Switzerland - The West & the Rest

Moving onto the French speaking part of Switzerland we cover a music style you may not be expecting from this part of the world: Reggae.  Junior Tshaka was born in Neuchâtel in 1978 and has been playing Reggae ever since winning the European Reggae Contest in 2000.  He sings in French and here is a song from his 2010 album Il Est Temps called Dis-moi qui:

Next stop is Geneva, where I visited a friend a few years ago.

Duo Hyperculte were formed in Geneva in 2014 and describe their style as minimalist transpop prekraut postdisco.  Playing drums and double bass with electronic sounds they are inspired by the likes of Kraftwerk.  Here is a track from their 2019 album Massif Occidental called Temps Mort:

Moving on to Lausanne we meet El Mizan, a band combining the sounds of the Maghreb with punk rock.  Algerian mandole player Anouar Kaddour Chérif and his Swiss band describe their work as "a North African Occidental dish served in Darija".  Here's a track from their only release to date, their 2019 album Nirani, called Hakmet Lakdar:

11-piece Afrobeat band Professor Wouassa were founded in 2003 in Lausanne with mostly Swiss musicians.  It's a long way from yodelling, but shows the metropolitan side of Switzerland.  Here's a track from their 2017 album Grow Yes Yes! called We Thit:

Moving on to the town of Monthey in the mountains of the Canton of Valais, where the Swiss/Malian duo Kala Jula are based consisting of Swiss multi-instrumatalist Vincent Zanetti (guitar, kora, djembe drums) and Malian griot Samba Diabaté on acoustic guitar.  Diabaté is from the western Malian town of Kita and belongs to the Mandinka people and therefore the music very much is inspired by Manding tradition, but with a modern twist, sometimes hinting at jazz.   For their 2017 album Mande Kulu they are joined on double bass by Hélène Labarrière and violonist Jackie Molard to form almost a chamber music ensemble.  Here is a piece from the album called Les Bouffons recorded live:

And just to finish off our virtual tour of Switzerland we stop off in Lugano in the Italian speaking Ticino region, where Switzerland's most successful music act comes from, the hard rock band Gotthard.  They've been going since 1992 and their last 11 albums all went to the top of the Swiss album charts.  In 2010 founding member and lead singer Steve Lee died in a motorcycle accident and was replaced by Nic Maeder.  Shortly after they released a single in memory of their departed singer called Remember It's Me:

Finally on our way east and out of Switzerland we go back to the German speaking Central Switzerland to the Muotathal for something more traditional again.  This is where balfolk trio Ambäck hail from consisting of Markus Flückiger (Schwyzerörgeli), Andreas Gabriel (fiddle) and Pirmin Huber (double bass).  They give a contemporary twist to the traditional dance tunes of their little valley.  Here is a tune from their latest EP Chreiselheuer, which came out earlier this year called Verändler:

This is it from our virtual trip around Switzerland.  Todays tour felt more like a world tour than a tour through this Alpine nation, but at least there was no yodelling in sight this time.  Next stop Liechtenstein (perhaps not...) and Austria.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Germany - Rest of Nordrhein-Westphalen

 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.