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Sascha Bendiks - Light Luggage (CD)
TZ2352
Regular price €14,95 SASCHA BENDIKS doesn't care about stylistic boundaries and talks about life - about life as it is and about life as it should be. The ten songs are bursting with stories worth telling. In a language that is easy but by no means careless, BENDIKS churns out images and sentences that immediately stick.
He lived, you can see it and hear it. "The pain and the sheer euphoria are trend-setting, and the two are not always clearly distinguishable - always keep moving" from the song BEWEGUNG culminates in the statement "Everything that doesn't quite fit together, with which you have come to terms - think again "
His Lamentations are odes to joy - and vice versa.
After twenty years in Berlin, he returns to the HEIMATMIEF of the small town of his youth in order to realize: "What you absolutely do not want to remember is more present than ever and, like a bubbling lake, fills your memory gaps with moments you thought were long lost, you were so naive and you're knee-deep in the home smell".
TANDEMROLLATOR is simply one of the most beautiful declarations of love ever "We'll put our teeth in the same glass at some point (...) if we don't think we know who we are".
Musically, he deliberately didn't set any limits, combining Tomwaitian rumba rumble (he has the voice for it), with a fantastically beautiful clarinet-smallest orchestra (yes, clarinets!) and Texan-dusty electric guitars (AMSTERDAM), to thank the moon immediately afterwards with lap steel and a bowed double bass: "The whole universe is only two by two meters - small, but flawless". (MY OLD BUD MOON)
On the album, which stylistically changes between pop, Americana and chanson, loyal companions sometimes provide unmistakable sounds. Axel Müller (BAP, Gregor Meyle) and JennyThiele (Fortuna Ehrenfeld, Rainald Grebe) have the honor of further enriching Bendiks' distinct sound.
BEWEGUNG was produced by Tobias Schwab in peace and quiet in the countryside in the Höllental laboratory. The album sounds hung, relaxed, poetic and complex. This is how BENDIKS itself could be well described.
Live and solo, he continues to break the songs down to their skeletal form, because “A good song always works with just a guitar or a piano. Complete. Has to be enough". In the album context, however, there are no limits!
"Light Luggage" by Sascha Bendiks, these are songs by someone who seeks happiness exactly where we last left it.
01 home smell
02 movement
03 shadow people
04 The moon is enthroned above everything
05 Amsterdam
06 Light luggage
07 Tandem rollator
08 The big sensation
09 It is night
10 My old buddy moon
Nosaer - Signals from Eternity (CD)
TR025
Regular price €14,95What happens when a mature songwriter and singer teams up with an accomplished rock drummer and studio freak, both musically and privately? The result is somewhere between sofa, kitchen and studio, an eclectic collection of songs that are a bit out of date, but still sound surprisingly modern. Traditional songwriting on guitar or piano, paired with working in their own high-tech studio, without the producer or label constantly checking the clock, allowed the NOSAER protagonists Felician Siebenstaern and Micha Strauss to get to the heart of their songs, completely no matter how long it took. With "Signals From Eternity" a completely successful, organic album developed over three years, definitely with mainstream appeal, but completely without pandering to current pop trends. The two finally mixed the work in a pop-up studio on the west coast of Ireland, which you can hear in the result in a subtle way, at least as far as the vibe is concerned. Atmospheric sounds like the tracks “Black To Wide” or “Signals To Eternity” are joined by songs with hit potential, like “Hide Yourself” with its great (and big) chorus. Clean and heavier guitars mix with elegiac synthesizer pads; the drums often have their own gait and stand out pleasantly from the contemporary minimalism of bang-bang-bang-bang. The album has a musical and emotional depth and breadth that is remarkable. Drummer and producer Micha Strauss once said in a quiet hour: "Drumming saved my life when I was 13." For Felician Siebenstaern, sounds, words and colors have formed an interwoven unit since early childhood, which she shapes into stories in her songs.
If you listen deeply to the songs, you suddenly understand what it means when music becomes an essential expression of your life.
Felician Siebenstaern challenges the listener with introspective lyrics that reflect a not inconsiderable life experience. The “inner noise of life that drives you on”, as she reports, is the basis of her often pleasantly melancholy, but always positive writing. Crucial personal experiences, accepting the recurring changes in life and the courage to look behind the facades and surfaces are Felician's themes.
