Switzerland - The Centre

 Next we are heading to Luzern (Lucerne) right bang in the middle of Switzerland.  This is where folk and jazz musician Albin Brun was born in 1959.  The composer, saxophonist and Schwyzerörgeli (a small diatonic accordion) player has his fingers in many pies, collaborating with many ensembles including the Ala Fekra Project and Patricia Draeger mentioned in the last post.  Patricia Draeger is also part of the Albin Brun Trio which explores the boundaries between folk music and jazz.  Here's a song from the trio's 2018 album Lied.schatten called Dr Heimetvogel (the home bird) sung in Swiss German featuring Issa Wiss on vocals.

Moving on to the sleepy capital of Switzerland Bern, where we encounter contemporary folk band Silberen.  They consist of Barbara Berger (vocals, Schwyzerörgeli, harmonium), Christian Schmid (double bass), Nayan Stalder (hammered dulcimer) and Roli Strobel (percussion).  They produce songs inspired by their native landscape combined with some jazz influences.  Here is a song from their debut album Blumenstein called Melklied (milking song), which includes some melodic yodelling (you can't go to Switzerland and not yodel!):

Also from Bern is 'techno-yodeller' Christine Lauterburg born in in 1956.  She combines yodelling with a variety of more contemporary styles, although I wouldn't call it techno myself.  This is a clip with her band Landstrichmusik where inexplicably, apart from yodelling she also plays the broomstick and a guy playing the bodhran on an old banjo case:

Singer/songwriter Émilie Jeanne-Sophie Welti aka Sophie Hunger was born in Bern in 1983, but has been around the block a bit having been brought up in London, Bonn and Zurich and now living in Berlin.  She is influenced more by the Anglo-Saxon folk tradition singing in English, German, Swiss German, French and Italian.  Here is a song which features on her
2013 live album The Rules of Fire called Walzer für Niemand (Waltz for nobody):

Senegalese composer and singer Pape Djiby Ba also calls Bern his home and has set out to teach the Swiss some African rhythms by founding the Swiss African Orchestra.  It's a veritable big band with a beefy horn section, percussion, electric guitars and bass as well as keyboard and background singers fronted by Ba on vocals.  They combine Mbalax Senegalese rhythms with jazz improvisations and a touch of funk.  This should get even the dour Swiss to swing a dance leg.  Here is a song from their latest album Jokko called Baliya, a song about the importance of family:

Finally some more African influences: DJ, musician and filmmaker Fabio Friedli aka Pablo Nouvelle is also from Bern.  He mostly dabbles in electronica and trip-hop and produced an EP of afrobeat inspired music last year in collaboration with Beninese superstar Angelique Kidjo and ethno-musicologist Hugh Tracey called Eliso Lyamu Katata.  The track Milambi has Kidjo's powerful vocals over some pulsating electronic house rhythms interlaced with afrobeat as well as archival recordings of tribal singing.   The video is made up of archival footage of African landscapes and ritual dances.

That's it from Central Switzerland for now.  Quite a varied lot this time, hope you found something in there you liked.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Switzerland - The North

 

As we enter another new country I have to admit, I'm not a fan of Switzerland.  Yes they make good chocolate and cheese, accurate watches (I don't wear watches) and have pretty mountain views, but I feel slightly claustrophobic in high mountain landscapes and my mind is too anarchic to get on with the law abiding, punctual and well-behaved Swiss.  Every time I drive through Switzerland, which is quite often, I always have a bad conscience, worrying that I drive 2 miles above the speed limit, accidentally missing a pedestrian crossing, forgetting to signal when crossing a lane, parking slightly off-straight at a car park.  You seem to get pulled over for anything, if not by the police, then by an outraged citizen.  I have had more speed tickets in Switzerland than any other country...

