Saturday 20 December 2014

Ernesto Cardenal - Gebet Für Marilyn Monroe & Psalm 21 -1972- (LP, Pietbiet), Germany/Nicaragua


Merry Christmas and an Archaic New Year to all followers of the blog!

This is a record I'm very happy to present on this blog. It's a beautiful example of how all kinds of ideological currents surfed along on the waves of hippieness and political progressiveness during the early seventies and eventually were translated to psychedelic music.

Ernesto Cardenal is a Nicaraguan priest, poet and politician. He was also minister of culture in Nicaragua at the end of the seventies. Cardenal started a christian commune in 1966 on the Solentiname Islands in Nicaragua in which they lived in poverty among indigenous farmers. This is a record he made in Germany in the early seventies with a couple of christians who were completely out of their minds. Cardenal wrote the texts and the German musicians made the musical adaptations and German translations. The first side of the record is called "Prayer for Marilyn Monroe" and has a completely pedantic and moralistic character. It tells the story of the life of Marilyn Monroe and why it was all a futile effort. The second song is called Psalm 21 and talks about war, torture and technological problems of the world. Really heavy stuff (I mean the record).

The greatest thing about the record is that the German vocalists sing both in German and Spanish. Their Spanish has an insanely strong German accent which makes it incredible. It has a similar feeling to German bands like Floh De Cologne (who would totally hate these christian people) or Dutch hippie flutist Sigurd Cochius who made one album in the early seventies. It's very groovy with amazing flutework. The flutist who is appearing on this record is Klaus Dapper who was also in Krautrock groups like Bröselmaschine and the NWW-List group Kollektiv so this record has a link to some of the proper Krautrock bands as well.

UPDATE: I got hold of a new copy of this album, which means the bad quality B-side of last time has been replaced by a better rip. I suggest you grab this pearl again! 

"Herr, in dieser Welt, die verseucht ist von Sünde und Radioaktivität sprichst Du eine kleine Verkäuferin nicht schuldig, die wie alle kleinen Verkäuferinnen davon träumt, ein Filmstar zu sein. Ihr Traum wurde Wirklichkeit (doch eine Wirklichtkeit in Technicolor), sie agierte nur nach dem Script, das wir ihr gaben - das Script unserer eigenen Leben - und es war ein absurdes Script. Vergibt ihr, Herr, und vergib uns allen..."

Get ready for some amazing Christian Krautrock! 

Get it HERE!

I uploaded some vintage North Korean records as well if you prefer to listen to that during this Christmas.

Friday 5 December 2014

VA - Young Hungarian Electronic Music Composers -1983- (LP, Hungaroton), Hungary


As promised in the first post of Hungarian electronic music, here's the second one that came out in Hungary compiling some of the electronic music composers that were active in the seventies and eighties. I have to say that this one is probably the key record for Hungarian electronic composed music and in my opinion even more incredible than the other one.

Five Hungarian composers are present here: Iván Székely, Miklós Csemiczky, Máté Victor, Lászlo Király and István Szigeti. Some of these composers have published some solo records in Hungary which are really worth it to check out. The music ranges from electro-acoustic pieces to really intense electronic pulsating sounds intwertwined with singing of Hungarian vowels. It never bores and is really versatile while still creating the feeling that it's a whole, which is an amazing effort done for a compilation.

The first piece For Alrun by Iván Székely was recorded live in 1975 during an electronic music showcase in Bayreuth. The record starts and ends with two Hungarian folk songs to complete the musical journey:

Népdal:                                                  
Gyere ki te gyöngyvirág                      
Mert feljött a holdvilág, jaj               
Majd kimegyek hajnalba              

Magos fejű kalapba, jaj

Folk Song:
Come out, you lily,
For the moon has risen, jaj
I'll go out at dawn

In a high-topped hat, jaj

Weöres Sándor: Lied:
                        

Várlak a déli sugárban,                 
várlak az éji sötétben,                      
várlak a télben, a nyárban                
várlak a földön, az égen                  


Lied by Sándor Weöres:

I await you in the noon sun,
I await you in the dark night,
I await you in winter, in summer
I await you on earth, in the sky



Get it HERE