February:
In the quest for change Avignon goes to New York with Thalhofer. There he wants to write a musical about the story of a hapless Moscow kiosk owner named Adam. Out of desperation Adam decides to drink himself to death. The musical is supposed to open in Moscow and then go on tour in Europe.

March:
Initially, the cooperation with Nova Huta and the Russians is pretty constructive, but as time goes on it becomes increasingly muddy. Nova Huta tries to incorporate a personal story about separation and the Russians attempt to turn the whole thing into a comedic musical. They even go so far as to name it FEVER and hire a 10 piece dancgroupe without the Germans’ consent. Up to the last minute there are several versions, the three leads may not know their lines but that doesn’t keep them from developing oversized egos.

April:
One day before the premiere the musical receives big announcements in numerous Moscow newspapers. The lead actors get nervous and the only thing they can think of is to get incredibily drunk. They somehow make it through the performance. Even though a Moscow theater wants to show the musical the team decides unisono to put the project on halt for now.

June:
The famous Spanish festival FOTOESPANA invites Neoangin to perform his soundtrack of Symphony of a Great City on a big plaza.

August
Neoangin spends the summer in New York and starts recording new material. Having been so smart to leave all his instruments in Berlin, he had to do it with a rather reduced equipment and was very happy to find the free software garageband on his laptop. Trying to make the best out of it Neoangin decides to record an album with only musical sketches. He starts to experiment with midi files and discovers the weird microcosm of garage band presets.

November
Neoangin is returning to Villa Kurella studios for recording and surprises Mixer Norman Nitzsche with the genuine plan to record 26 songs in 3 days. The Idea was to do 7 songs each day (they had allotted 7 hours per day) and then invite producer Chris Imler to do one more song in an additional 7 hour-session. Chris came, saw, and caused mayhem, but thanks to him the loser-ballad “ I miss Diego “ became a shiny disco stomper with plenty of shalalas.

Jim and Fehmi Baumbach have hosted and curated the party series “who is afraid of capitalism” for several years. These unconventional events were conceived as the antithesis to Berlin’s increasingly commercial club scene. The concept is surprisingly simple: no sponsors, same pay for everyone, with a program consisting of equal parts bands/artists/djs/cartoonists. The motto was to gather semi-celebs from the art and music world regardless of any consequences. In the early stages these happenings would take place every 3 months. Almost 1000 people show up in 2005, bands and artists from all over Europe take turns every 15 minutes, and everyone agrees: “Capitalism is never friendly.”

Dezember
Shortly before the holiday season Neoangin and Nova Huta squeeze in a mini-tour in Switzerland, hoping to sell loads of merchandising. But their optimistic plans don’t pan out: the Swiss have already done all their Christmas shopping and the two artists have to return home with all their unsold stuff.

The Moscovites invited Neoangin to do an outrageous New Year’s Eve party together with badtaste. But the stars didn’t look so good for this shindig: by the late afternoon the hired local musicians are so inebriated that they stumble about the stage, barely holding on to their instruments, and the completely exaggerated cover charge of $100 attracts a strange audience, that cares more for food and drink than Jim’s lovingly built “wishing machine.” But Neoangin gives his all on the stage and last but not least he manages to turn the atmosphere around.