Staying in Munich (München) for the time being we are looking at a few bands representing a popular style of music in Germany inspired by Medieval music. The most famous of those bands is Faun, who describe their genre as pagan folk or Neo-Medieval. They were formed in 1998, sing in a variety of languages including German (incl. Middle High German and Low German), English, Latin, Greek, Scandinavian languages (such as Finnish and old Norse) and their instrumentation consists of Celtic harp, nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, citterns, flutes plus others. Here's a song called Walpurgisnacht, which is a rite performed on the eve of Mayday, where witches meet on The Brocken mountain to hold revels with the devil, from their 2014 album Luna:
From the same genre, but with more folk rock we have Schandmaul, who started at the same time in Munich, combining elctric guitar and bass with the likes of hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes and shawm. Here's a song called Der Teufel Hat den Schnapps Gemacht (The devil made the booze) from their 2014 album Unendlich:
Closer to their Medieval roots remain the ensemble Estampie, which were founded in 1985 on the basis of playing Medieval music from a variety of European cultures, including Nordic or in their guise of The Al Andaluz Project Islamic and Jewish influences from Iberia. Here's the opening track of their 2013 album Secrets of the North called Linden So Grön (Lime trees so green): Jazz quartet Cuadro Nuevo was formed in 1996 in Gstadt on the Chiemsee lake and combines various global styles, in particular Tango, Musette, Flamenco and what they describe as a lovely dedusted film music and an almost faded Italy. Here's a tune from their 2020 album Mare called Ragazzo Samba: On the final leg of our journey around Bavaria we are heading to Oberstaufen, where jazz fusion band Kerberbrothers Alpenfusion come from. Formed around 3 brothers who grew up in a folk music family they combine traditional Bavarian sounds of alphorn, zithers and hammered dulcimer interspersed with some yodelling together with some jazz rhythms and improvisations. Weird combination, but it kind of works, although the jazz elements generally dominate. Here is a song called Jodler Blues from their 2012 album Rising Alps:
That's it from Bavaria for now, next we are heading into the south-western state of Baden-Würtemberg. As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.
We arrive in Bayern or Bavaria on our virtual trip. I have always been very suspect of this state. Traditionally the Bavarians have always been closest to the stereotype of Germans, lack of humour, lederhosen, Octoberfest with ladies in dirndls serving beer in 1 litre jugs, etc... My ultimate Bayern experience was many years ago when I visited a friend deep in the Bavarian mountains, who was doing a placement as a forester and living in a log cabin. One day we were invited by the woodworkers who were celebrating the day of their patron saint for a breakfast. As we arrived on my friends Heinkel scooter even deeper in the forest, we were greeted by 5 portly men with bushy moustaches and in Lederhosen and Tyrolean hats and served a breakfast of pretzels, white sausages and beer... at 9 am!
As we were sitting and eating and drinking I was having trouble following the conversation as it was held in the broadest Bavarian dialect. So being slightly bored I cracked open another beer. My friend raised an eyebrow and said: "having another beer this early?". To which I flippantly replied: "Well Bavarian beer is alcohol-free anyway," referring to the fact that Bavarian beer is slightly lighter than Northern German Pilsener styles. That of course offended our host who promptly challenged me to a drinking competition. Thankfully we ran out of beer before I slid under the table. I've been avoiding Bavaria ever since.
