Liechtenstein & Austria

 When I set out this blog, I said I'd stop in every country, so I better give Liechtenstein a mention (although I draw the line at Vatican City!).  I have on a number occasions accidentally visited Liechtenstein, usually when trying to avoid a traffic jam in one of the tunnels in Switzerland and suddenly realising that the number plates on the cars looked different.  On one occasion I ended up in a traffic jam in rush hour Vaduz instead, so had a bit of time to look at the place as well.

The majority of the population are either bankers and/or play in the international football team plus their respective partners.  There are a few alpine skiers as well, so it doesn't leave many people making music.  There is one guy called Al Walser who has become a bit of a pop star in Los Angeles and there is gothic metal band Erben der Schöpfung, and that is about it to my knowledge.  In time honoured fashion of rock bands, they have had numerous infights and split with one of the founders retaining the rights to the original band name, whilst the rest carried on under the name Elis, after the title their first single.  Here is said song:

So much for Liechtenstein and before you know it you have crossed another border and end up in Austria.  

Now my memories of Austria are altogether more positive than those of Switzerland: delicious cakes in Vienna, racy white wines in ancient cellars in the Wachau region around Krems and unctuous desert wines on the Lake Neusiedl in the east.  But for music?  Here is an abridged history of music in Austria:

• 18th-19th century: Vienna is the centre of the musical universe with classical composers from everywhere drawn to the city with it's most famous son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the centre.
• Intervening period until 1980's: Some yodelling
• 1986: Falco sings Amadeus
• 2014: Conchita Wurst, the lady with the beard, wins the Eurovison Song Contest

So in other words, Austria is not exactly famous for music in the modern era, not sure why this is.  We begin our journey in the west of the country in Hall in Tirol, where composer and jazz musician Werner Pirchner was born (1940-2001).  He seemed to have had a wicked sense of humour.  The following is a short extract from a film called Der Untergang des Alpenlandes (The fall of the Alpine country), for which he composed the music.  In the intro they bemoan the fact that traditional dance hasn't changed for hundreds of years and propose a new form of dance...

About 10 years ago, when we lived in Italy, we were joined on our land by a young volunteer from Klagenfurt in Austria called Steph.  She told us of her dreams of travelling the world and becoming a musician.  She had already represented Austria in the junior Eurovision Song Contest, a fact she was slightly embarrassed about.  Now 10 years and many travels later she has just released her first album under her artist name She Got Salty Bones called Ocean Shores.  Here is a short album preview.  You can buy it directly from her website if you feel like supporting a young artist.

Hubert Achleitner is so proud of his home town of Bad Goisern that he renamed himself Hubert von Goisern.  The singer/songwriter certainly has been around, from South Africa, Canada and the Philippines to Tanzania and Tibet.  He is friends with primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall and the Dalai Lama. All this has influenced his music style which he incorporates into the traditions of his native Austria.  His genre is often described as Neue Volksmusik (New Folk), but more often as Alpenrock (Alpine Rock), which probably better describes it.  From the mid-80's to the mid-90's he was accompanied by his band Die Alpinkatzen.  This track, Da Juchitzer, which can be found on his album Eswaramoi 1992-1998, features some wild yodelling over some rock rhythms:

The duo Attwenger were formed in 1990 in the city of Linz, consisting of drummer Markus Binder and button accordion player Hans-Peter Falkner.  They combine the traditional folk music of the Upper Austrian region with hip-hop, singing in their local dialect.  During the early days they literally took traditional Austrian songs and put a punk spin on it, but as they evolved over the years, they began writing their own material, mixing in electronic elements, rap and dub.  Here's a song from their 2011 album Flux called hintn umi (round the back):

Composer and electronic music pioneer Hubert Bognermayr (1948-1999) was born in Linz.  He was one of the founder of the Ars Electronica festival in 1979 and founding member of Austrian rock band Eela Craig and founder of the Blue Chip Orchestra.  He is even credited with influencing Mike Oldfield.  With the Blue Chip Orchestra he created a New Age electronic sound inspired by Native American music, which is sensitively interwoven into the music.  Here is the opening track to the 2000 re-issue album Enigmania (not sure if it is still available) called Ate Heve Lo!

I'll leave it at that for today and will give the capital Vienna a separate post.  In the meantime, as usual, you follow my virtual trip in my Tripline map.

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.

Germany - Bayern Part II

 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.  

Germany - Bayern Part I

 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.