In a recent telephone interview, after playing to a lively crowd of several hundred in Tashkent, the two were keen to stress that neither of them is represented on the German hit parade. 'I'm part of the independent scene,' says Morgenstern, 32, who regularly tours Europe. 'People who like electronic music come to my shows. There are usually about 200 people there, which is enough for me.'

'My band is considered 'alternative',' says Hecker, 36, who is a musical all-rounder, being handy with guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. 'We play in a classic rock'n'roll band way. We make rock hymns. There are no special effects in our shows.'

Both are backed by their regular bands on this tour. Despite her embrace of electronic instruments and recording and mixing technology, Morgenstern insists on using musicians on stage. 'Musicians play guitar and drum on stage, and I handle keyboards and drum programming,' says the programming whiz, who engineered her first albums and EPs herself. 'I don't want to be performing electronic music with a lot of playback. I've tried that before and it's quite cold. Live players add warmth and a sense of euphoria, and allow for some improvisation and immediate reaction to the crowd response. And I love it when we surprise each other in a live group.

'In studio work, I like to use guest musicians now, too, as you get a fresh perspective; and I find this is helpful for mixing, too. I was able to work with Pole [Stefan Betke] - a top electronic musician, who mixed my last album [Nichts Muss] and half of the one before that.'

Hecker, something of an anglophile when it comes to rock idols (he cites Radiohead, Travis and US band Granddaddy among his favourites), insists on English-language lyrics. 'I only sing in German in spoof songs,' he says.

Morgenstern used to sing exclusively in English, too, a decade and more ago, when she was in a band in Hamburg. But, she says, like several other German performers, she moved into native-language songwriting after the domestic success of rock band Blumfeld. 'Their music was a bit pessimistic, but really showed the German audience that it was OK to use their own language.'

But is using German a barrier for Morgenstern, when touring foreign countries? 'Sixty per cent of my work has lyrics, but the rest is instrumental,' she says. 'On this tour, I've seen people really reacting positively to the music. There is a gap without understanding the lyrics, but it's a very small one. Non-French speakers have enjoyed modern French-language music for years without catching song meanings.'

Tickets for the local concert have been selling well at the time of writing, according to Ho. 'The young local public is our core target for most of our events,' she says, 'as the Goethe-Institut's mission is to foster cultural exchange.'

'So far, more than 80 per cent of our patrons are local Chinese, among which about five per cent are students of the institute. Actually, quite a few of my French-speaking local Chinese [who have spent years in France] and Japanese friends booked tickets as soon as it was announced - and they didn't know that Hecker would sing in English, so language does not seem to be an issue.'

Both musicians agree that Berlin is the city for happening bands in Germany. It's an unbiased opinion, too, because neither is from there. 'Cologne and Munich have big music scenes, too,' says Morgenstern. 'But the record labels and audience in Berlin are much more open to experimentation.

'Apart from electronic music, there is a lot of hip-hop, mostly coming from Turkish artists,' she says. 'A few bands from foreign countries are now based there, like Peaches and Gonzalez, both from Canada.'

Morgenstern says the tour has provided plenty of surprises. 'Tel Aviv was great. I am so pleased that German artists are accepted by Israel. I met a lot of young people there who have totally got over the [Holocaust] past and we talked openly about that.'

'And Seoul, where a lot of fans have bought my albums,' Hecker says. 'The most surprising thing that has happened on tour so far? Getting robbed by Russian policemen in Moscow. They searched me in the street, and it was only later that I realised my wallet and mobile phone had been taken.'

Hopefully, artist and audience memories of the Hong Kong gig will be a little more positive.

Barbara Morgenstern and Maximilian Hecker play Queen's Club in Central, tomorrow, 8pm. Tickets: $100 (including one drink) from Goethe-Institut, 14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Rd, Wan Chai, tel: 2802 0088; and Queen's Bar & Disco, 1/F, Queen's Theatre, Theatre Lane, Central, tel: 2522 7773