Anyway back to the music, first stop is Fürstenfeldbruck just west of Munich where the band Biermösl
Blasn were founded in 1976 by brothers Hans, Christoph and Michael Weil. At first glance they are your typical Bavarian folk band, dressed in traditional garb, singing in Bavarian and yodelling accompanied by accordion and alphorns. However their lyrics are satirical and very political, protesting against nuclear power, environmental destruction and political corruption. Due to the dominant political party of Bavaria being the right wing Christian Social Union, they were long banned by Bavarian state radio. I saw them live at the anti-nuclear festival in Wackersdorf in 1986 I keep mentioning. Incidentally here is a photo of myself being at the festival:
Myself on the right
When during their set the power failed, they simply grabbed their alphorns and were heard even without amplification at the back of the 100,000 crowd. It sounded something like this:
And here a live performance of their interpretation of the traditional Bavarian dance the Schuhplattler or as they call it, the Kung Fu-Plattler:
Moving on to the capital of Bavaria, Munich or München. Staying on the traditional theme we meet folk band Fraunhofer Saitenmusik, whose members first met at an historic Munich pub called Fraunhofer. They play instrumental numbers on a number of stringed instruments such as the hammered dulcimer, harp, guitar, various zithers and double bass. Their repertoire includes folk tunes from all over Europe, such as Ireland, Scandinavia and the Balkans as well as from more local alpine traditions. Here's them playing Appenzeller Choscht in a typical Bavarian pub:
Right, let's leave stuffy pubs behind and find something a bit fresher. Contemporary Balfolk duo TradTöchter (Trad daughters) consists of fiddle players Vivien Zeller and Ursula Suchanek. They re-interpret traditional songs and tunes and pen their own material in a lively and fresh manner. Their music is currently not available as a download, but they are promising to put it on BandCamp soon. Their only album to date Liebeslieder im Rahmen der Möglichkeiten (Love songs within the realms of possibilty - sounds like a good title for lockdown...). Here is a wee tune, which doesn't feature on the album, Warten aud den Meister (Waiting for the master):
Now for some yodelling, but not as you know it. Multi-instrumentalist and 'voice acrobat' Albin Paulus was born in Munich in 1972 of Austrian decent. His speciality is the Jews harp as well as yodelling, body percussion and overtone singing. He sometimes performs solo sometimes with his band Auli, which makes his performances something of an Alpine version of Riverdance. Quite spectacular really. Here is the band version of his song Maijodler, which features on the 2019 album Voices of the Ancestors:
Here is the solo version of the same song, which skill-wise is even more impressive, yodelling and playing Jews harp simultaneously and doing some body percussion:
We'll leave it at that and continue our journey around Bayern next time. In the meantime you follow my virtual trip on my Tripline map.
Next we are heading south to Rheinland-Pfalz or Rhineland-Palatinate and our first stop is Bad Kreuznach where harpist and experimental musician Rüdiger Oppermann was born in 1954. He specialises in the Celtic harp or more specifically a custom made clàrsach with gold plated bronze strings with a special mechanism that allows him to bend notes. His style is best described as New Age with various global influences such as Celtic or South Asian notes and some free jazz. Here's a tune from his 1998 album Fragile Balance called Riding a Horse With 5 Legs:
Folk trio Reinig, Braun & Böhm come from Landau in the heart of the Palatinate region and sing traditional songs in their local dialect. As the spring has sprung here's a wee song from their 2004 album Johreszeide (Seasons) called E Neies Friehjohr Kummt ins Land (A new spring is coming over the land) with some typical landscapes in the background:
Next we are heading to Frankenthal where we meet singer/songwriter Willi Brausch. He terms himself as a cultural and wine ambassador for the Palatinate region. He lists his influences as Creedens Clearwater Revival, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, but sings mostly self-penned songs in his local dialect these days. Whenever I play in public (which isn't very often) I usually quip that I see Bob Dylan as a musical idol of mine. As there's a ripple of applause comes from the audience I add: "Like Dylan I can't sing or play the guitar either..." Anyway, here is a song by Brausch from his 2017 album Bunde Hunde (meaning multi-coloured dogs referring to a German phrase which literally translates 'well-known like a multi-coloured dog'). The song is called Bring Misch Häm (Take me home), an ode to his home region where the girls are pretty and the wine is sweet:
There's a saying in Germany that the people of the state of Hesse(n) don't sing and my research seems to confirm that, as I couldn't find much. Maybe they are too busy shovelling money in the financial quarter of Frankfurt. The only act I know of is another band I saw at the anti-nuclear festival I have mentioned in the last previous posts, rock band Die Rodgau Monotones from a place called Rodgau just east of Frankfurt. They started off in 1977 and mix in some of their dialect in their lyrics. Their song from the early days Die Hesse Komme (The Hessians are coming) has essentially overtaken the official state anthem and replaced it in the mind of most people. Here is an early live version of it, together with 80's mullets and all:
That's it for today, next we are heading into Bayern (Bavaria), the land of lederhosen, dirndl, beer and white sausages... In the meantime you can follow my virtual road trip on my tripline map.