With their debut, NOSAER throw an international rock album with pop charm into the world for adults or those who want to become one. And the world deserves to hear!
01 Hide Yourself
02 Hurting
03 Kill Ma Heart
04 Rudiments
05 Santurina
06 set buzz
07 Signals From Eternity
08 Wake Me Save Me
09 Wastelands
10 When It's Dark
11 Black To Wide
SVOZ & B de Pronx - Pure Love (12" vinyl album)
TZ1944
Regular price €20,00 The style of the debut album PURE LOVE by SVOZ & B de PronX is danceable electronic music, composed with sounds from unusual instruments, digital sound generators and loops, meticulously processed on the digital audio workstation. The individual songs are powerful and at the same time playful and sensitive. You follow the driving beats and the staggered arpeggios with the embedded vocals: the lyrics are spiritually heartfelt.
The tuning of the album is based on the natural tuning of 432 hertz. Looking at the career of the artists, the underlying idea becomes clear: the two have been working together since 1999, until 2012 they created 25 choreographies with the contemporary dance company SonusDos, which were performed on important stages and festivals throughout Europe. The basic tenor is authenticity, it runs through the entire work. Svoz composed the music for the dance pieces.
The voice of B de PronX played a major role in the performances. Since the dance performances died down, the creative focus is completely on the music. Finding original sounds led to self-made instruments such as monochords, percussion instruments, modified rainmakers and a lataphone. Dealing with overtone singing and mantras and researching the influence of sound and music on the human body led to sound journeys and meditations. These developments, paired with the fascination for digital sound processing and Svoz's work as a DJ, form the basis of the 10 tracks on the album.
B de PronX's vocals borrow from the pop genre, but the experimental approach keeps flashing through. Pure Love was born out of a love of creating, inventing and creating. Svoz & B de PronX complement each other as artists and create a music world that wants to be pop on the one hand, but also fits into a club danceable and yet wants to remain special and authentic. When listening, the diversity, depth and sophistication of the compositions are revealed. The music can not only be heard, but also experienced. The audiophile claim comes from experiments with tape recordings, the comparison with sophisticated analog recordings and mixes from rock, pop and jazz. And yet it is and remains electronic music through and through, as organic and vibrant as the digital process allows and as powerful and detailed as electronic production allows.
01 Jack's Dance
02 Reset
03 Wake Up
04 Listen To Your Inner Voice
05 We Are Free
06 Turn around
07 Yes it's true
08 Just Your Love
09 runs
10 follow me
Isgaard - Whiteout (CD)
FEM 2016-001
Regular price €15,95 whiteout. The moment when sky and snow-covered earth merge at the horizon line and you no longer know where the land ends and nothingness begins. Or being lost in the dense fog that takes away the contours of everything, that swallows every shape.
This is how Isgaard has often felt over the past two and a half years after the release of her last album, Naked, as she confronted the chaos of today's reality. And what could be more obvious for a singer than to translate these emotions into music?
Together with her life and project partner Jens Lueck, Isgaard has written 13 pieces that make no compromises in terms of content or music. Somewhere between art-pop elements, intimate, folky-inspired acoustic parts, rock fragments and string orchestra-based passages, Isgaard's multi-faceted voice flies through the pieces and combines everything into a style all of its own. Sometimes vulnerable, delicate, sometimes powerful, she covers a wide range of tones and sounds, only to finally end up in the ethno area in "Tikdabra" - inspired by Alberto Vázquez Figueroa's novel "Tuareg".
All pieces are lovingly arranged and instrumented in great detail, convey pure emotions and invite you to listen actively. In addition to Jens Lueck, who, as in the past, can be heard on drums, keyboards and background vocals, various studio musicians have contributed to the album. Among other things, many real strings were recorded in the studio.
The core of the album is the three-part title track "Whiteout", which tells the story of a young woman who begins to read a book that seems to describe her life. At the same time, reality fades and things that she thought had a permanent place in her life cease to exist: figuratively, the “whiteout” moment in someone's life story. "You Didn't Fall" is a tribute to people like the Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, who, despite great threats and reprisals, are committed to the education of women in fundamentalist Islamic countries.
