Roland Zoss (born 2 August 1961)[1] is a songwriter, musician and novelist. He studied anthropology and literature in Bern and Avignon. He lives in the Aeolian Islands.
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 translations of the Leonard Cohen songs "First We Take Manhattan" ("Zersch näh me mer Manhattan"), "Halleluja" and the Elvis Presley song "In the Ghetto". He works with musicians and artists like Gottfried Helnwein, Michael Mish, Clare de Lune, Mauro Guiretti and Shirley Grimes. With Idan Raichel, 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.
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 Swiss German 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.
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 App.Youth Institute Munich/Germany
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.[2] 2015 Golden Crown award for the best children album.[3] ABC Dino was nominated in 2015 at the Frankfurt Book Fair as best children app, age 4-6