So anyway, luckily this blog is only a virtual journey around the country to listen to some music echoing out of these mountains.  We start our trip in the northern city of Schaffhausen near the source of the river Rhine and with something not exactly traditional Swiss.  Metin Demiral was born here as the son of a Swiss mother and a Turkish/Azeri father.  He spent his childhood between here and the eastern Turkish village of Kars, picking up a lot of musical influences.  In the 1980's he formed a band with his German friend Stefan Bittlinger and they called themselves Café Türk.  Their style was influenced by prog rock such as Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Santana all infused with Anatolian and Azeri tonalities, as well as aksak time signatures.  They started touring social clubs around Switzerland and Germany frequented by the Turkish 'Gastarbeiter' (guest workers), where they gained something of an underground cult status.  At the end of the 80's young Turks turned towards rap and the band soon stopped and Metin started a night club in Schaffhausen instead.  Last year record label Zel Zele rediscovered the band and cut a compilation of Café Türk's music from back then.  This was their biggest hit at the time and opens the new album.  It's called Haydi Yallah:

Accordionist and flutist Patricia Draeger is originally from Winterthur I believe.  She is considered one of the best accordionists in Europe and plays jazz, folk and collaborates with acts from all over the world.  Her latest project is with some Egyptian musicians calling themselves the Ala Fekra Project (Meaning 'and by the way' in Arabic).  Apparently they released a CD in 2020, but I can't find anywhere to buy it, however their self-titled tune appeared on the Global Sounds of Switzerland CD of the Songlines Magazine issue #163.

Also from Winterthur are metal folk band Eluveitie.  They were formed in 2002 by Chrigel Glanzmann as a studio band with varying personnel, but have since established themselves as a regular band.  This is the Swiss being a bit rebellious.  Here is a track from their 2014 album Origin called Call of the Mountains with some nice mountain scenes in the video:

Brothers Christoph and Georg Kiss were born in Zurich of Hungarian descent.  In 2018 they formed Jazz band Okvsho influenced by the British jazz scene, Brazilian percussion and their Hungarian heritage.  They released their debut album Kamala's Danz last year and this is a track from it called Descobrir together with singer Sreya singing in Portuguese:

Also based in Zurich are Afro-fusion trio Siselabonga.  They combine the west African sounds of Senegalese kora player and vocalist Tarang Cissokho with psychedelic rhythms of guitarist Glauco Cataldo and percussionist Fabio Meier.  Their name came from when the 3 met in Madagascar and while in conversation, somebody passed them by, catching snippets and asked what siselabonga meant.  After a moment's head scratching they realised he meant "Si, c'est bon".  So they adopted that as their name.  Here is the title song from their 2020 EP Warnama:

That's it from northern Switzerland, next we'll be heading deep into the mountains of central Switzerland.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.

Germany - Baden-Würtemberg

 Baden-Würtemberg is another region I have close family ties to.  My mother originally came from Ludwigsburg just north of the regional capital Stuttgart and my parents lived on the northern edge of the Black Forest for many years.  The state is actually made up of 2 regions of distinct tribes, the Badeners who inhabit Baden and the Swabians living in Würtemberg, and God forbid if you were to confuse the two, you'll never hear the end of it.  Historically the state is famous for the Black Forest mountains and cuckoo clocks, pretty timber-framed houses and a distinct cuisine, which is influenced partially by Italian cooking with their own pasta versions.  In more modern times it has become known as an efficient economic powerhouse, home to the likes of Mercedes Benz and Porsche.

Timber-framed house in Endingen

Our first stop is the small town of Münsingen in the Swabian Alp mountains, where singer-songwriter Thomas Felder was born 1953.  He has been active in the peace and protest movement most of his life and sings political songs both in his native Swabian dialect and in standard German.  He is even proud of his criminal record for busking in Stuttgart in the 70's.  Here is a song from his 1984 album Nie Wieder Frieden Kriegen (Never get peace again) called Mutter Kugel (Mother ball or maybe better Mother Earth), which is now as relevant or even more than it was then.  It is sung by Mother Earth and one verse goes:

"My youngest fruit at the moment is an animal with an upright gait, that spreads itself, feeling smart, yet has lived for mere seconds."