Another central role is played by the influence of art on our lives and nature as a place of refuge and a haven of peace in a world at a crossroads.
01 Prologue
02 No Man's Land
03 Shine On
04 You Didn't Fall
05 Silent Strangers
06 Tikdabra
07 Silva
08 Fly Away
09 Into The Great Wide Open
10 Whiteout Part 1 The Book
11 Whiteout Part 2 Shifting World
12 Whiteout Part 3 Whiteout
13 Shine On (Reprise)
Chris Colter - Nice To Be Back To Be Back Nice (CD)
TZ2349
Regular price €14,95Preorder - Delivery for the release on June 24th.
On June 24, 2022, 22 years after his debut album, Chris Colter's new album will be released on TIMEZONE Records under the humorous title "Nice To Be Back To Be Back Nice".
Most contemporaries know the powerful-voiced Bavarian by his real name Christian "Cheese" Koller and above all as a singer in bands such as Tana Nile, Snakehunter or the CheeseBallz. In the calm of 2021, Chris looks back on an impressive back catalog of 6 studio albums, one live album and 36 years of gigs on many stages in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Dozens of songs were written during this period and never released. The idea of a musical inventory ends in summer in the Ostwerk music production studio north of Regensburg. Produced by Richie Necker, 12 new, exclusively self-written songs are created, which tell stories and dreams from the world of real small town boys in their very own way - sometimes like John Hiatt, sometimes like Bob Seger, sometimes like Blackberry Smoke.
In 1999 the singer / songwriter presented his debut album "Late at Night", which was recorded in Nashville USA and produced by Joe Sun. Back then, Chris was working with a number of well-known songwriters, such as Gary Nicholson, who can also be found on the then current Wynonna album and who had also written for Petty Loveless and Billy Ray Cyrus. Another interesting songwriter on "Late at Night" is John E. Moffat, who also wrote for Pam Tillis and Steve Earl, among others. He also brought some interesting musicians into the studio, who hired out to country greats like Lyle Lovette and Faith Hill. Late at Night was released by Rosewood Records.
The creation of the debut seemed to have electrified the long-established country squad around the German American Country Music Federation and Chris Colter was nominated for their award as Newcomer of the Year 1999 and invited to the big country gala in Chemnitz. However, the nomination remained. After all, the jury awarded the singer / songwriter the title "too rock for country, too country for rock".
01 Long Gone
02 Cuban Tush
03 Tell It To The Moon
04 Cross That Line
05 Don't Treat Me Like That
06 Now You're Gone
07 Should Have Known Better
08 Clown Without A Circus
09 Under The Sun
10 Saving The Best For Last
11 Moving On
12 Tagish River
Michael Riehm - My Blue Moon (CD)
TZ1626
Regular price €14,95It's someone who has fallen out of time and maybe that's why it's so original and up-to-date: After a 15-year break, the singer and songwriter Michael Riehm from Lebach presents his CD "Mein blauer Mond". The ten Riehm songs seem to completely ignore the pop music hustle and bustle of numerous past decades, they rather reflect influences from the late 60s and early 70s, when good songs were also signposts in terms of music and content - the Beatles in particular send their greetings unmistakably. In this exquisite tradition, Riehm sings lines in German and occasionally Mosel-Franconian tongue strokes that are not only pleasingly poetic, but also serve as a critical compass. On top of that, the outdated bard with the lyrical timbre came up with beautiful melodies and played all the instruments himself - from acoustic and electric guitars to keyboard instruments and violins. But that's not all: Riehm recorded the arrangements on his own in the always young vintage sound - all this together makes this self-produced album all the more endearing.
