deeper: tief

this is the winterschatten release 002. at least as obscure as les fleurs d’hiver. and totally over the top. the front cover already gives you the direction. if you should not get it: the band name tief means “deep / low”, every letter of the band-name is written with an arrow pointing downwards and on the back of the cover is a text about the last of human kind that in the face of the destroyed earth throw themselves in despair from the cliff… right. let’s not forget that apocalyptic doom was somehow the flavour of the day (the record was published in 1984). jeez, did i buy strange shit… i remember though that we already giggled at the time at how extremely over the top this whole thing was… as with the les fleurs d’hiver 7″, the visuals are actually better then the music – and side 2 is much better then the three tracks squeezed on side 1. turns out that the depressing text on the back of the cover are actually the lyrics… aargh. but well, as i said: side 2 is much better: a rather interesting instumental track. and tief are less pop then les fleurs d’hiver – obviously they knew joy division and the guitar player knew the early cure, too… so –tief – danach, the 7″, another forgotten part of the swiss undergound in the 1980s you get here (including a lot of scans). and i guess this time it would not be in the intention of the band wish you to enjoy it…

request: les fleurs d’hiver

there are uncounted music blogs out there, posting various stuff, some not so strange, some strange, some very strange. but somehow i never expected to stumble across a blog that posts this really obscure swiss stuff from back in the days – and yes, finding the pop-punkers mad from lucerne on this blog actually made me giggle… appropriatly called weird cheese, i propose you might head over for a visit (i recommend of course the vyllis). on his wishlist is some more obscure stuff – well, i mean really obscure… and one of the records is a 7″ by a band from basel, les fleurs d’hiver. i know nothing about the band – i don’t even remember where and why i bought it.

i always liked the cover, but just never liked the song fleurs d’hiver. i kind of liked the the b-side, association in white. it is kind of…new wave-pop or so. the lyrics are rather crappy, especially this annoying chorus in fleurs d’hiver… but in a way it is also kind of cute – but that might be just my nostalgia? anyways. here you get this certainly extremly rare piece of forgotten swiss music history, including cover scans and scans of the text inlay. as an additional kind of not important information (but it makes the link to the next post) it is release number 3 on the winterschatten-label… yep, i decided to make a little detour and throw up some more really obscure, ranging from the funny to the annoying to the great, swiss underground stuff… you have been warned.

request – antologia della canzone popolare ticinese

this one is for m. let me translate the title: anthology of popular songs of the ticino. the ticino is the italian speaking region of switzerland (yeah, south of the alps, and yes, it is very pretty). what is interesting to note is that most songs are in italian – as opposed to being in ticines’, the local dialect of the region. well, i know that ticines’ not always enjoyed the popularity it enjoys again today, and the record is from 1973. or maybe it was an attempt to make it understandable for a wider audience? i am left guessing. to me it seems like there was once an accompanying leafleat with additional information for this record which has been lost. so you get popular songs, sung by different people, some choirs, once even a children choir. and as instrumentation you get two guitars. and you get some church bells, too.. then there is also to note that this is l’edizione senza sparito, meaning there are no breaks between the songs. therefore i ripped it as two mp3-files, available here. so – not much more information i can give you – maybe one of my readers is able to help out? and yes, strange enough this record reminds me of palm sunday. well, not that strange actually – but that’s another story….

and of course this is a good occasion again to direct you towards the italian folk music blog!

bonus: francois villon

i knew it existed – it just took me a while to come acrosss it. between 1974 and 1983 there existed a project called poesie und musik, publishing records that combined – right: poetry and music. based on texts by heinrich heine, pablo neruda, the (west-)indian chief seattle (and another record with northamerican-indian texts). and one with texts by francois villon. more precise: with the texts of paul zech, based on the poetry of francois villon. (for an explanation you might want to visit my earlier villon post).

this project was headed by the swiss musician rené bardet – for the first three records (the two heine records and the villon record) he worked together with orlando valentini and a certain andreas vollenweider. not much i know about orlando valentini – he seems to have played with various musicians over the time. he passed away a couple of years ago – as did rené bardet, who quit being a musician in the 80s and started to work in the media industry. but as all you (new agers) know, andreas vollenweider rose to international fame during the 1980s and is known now for his solowork as well as for his many collaborations. i have to admit that i always found it amazing the every household in california seemed to have at least one of his cd’s (and one of kitaro, of course)…

but back to 1976, when the three of them published the francois villon record.

i have to admit i was first a little bit disappointed – it starts with an instrumental in the medieval-folks-y style – and it continues to have that kind of style – sometimes more jazzy – for the first couple of songs. well, of course my expectations have been high, since i was on the lookout for this record for a while. but this kind of updated medieval sounding style is just not my cup of tea… first it seems to me like the poetry and the music are rather parallel then together – not unlike the the villon record by richard lauffen i posted earlier (and that is still up). but somehow the poetry of villon seems even further away by trying to put it in a musical context that refers to a time very long gone. somehow it is like seeing shakespeare in an “authentic” performance and then seeing the movie romeo and juliet from 1996 (yep, the one with leonardo di caprio), where the original text (and consequently the play) suddenly makes sense again by moving the visual to the now. or to try to explain it differently: the first couple of songs / ballads seem to be made too obviously like “one sould make it” but seem like not…hm…to have been appropriated enough. but in a way it is interesting to note that the music refers to a time before the texts by paul zech were created… but then comes the last song on the first side – and suddenly it works. it is kind of a romantic, (pop-)ballad flavoured with a spanish guitar. and although rené bardet still declames the text, it is suddenly really poetry and music, together. and the same is true for the second side: it starts with a more blues-y number – which fits the words perfectly and continues to the most amazing track, sommerballade von der armen louise, which is…heartrending.

so – starting at the end of the first side and for the full second side the music and the words re-inforce each other – it’s not just the music giving a nice background… but as usual i think you should listen to it for yourself. poesie und musik: francois villon, ripped from vinyl, including the coverscans (on the back-cover you see the three of them young and cute) you can get here. wikipedia informs me that there is a re-issue of this record planned, but i could not find any other source confirming this information, and andreas vollenweider does not even list this record in his discography on his website. and now make yourself a stiff drink and enjoy mister villons prose!