Moving on to Stuttgart, where folk-duo Zupfgeigenhansel were active during the folk revival between 1974 and 1986 consisting of Erich Schmeckenbecher and Thomas Fritz.  They brought traditional songs around themes of freedom and resistance against the state and clergy.  Here's a song called 's Wieder März Geworden ('tis March again), a ballad recalling the March revolution of 1848 where liberals fought for human rights and democracy against the aristocracy, but which ultimately was unsuccessful.  The song features on the 1978 album Volkslieder III:

Now for something a bit different, based in Stuttgart, but very much a pan-European collaboration, a new band called Lakvar.  They were so pleased I bought their 2020 debut album Sabotage and Tradition recently that they sent me a personal thank you message.  Here's their short bio in their own words:

Lakvar are a new Contemporary Folk Music group, founded by Hungarian-Bulgarian singer Hajnalka Péter

and Zura Dzagnidze. The band includes an array of talented and diverse musicians:

Hungarian Jazz player Florian Vogel, Italian drummer Santino Scavelli and Lithuanian accordion player 

Aleksejs Maslakovs. Lakvar's sound brings together the band's musical and cultural backgrounds, drawing on roots in traditonal Folk from the East of Europe, Jazz, as well as progressive Rock and experimental rhythms.

Moments of stillness and fragility meet free and fearless improvisation and virtuosity. Hajnalka's vocal character

use different traditional, emerging from the music likea mystical and ancient spell. Not limited by convention, Lakvar take musical risks to break through the borders and boundaries of musical tradition and open new path between them.

 I can highly recommend you buying the album and I dare you not to swing a dancing leg to this song from the album called Dilmano Dilbero:

Heading north from Stuttgart we are arriving in the small town of Waiblingen for something more traditional again.  This is where Angelika Maier and Reinhard Fischer hail from who formed not one, but two folk troupes.  Their first band was called Linnenzworch and was active between 1976 and 1983 singing songs mostly in their Swabian dialects.  In 1990 the founded Saiten, Fell & Firlefanz, which played more instrumental balfolk.  I'm not sure if they still play and their music is hard to get hold off these days.  Here's is a song from their earlier incarnation called Komm Heit Nacht (Come tonight) from their 1979 album Ghupft Wia Gsprunga:

Wikipedia seems a bit contradictory about the birthplace of Turkish/German musician GültekinKaan.  On the side it says Backnang, near Stuttgart, whilst the text says he was born and raised in Remscheid in North-Rhine Westphalia.  We'll stick to Backnang, as we are in the area.  He only recorded 2 albums of Turkish psychedelic rock with his band DiVan in 2011 and 12 respectively and seems to have disappeared from the scene since.  He sings in Turkish telling stories of Turkish history and fables and dresses like a sultan on stage.  Here's a song from his second album Sofra called Avya Cicek Acmis:

Next we are heading into the heart of the Black Forest for some cake perhaps?

The best Black Forest gateau ever!

Folk group Kaikai started as a school project 'Music from self-built instruments' in a school in Simmersfeld in 1980.  Now 40 years later they still build instruments such as harps, guitars, accordions, bass, dulcimers, ocarinas, hurdy-gurdies, etc, and play their own balfolk type music on it based on traditional tunes and own compositions. Here's a song called Bohneneintopf (Bean stew) from their 2004 album Lebenszeichen (Signs of life):

Finally we stop in the pretty university town of Freiburg im Breisgau in the far southwest.  This a photo from a visit a few years ago.

View of Freiburg

This is where Bakan beat quintet Äl Jawala hail from.  They have been combining Balkan rhythms with dance beat and modern klezmer since 2000 and have received numerous awards for their music.  This a live version of their song Satelite from their 2016 album Hypnophonic:

That's it from Germany for the time being.  As I said we'll return to the eastern and northern half of the country on our way back north, but next we'll tour around Switzerland.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual travels on my Tripline map.