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Roland Zoss (born 1951 in Bern) living on the Aeolian Islands is a songwriter and novelist. Zoss studied anthropology and literature in Bern and Avignon.

The poet started his songwriter career in 1976 in Berne/Switzerland. After travelling the world, performing in the "Troubadour" in L.A. he made success in Europe in 2004 with the album Härzland ('heartland') with Swiss German translations of the Leonard Cohen song First We Take Manhattan (Zersch näh me mer Manhattan) and the Elvis Presley song In the Ghetto. He worked with many European and American musicians and artists like Gottfried Helnwein, Michael Mish, Marta Gomez, Clare de Lune. Between 1999 and 2012 he released more than a dozen albums for kids, some in English, becoming one of the most known Swiss German singers for children. After two highly acclaimed recordings Muku-Tiki-Mu and Schlummerland, the APP "ABC-Xenegugeli" an international ABC app for kids plus e-books and songs in four languages became in 2012 a worldwide success. Roland Zoss also released the multi awarded radio play trilogy about Swiss mythologies Jimmy-Flitz ('a journey through Switzerland') in 2007, starring his famous mouse Jimmy Flitz on airlines. In 2010, the book Jimmy Flitz, die Schweizermaus ('the Swiss mouse') was released. Roland Zoss represents Switzerland in his native Swiss dialect on the world music children's CD European Playground with the song "Baerengeburi-Bubuland" and "Krokodil". Several singers covered his tunes in english or french.

Discography [edit]

   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 Feature “Die Insel hinterm Mond”
   1998 CD „Saitenstrassen“, songs and novel about the Seventies
   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 music, UNESCO patronage
   2002 Güschi 1-6, a Swiss dialect radio play serie
   2003-06 «Liedermärli», 8 CDs fary tales musicals in Swiss dialect
   2004 «Härzland», CD, Rock-Pop-Poetry in Swiss with local stars as Linard Bardill, Yvonne Moore, Carin Lavey, Djamila Tahar-Chaouch, Christoph Kohli SPAN, 
   2004 «Schlumberland» Lullabys with Shirley Grimes and Asita Hamidi with sound ingeneer and harp of Andreas Vollenweider, incl. Bärengeburi Bubuland on putmayo world music European playground
   2007 «Jimmy-Flitz, the Swiss mouse» a radio play trilogy 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"-Song on Putumayo Sing-Along Sampler. 2012 "ÄngelsMusic" meditation music about 9 angels.

Awards [edit]

The singer and novelist got in 1993 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 and German. 2010 the Swiss post honoured the work of Roland Zoss with a Jimmy Flitz stamp.

External links [edit]

• http://www.rolandzoss.com/bibliographie/world_xenegugeli.htm
• http://www.rolandzoss.com
• http://www.a-d-s.ch/home/index.php?id=431&alph=z&set_alph=1
• http://www.prolitteris.ch/en/about-us/short-profile/
• http://www.rolandzoss.com/en/bibliographie/tinselbuch.htm
• http://www.rolandzoss.com/en/bibliographie/tkindturm.htm
• http://www.mx3.ch/artist/Songwriting
• http://www.jimmyflitz.ch/index_e.htm
• http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putumayo_World_Music
• https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/abc-xenegugeli/id487644147?mt=8