Next we are heading to Düsseldorf where possibly the internationally most famous Krautrock band hails from, Kraftwerk. They formed in 1970 around Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, who are considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music. They were amongst the first to experiment with synthesizer driven music with basic repetitive rhythms, drum machines and vocoders. Here is a live version of their 1975 song Radioactivity from the album of the same name:
And talking about radioactivity, I also saw punk-rock band Die Toten Hosen at the legendary anti-nuclear festival in 1986. They are also very much from Düsseldorf. The name of the band literally translates as the dead trousers, which is a reference to a German phrase meaning dead boring or nothing happening. They have been touring pretty much non-stop since 1980 and their concerts are very much the opposite of dead boring. Here is a recent live performance of their song Du Lebst Nur Einmal (You only live once), which features on their 2019 live album Zuhause Live: Das Laune der Natour-Finale:
I promised you some German folk as well, so here comes folk trio Fiedel Michel, who were formed 1973 in Münster inspired by the big folk revival of the time. Here's a pair of polkas from their early days called Mecklenburger Polka and Kreuzpolka with some pictures of the Mecklenburg region:
And a popular anti-war and protest song against the power of the nobility and church from the First World War called Mein Michel, which features on their 1994 compilation album Retrospective:
Singer/songwriter Hannes Wader was born in 1942 in Bielefeld. He burst onto the scene during the 1960's folk revival amidst the student protest movement and quickly became a champion of the political left. He was a member of the West-German Communist party until 1991 and as such was boycotted by the media for periods of his life. In fact I'm sure I saw him live in the Communist party May tent in the 1970's. I loved that annual event, not because I was a Communist, but because I loved the scents of exotic foods from Kurdidistan or Chile and the sounds of many global music acts. I once bumped into one of my teachers there, much to his embarrassment, as teachers could loose their jobs back then if they were even just suspected to have any sympathies with Communism.
Wader's songs are a mixture of traditional and self-written protest songs. It's difficult to pick just one song from his long back catalogue, but here is a live version of the anti-capitalist anthem Trotz Alledem (Despite everything), which features on his 2006 album Mal Angenommen (Let's presume):
Singer/songwriter Holger Saarmann was born in 1971 in Hagen, although he is now based in Berlin. He accompanies his folk-inspired songs on an acoustic guitar as well as flute and accordion. Here's the light-hearted title song from his 2009 album So Küsste Mich Meine Friseuse (This is how my hairdresser Kissed Me):
That's it from Nordrhein-Westphalen, next we are heading south to the state of Rheinland-Pfalz. As usual you follow my virtual travels on my Tripline map.
Germany is the country I spent most of my youth in. The traditional folk or Volksmusik has a rather bad reputation in this country as the term has been hijacked by popular TV programmes playing very commercialised and cheesy songs by people in dirndls and lederhosen to a happy-clappy audience. In primary schools similar songs are taught from the Romantic era about carefree apprentices, who walk from town to town through woods filled with birdsong. However the 70's folk revival in other countries also had an effect in Germany, with many singers and bands finding more serious material in the archives, including anti-war songs, songs mocking the clergy and songs in the various regional dialects. Those musicians prefer to use the English term folk rather than be tarnished by Volksmusik.
Germany of course has been innovative in many other music styles in modern times, such as Krautrock, German New Wave and the electronic sounds of the likes of Kraftwerk. With the more recent arrival of many immigrants there is now a strong global influence on much of the German music scene. So as usual we will hop around a multitude of styles as we travel around Germany and hopefully I can help dispel some of the stereotypes surrounding the country.
We will first cover the west and south of the country and after a sojourn around a few other Central European countries visit the east and north on our way back up towards Scandinavia. First up after crossing the border from the Netherlands we arrive in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westphalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and the cathedral city of Aachen, where part of the hip-hop band Antilopen Gang come from (the other half is from Düsseldorf). Their lyrics are often political with a healthy dose of satire. Here's a song from their 2017 album Anarchie und Alltag (Anarchy and every day life) called Pizza: "Oh I firmly belief, that pizza can save us. Every revolutionary needs just a pizza and a gun."
Soul singer Ayo, aka Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin, was born in 1980 in Frechen near Cologne to a Nigerian father and a Sinti-German mother. She had a pretty tough childhood as her mother was was suffering from a heroin addiction and spent time in prison, leaving her in social care for some time. Music helped her over her trauma and she was encouraged to record by her father. She was influenced by artists from his large vinyl collection including Pink Floyd, Fela Kuti and Bob Marley. Her latest album, Royal was released last year, and this is a song from the album called Beautiful:
Next stop is Cologne (or Köln), another cathedral city. Now I lived in Cologne for a few months, when I was studying at the university there. I lived in a small hovel, with no bathroom and no private toilet, and outside was the busiest stretch of railway in Germany between the station Köln Süd and the goods station with a train passing every 90 seconds, plus extra noise from the manoeuvring of trains at night, a busy road and the flight path for the airport. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much during my time there, mostly exploring the pubs drinking the local Kölsch beer, which comes in 0.2l glasses, making it very difficult to keep track on how much you actually drink.