Stefan Uhrmacher-Saarbrücker Zeitung was initially Neil Young's inner world counterpart of Michael Riehm, meanwhile it's Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Examples of this are the exemplary euphony “Komm gudd hääm” or the smart album finale “So kennd ed blaeiwen”. Vocally plus melodically, not least in terms of the lyrics, the ten current Riehm songs are like modern pop art still lifes. And their soft German-language folk rock flavor is clearly in line with the CSN&Y classics, or is rooted in them. The musical images interpreted in this way are unobtrusively introspective and self-sufficient. The listener encounters the album's title composition "Mein blauer Mond" or lyrical elements such as "Kind of the Ocean" in an almost healing way. Jochen Arlt, juror for the German Record Critics' Award For over 40 years, Michael Riehm has been writing songs that are characterized by unusual compositions and strong textual images. The songs are often designed "bilingually", that is, High German is combined with Saarland text elements - sometimes the refrain is Saarland and the main text is High German or vice versa. Stylistically, the musically diverse songs move through bossa nova, pop, jazz, classic, folk and blues. The quite "unusual" songs create poetic, freely associable images that are not immediately transparent, but leave room to always discover something new in them.
01 Come on gudd hem
02 longing
03 pity
04 On the window
05 Planet of the Apes
06 Everything will be fine
07 child of the ocean
08 My blue moon
09 Wings grow over time
10 That's how we know Blaeiwen
Watershed - Elephant in the room (12 " vinyl album)
TZ2096
Regular price €19,90The album was written, arranged and recorded during the global Covid 19 pandemic. Craig Hinds started gathering initial ideas in early 2020. The songs developed slowly and when he was allowed to travel again, he met with his bandmates in Johannesburg to develop the tracks further in joint sessions. "There was a lot to write about because the emotions were high, families and couples were separated and 'times they are / were a-changing' as legend Bob Dylan would have put it" (CRAIG HINDS).
"Elephant In The Room" is a solid and warm album with twelve tracks that was recorded in a trio formation (Craig Hinds (voc, g, p), Howie Combrink (dr, voc) and Gideon Botes (g). The latter is also responsible for the production and the mixing, which he was supported by Hinds and Combrink. It contains, in addition to the usual excellent Craig Hinds compositions, also a stunning Watershed interpretation of the Bruce Springsteen classic "I'm On Fire" LP contains a good mix of up-tempo songs, classic watershed ballads and mid-tempo pieces, and the group's music has evolved over the years, incorporating a variety of influences without deviating too far from what Watershed is has always mattered.
Lyrically, Craig Hinds undertakes a journey into the unknown and questions everything that happens around him, while at the same time trying to address the “elephant in the room”. "There are just too many opinions and nobody really addresses the real situation" (CRAIG HINDS). In true Watershed songwriting tradition, the songs take up topics from everyday life, everyday worries, everyday ups and downs and everyday love in order to create songs that you won't get out of your head for a long time. His greatest fear is not being able to write a hit. “It doesn't matter how much you tour, how many fans you have or how many network followers click on your site. If you don't have good songs, you're not going anywhere ”(CRAIG HINDS).
But if you are expecting a new "Indigo Girl", you may be disappointed because Watershed anno 2021 has become more contemporary and rockier. Watershed have developed stylistically, but do not deny their own special sound. Haunting, energetic and sophisticated indie folk pop rock. Songs like the single “Undone”, “Map Of My Behavior”, the bonus track “Countdown” or the title track itself have a terrific driving drum kit without losing the melody affinity of the Hinds compositions. Memories of early R.E.M., Coldplay and the Crash Test Dummies are awakened. The focus of the instrumentation is an excellent mix of guitars, electric piano and the distinctive and naturally expressive voice of Craig Hinds.
01 Map of my behavior
02 Undone
03 Empty spaces
04 Elephant in the room
05 I'm on fire
06 Wish
07 Stone by stone
08 Try again
09 Love song
10 African stars
11 Keep your eyes on me
12 Countdown (Tribute to the frontline workers)
Tobias Ebert - None EP (CD)
TZ2162
Regular price €8,00Pre-order - delivery in time for the release on June 25th, 2021
Tobias Ebert is the name of the singer/songwriter, he lives in Berlin. We'll find out where exactly. Just listen to “Keiner”, the title track of this debut EP. It's about the unknown who always walks along through life. Just about the one who gives his name to this collection of four songs. It's about "nobody". This is the one who seems to come very close to the singing I and is just as often able to go far away. “Keiner” could be a song from Rio Reiser's solo years. A past of the political hides behind the very private, and the thoughtful-sensitive also appears in the form of a dynamic voice rebelling against something.
