[DVX31] Denser and more profoundly thought-out, the new German folk underground appears to have been forging links for some years now, no matter which part of the country your gaze wanders to. While, under the name Brannten Schnüre, Christian Schoppik and Katie Rich have since the early 2010s been dissolving strangely surreal lyricism in riddles composed of drone, wandering bird folk and ambient, Johannes Schebler came onto the scene at almost the same time to forge records of datura-induced forest dreams in ritualistic ambient under the name of Baldruin. All of them had already been packaged together once in 2015 under the name Diamantener Oberhof, which was a stroke of luck for all friends of off-beat heady sounds. With Freundliche Kreisel, the next collaboration between Schebler, Schoppik and Rich is now being released, which may also represent a temporary zenith in their electro-acoustic experiment, lustfully transfigured and ecstatically floating along. Spoken and sung, Schoppik’s texts are permeated by a wonderfully childlike naivety, not in their formulations, but in their freely associative, dreamlike thought structure. This is aided by Katie Rich’s intonation, which dominates most of the tracks on »Freundliche Kreisel« with a melange of deadpan and urgency, sometimes duetting with Schoppick, but always channelled through the wild melancholy of memory. In between, plucked strings and glittering synths buzz through the air like on »Lied vom sprechenden Wiesel« and subtly wistful accordion lines hum along during »Alleinesein«, before pieces with the depth of »Voller Sorgen« or »Böser Tag« embody, with their spacey sampling, the whole power of that slowly stretched out musical style for which a name doesn’t yet exist, and there doesn’t have to be one.
Various Artists
Gespensterland
Bureau B