From the same part of the city, South Cologne, the poor part where the tourists don't go and many different cultures live alongside each other, originated the global sounds group Schäl Sick Brass Band. Between 1995 and 2013 they combined jazz with influences from Iran, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and North Africa. Until 1999 their lead singer was the Iranian Maryam Ankhondy, whilst during their later period she was replaced by Bulgarian Ivanka Ivanova. Here's a piece from their 2000 album Maza Meze called Chawakam:
Also from Cologne were folk / hip-hop band Lecker Sachen (Tasty things), who played their unique blend of Celtic influenced folk and lyrics rapped in German between 1997 to 2006. Here is one of their quieter numbers from a live session called Ich Nehm' Dich Mit (I take you with me):
Guitarist Ottmar Liebert was born in Cologne in 1959 and his music is heavily influenced by Spanish sounds. He calls his genre Nouveau Flamenco, although he has been criticised by purist as none of his works follow the traditional palo forms of flamenco. Here's a tune called Santa Fe, which features on his 2001 Best of Album, Barcelona Nights:
Young rock band AnnenMayKantereit was formed by 3 school friends in Cologne in 2011, the band name being a composite of the founding members surnames. They are distinguished by the rough voice of their lead singer. Here is a song from their 2018 album Schlagschatten called Ich Geh Heut Nicht Mehr Tanzen (I won't go out dancing today). The video was obviously recorded in a small Italian village somewhere.
Finally from Cologne I have to give one of Germany's biggest music acts a mention, rock band BAP. They have been rocking since 1976 and apparently are still active. I saw them live once back in 1986 at the biggest live music festival ever to have been staged on German soil, the Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival at the site of a then planned nuclear reprocessing plant in northern Bavaria. The festival and protests had an effect in that the plant was never built. Well over 100,000 attended the festival on a field with very basic facilities.
BAP sing in their local dialect and here is one of their most famous songs called Verdamp Lang Her (Bloody long ago) from a live gig in 2001:
As the state of Nordrhein-Westphalen is the most populous area of Germany, it also has the most music acts and I am going to have to finish off the region next time. As usual you follow my virtual travels on my tripline map.
As we come back to the province of North Brabant, the eastern half this time, we arrive in Ravenstein, where singer/songwriter Alex Roeka was born. Training and working as a psychologist initially he came to music relatively late in life during the 1990's. His music is mostly about his poetry, which I'm not going to translate here, but it's in style the closest the Dutch have to chanson. Here's a song from his 2008 album Beet Van Liefde (Bite of love) called Wat Is Toch de Liefde (What is that love)
Singer/songwriter Gerard van Maasakkers was born in 1949 in Nuenen in the province of North Brabant and sings folk in his own regional dialect of Brabants. He has been active since the 1970's and has released his latest album Ik Loop (I'm walking) in 2019. Here is the title song from the album:
Next we are heading to Helmond in North Brabant, where the members of Jazz trio the Rosenberg Trio, Stochelo, Nous'sche and Nonnie Rosenberg, hail from. The band has been going since 1989 and they are inspired by the Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt. They have collaborated with many great musicians from all over the world, including Jan Akkerman, Stéphane Grapelli, Herman van Veen, Toots Thielemans, Shirley Bassey, Randy Crawford and Luciano Pavarotti. Here's a tune featuring on their 2007 album Roots called Valse a Rosenthal:
Brabant humoristic folk band Dommelvolk was mostly active between 1977 and 1984 with a brief revival between 2000 to 2005 in Eindhoven. They finally called it a day with the death of their lead singer Ad van Genechten. They took their inspiration from farmer's songs and didn't take themselves too seriously. Their albums are hard to get hold of these days, but their most successful one was Ptazzie. Here's a live version of a song from that album called Woensel Kermis with a rather long intro in Brabant Dutch, so apologies to non-Dutch speakers, which I hope will give you an impression of their fun style. It's essentially about the going-ons at a fun fair in the Eindhoven district of Woensel.
Accordionist Carel Kraayenhof was born in Aalst in North Brabant. His specialist subject is the tango and he plays any kind of squeeze box. His big idol was Argentinian tango accordionist Ástor Piazzola, who peronally urged Kraayenhof to come to Broadway to work on the musical Tango Apasionando. Here's a recent piece in duo with folk singer Leoni Jansen called Cucurucucu Paloma:
And finally for something completely different from Maastricht in the province of Limburg. This is where psychedelic band Yin Yin hail from around Kees Berkers and Yves Lennertz, who share a fascination of Thai sounds. They place their music somewhere on a tropical island between the Netherlands and Southeast Asia. They released their debut album in 2019 entitled The Rabbit That Hunts the Tiger. Here's a hypnotic funky dance tune from the album called One Inch Punch:
That's it from the Netherlands, next we'll head into Germany, where I have spent most of my youth. As usual you follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.