The private is in the foreground on these four songs. In "Wonderyear" Tobias Ebert even allows himself to get nostalgic, with flashbacks to leaps from the tenth at the outdoor pool and violins in the chorus. The scene: summer of love, romantic sun, meetings in the hiding places of lovers. It remains to be seen whether the "Wonder Year" has continued, but the hope for a happy ending outweighs it.
At least Tobias Ebert lives in Berlin today, in Pankow, where fox and rabbit say “good night”, no nonsense, neighbor and neighbor say “good day”. The accompanying song walks in over the drums, so the nightlife within the classic rock instrumentation. Between beginning and end, a swan song for everything big and exhausting. The celebration of the small, the quiet, face-to-face togetherness. In this milieu we can look for Tobias Ebert ourselves.
His songs sound as if he occupied houses in another life or at least smoked weed on unrenovated roof structures in Prenzlauer Berg. A few, many years ago, a few lifetimes ago. He accompanies himself on the piano and thus returns to the original instrument after Tobias Ebert had played the electric guitar in his younger years. Currently (or if possible again) Tobias Ebert is on the road as pianist for singer/songwriter colleague Florian Glässing. The little blonde is also on the stage, with solo performances at festivals for acoustic pop. And as tenor of the hkw choir, the soprano-alto-tenor-bass twinning of the Berlin House of World Cultures.
Tobias Ebert has been with us for a long time, since 2000. It seems like a record that he never wanted to release solo. Now it is time. With the song “Die Bruche” from this debut EP, produced by the already mentioned Florian Glässing, Ebert tells a story about growing up and being an adult, about the contentment that has been honed in the spectrum between pop youth and pop rebellion.
Ideally, then, that “Pankow” ends on a Hammond organ blubb; consequently on the organic whipped cream of rock instruments.
Christopher Brown
01 None
02 Wonderyear
03 The breaks
04 Pankow
Eckhardt Günther - A Bunch Of Preludes & Fugues And Other Chamber Music (2CD)
BYN002
Regular price €15,95 The double CD "A BUNCH OF PRELUDES AND FUGUES AND OTHER CHAMBERMUSIC" contains works by the Osnabrück composer Eckhardt Günther. Without exception live recordings of various concerts under the headings "Chamber Music from Blues" or "Preludes and Fugues on All Tones". This CD offers attractive, exciting, new contemporary classics with jazz/rock elements and interesting ensemble formations: saxophone and string quartet, piano and percussion, wind quintet, trio for saxophone, electric violin and electric bass, wind trio, duo for cello and saxophone. Also complete band with saxophone, violin, guitar, electric bass and drums. The pieces were designed by the composer in such a way that classic, jazz and rock musicians could perform them together without having to change their style.
Among other things, they contributed to:
Hansdieter Meier (violin), Allan Ware (clarinet), Volker Winck (saxophone),
Peter Florian (piano), Andreas Wilczeck (electric bass), Jose Garcia (percussion).
David Nasse from the Osnabrücker Stadtblatt described the present musical result as follows: "This is true scene music".
