2004 ''Härzland'', CD, rock-pop-poetry in Swiss with local stars Linard Bardill, Yvonne Moore, Carin Lavey, Djamila Tahar-Chaouch, Christoph Kohli SPAN, *2004 ''Schlumberland'', lullabies with Shirley Grimes and Asita Hamidi with sound engineer and harp of Andreas Vollenweider, incl. ''Bärengeburi Bubuland'' on Putmayo world music ''European playground'' *2007 ''Jimmy Flitz, the Swiss mouse'' a radio play series with Swiss stars. *2009 ''Jimmy Flitz-Hits'', CD *2011 ''SingDing'', songs about the secret live of things. *2012 ''Xenegugeli GOLD-ABC'', 26 new animal songs. Release of "Krokodil" on Putumayo Sing-Along Sampler. *2012 ''ÄngelsMusic'' meditation music about 9 angels. *2013 ''Jimmy Flitz ChinderWiehnacht'', a Swiss Christmas musical with local stars and choirs: Steff la Cheffe, Tinu Heiniger, Christine Lauterburg (Jodel). Best children's album award 2015! *2015 ''Jimmy Flitz - a trip to Helvetia'' and ''A mouse goes into the parliament'' radio plays part 5 and 6 with Pedro Lenz,

Eluveitie Eluveitie ( ; )Chrigel Glanzmann: "Eluveitie is a name in Gaulish language, which is an ancient Celtic language. Since it's not a living language anymore, nobody really knows how it's pronounced like. All we have today of this language is scient ...

, Steff la Cheffe, Knackeboul, Shem Thomas, Christine Lauterburg and more. Award "Golden Crown" best children's album 2015! *2009 ''Jimmy Flitz-Hits 2'', CD *2018/19 ''Baumlieder - Tree Songs 1 and 2'', 28 songs about trees on two albums

Awards

In 1993, Zoss received a literary award for the Aeolian tale and e-book ''The Island beyond the Moon'' and a dozen Golden Crown awards for his unique music for children. Several awards for the ''ABC Xenegugeli'' a multilingual ABC app, book and songs in English, Spanish, French, German and Swiss German. In 2010, the Swiss postal service honoured the work of Zoss with a Jimmy Flitz stamp. 2015 Golden Crown award for the best children album. ''ABC Dino'' was nominated in 2015 at the Frankfurt Book Fair as best children app, age 4-6

References