disk 1
01 Prelude With Riffs and Chorus On G for E-violin, Altosax, E-bass, Guitar and Drums
02 Fugue With Riffs and Chorus On G for E-violin, Altosax, E-bass, Guitar and Drums
03 Bubbling Bumblebees
04Yearning and Searching
05 Today Breakdowns Again
06 Happy hips
07 Prelude With Riffs and Chorus On Bb for Violin, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, E-Bass
08 Fugue With Riffs and Chorus On Bb for Violin, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, E-Bass
09 Song No 1 for piano and percussion
10 Dance of the Bodyguards
11 Key Largo
12 Stagger Three
13 Prelude On E for string quartet
14 Fugue On E for string quartet
15 Quartet No 1 for Flute, Violin, Altosax and E-bass: (Movement I Unbearable Slow? Gently Rockin`? Unbearable Slow)
16 Quartet No 1 for Flute, Violin, Altosax and E-bass: (Movement Ii Scherzo? Shuffle? Scherzo? Shuffle)
17 Song No 3 for Piano
18 Fugue With Riffs and Chorus On D for E-violin, Altosax, Guitar, E-bass and Drums
disk 2
01 Prelude With Riffs and Chorus On Eb for Altosax and String Quartet
02Fugue With Riffs and Chorus On Eb for Altosax and String Quartet
03 Song No 2 for Piano Ad Percussion
04 Frank Zappa
05John Lennon
06 Kurt Cobain
07 Bob Marley
08 Jimi Hendrix
09 Prelude On Ab for e-violin, alto sax, guitar, e-bass, drums
10 Fugue On Ab for E-violin, Altosax, Guitar, E-bass, Drums
11 A Day In 1983 for Voice and String Quartet
12 Prelude With Riffs and Chorus On C for Violin, Clarinet, Altosax and E-bass
13 Fugue With Riffs and Chorus On C for Violin, Clarinet, Altosax and E-bass
14 Small talk
15 Blue Hour
16 Prelude With Riffs and Chorus On F' for E-violin, Altosax, E-bass, Guitar, Percussion and Drums
17 Fugue With Riffs and Chorus On F' for E-violin, Altosax, E-bass, Guitar, Percussion and Drums
18 Ringtone Dance Fugue for Midimarimba Plus Drums
Mo Klé - Parallel Worlds (12" vinyl album)
TZ2172
Regular price €22,50 The first album by the artist Mo Klé aka René Grünenfelder will be released on October 29th. With Parallel Worlds, the Swiss songwriter releases a guitar-driven record that combines haunting harmonies with pointed lyrics in English and German. Before that, on October 15, he will release the album's title track as a single.
The album begins with Parallel Worlds. Soft acoustic guitar chords are accompanied by Grünenfelder's signature voice. The band only joins in after the first verse and expands the folk song into an indie pop song. In the song, Mo Klé reflects on the stark differences in our living environments and how absurd these different realities can all too often seem to us. Sometimes they cross each other. Most of the time, however, we only see ourselves confronted with them through our screens. In the maelstrom of devastating reports and crises in the world, it is difficult not to sink powerlessly into indifference and to hide behind the walls of one's own living environment.
The opening track, Parallel Worlds, sets the benchmark for the entire LP. Grünenfelder and the band have created songs that have a strong organic character - not polished pop songs, but pieces with rough edges that show the band's serious craftsmanship and joy in playing. Even if the songs come with more pressure thanks to the larger instrumentation, the essence of the song was always the focus during the recording. It was important to preserve the original idea that Grünenfelder developed on the acoustic guitar. The result is modern folk and Americana, in which classic and new elements are mixed: guitar riffs reminiscent of Dire Straits, an unmistakably sounding organ and reduced acoustic guitars are just as much a part of the record as synthesizer effects. This musical red thread runs through the whole album.
Lyrically, as in the songs Parallel Worlds and Boomerang, Grünenfelder records his observations of the world and world events and attempts to place them in a larger context. The play A Land To Call Their Own is about the myth of the American dream and discrimination against Afro-Americans. Be My Judge describes struggling with self-doubt. The One revolves around the expectations of one great love and the disappointment when everything evaporates. Grünenfelder becomes self-ironic and satirical in Self-Criticism and the German play Sunday morning.
The single Parallel Worlds will be available on all download and streaming services from October 15th. The album of the same name will follow on October 29th. The album is available on vinyl and CD in stores and on Timezone Records. The single and the album are released on their own label Horse Behind A House Records, which Grünenfelder brought to life.
1. Parallel Worlds
2. Be My Judge
3. The One
4. Boomerang
5. A Land To Call Their Own
6. Love In The Time Of
7. Self-Criticism
8. Sunday morning
Michael Lane - Linger on (CD)
GWR011
Regular price €14,95 Michael Lane asks us to follow him. Into a world full of infinite possibilities. Completely free and without any restrictions we would live if we could only break through to this parallel side of ourselves. At least that's how he describes it on his opener "Break Through", the first track on his new album "Linger On". But what exactly awaits us there and how do we achieve this breakthrough? "Linger On" offers an insight into this topic and that through songs about dreaming, reflecting and changing.
The German-American knows many sides of life. While he was still fighting as a soldier in the US Army in Iraq and later in Afghanistan at the age of 20, he now makes a living from music. He has already been able to grasp both extremes of human life: separation and unity. “As a soldier, I witnessed the cruel absurdity of war. It is inconceivable to me what must happen in other people to make such conditions possible. After that it was clear to me that I had to find a way to do something about this madness in my own way. Music was my key. It connects people and I want to contribute to it.”
So Mike picks up where he started with his debut album "Sweet Notes", released in 2014. While the follow-up work "The Middle" (release: 2016) delved deeper into the matter, "Linger On" is the temporary peak of his artistic creativity. The album revolves around visions of a world in balance. The title track describes the wish that the beautiful and true in us should last. If you want to change the world, you have to change yourself. So we should stay and continue on our way. Don't look away, act. "There will be a voice inside your heart, still and clear. That tells you everything about us. We are near.” as heard in the title “The Night”. With this, the artist points out that one is not alone. In our hearts we already know that there are many allies out there walking the same path.
Mike produced "Linger On" almost entirely by himself. Immediately you feel the direct intimacy of the record, which immediately captivates us. Using simple means, Mike moves each element to where it belongs and also surprises with unexpected twists and sounds. While "The Middle" was kept puristic and clear, the artist developed his sound significantly further with "Linger On" and relies on flat arrangements and dreamy drum sounds. Along with the themes of content, the sound of the record fits seamlessly with Mike's visionary ideas.
Linger On builds the bridge between the wonderful utopia of people without fears and the harsh reality in which we live. With a large portion of devotion, the artist stimulates us to take a journey into our inner being. In the hope that we will find the key to our true self and our actual consciousness there. In this sense: Linger On.
01 Breakthrough
02 Wolf Lodge
03 Linger On
04 The Night
05 Dream Alice Dream
06 Alone In Denver
07 Fighting With You
08 Medicine Man
09 Good Morning Sat
10 The Sweetest Thing
11 full value
Bongen's - Question Book (CD)
TZ1575
Regular price €14,95 Cologne-Wuppertal-Lennestadt is the geographic triangle of Bongen's. And rock indie pop singer/songwriter the musical. With their third studio album "Fragebuch" they deliver a lovingly arranged and gritty, glib power pack. Three years of writing, arranging, recording, changing, discarding and re-recording. But in the end, the trickiest of all questions was the title of the album. It was so obvious:
"I've had a notebook like this ever since this band has existed. Text ideas come in, loose thoughts, words that I like. And ask. Always questions. And at some point I wrote "My Question Book" in capital letters on the front cover," recalls Mario Bongen, the band's singer and songwriter. The neologism then made it into the lyrics of "360°" and finally onto the cover of the new sound carrier.
So we come to the questions. Such an album production, for example, raises a lot of questions: about the sound. The right attitude. The one after the song compilation. How to send the listener on a journey. How you can still manage to wrest 45 minutes of attention from someone in the 2010s. And then there is the question of funding. The four musicians found a contemporary answer: crowdfunding. With the "Bogen's Vier und ihr" campaign, the wherewithal was collected to independently and uncompromisingly create exactly the album that the four had in mind.
The result is a record with lots of light and lots of shadows.
Warm and noisy. Emotional and angry. Without fear of contact with old-fashioned genres (country, folk) or new-fangled instruments (beer bottles). The main thing is that it serves the song, its story. And so every story gets the setting it deserves: the rumbling walking bass on “These legs will never hobble again”, the haunting organ hookline on “This is it” or the eerily beautiful brass ensemble in "Dig a Grave". The lyrics are free of platitudes and fake posturing. Instead, personal anecdotes, kitsch-free love songs and roughly planed everyday poetry.
"Why I'm here? And what percentage of me?”
Lines like these simply and precisely point to the big picture and to the truth that always lies somewhere in between – questions don't lie. This opens up a clear view of the inner workings of the songwriter - at least as far as one can expect from someone who would rather ask questions than give answers. The “question book” then provides at least one answer: the mantra of the final song is “Follow the signs”. And for Bongen's, all the signs are currently green.
1. The last song
2. Boxers
3. Those legs will never limp again
4. This is it
5. Where I want to go
6. 360°
7. Dig a grave
8. The saddest bar around
9. short rtsl
10. Black Eye
11. Closed society
12. The one in the yellow raincoat
13th character