Manafonistas

Liest sich wie der Slogan eines Second-Hand-Ladens, ist aber mein launiger Untertitel für fröhliches Wühlen im Archiv für die Dezembernacht im Deutschlandfunk. Zum Glück ergaben sich recht rasch Sinn und Sinnlichkeit stiftende Verbindungen, so dass nach einer Woche die playlists für die fünf Stunden so ungefähr standen, und nach einer weiteren Woche ziemlich exakt. Das Traurige dabei, was alles an grossartigen Alben (die ich so, so gern gespielt hätte!) auf der Strecke blieb – der Logik des „sequencing“ geschuldet. Aus diesen Werken, könnte man leicht ein, zwei weitere berauschende Nächte machen. Hier ein paar dieser „Ausgrabungen“ – fast durchweg Fünf-Sterne-Alben in meinen Ohren: „rarities, evergreens, discoveries“. Vielleicht gibt’s ja noch kleine „Umbesetzungen“ in letzter Minute. „In Memory of Elizabeth Reed“ hätte einfach einfach nicht fehlen dürfen – so viel Sentimentalität schulde ich mir eigentlich, höre ich diese Himmelsmusik doch immer wieder, seit ich sweet sixteen war. Hier eine kleine Auswahl:

Human Arts Ensemble: Under The Sun  
Sunn O))): Life Metal   
The Allman Brothers Band Live At Fillmore East   
Jan Garbarek / Egberto Gismonti / Charlie Haden: Magico   
P. J. Harvey: Let England Shake  
Bo Hansson: Lord of the Rings   
Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth   
Archie Shepp / Mal Waldron: Left Alone Revisited   
Lester Bowie: Last Fast! (With a wonderful version of Hello, Dolly)
Jacques Brels letztes Album
The Kinks: Muswell Hilbillies
Joni Mitchell: Hejira
Lewis: L‘amour (go for this one, all you hopeless romantics!)
Keith Jarrett / Jan Garbarek: Luminessence
Edward Vesala: Nan Madol
Steve Tibbetts: The Fall Of Us All
David Sylvian: Manafon
Oregon: Distant Hills
Byard Lancaster III: Us
Scott Walker: The Drift
Punkt: Crime Scenes

Reads like the slogan of a second-hand shop, but is my whimsical subtitle for cheerful rummaging through the archive for the December night on Deutschlandfunk. Fortunately, connections that created sense and sensuality emerged quite quickly, so that after a week the playlists for the five hours were more or less in place, and after another week pretty much exactly. The sad thing was that some albums (which I would have loved to play!) fell by the wayside – due to the logic of „sequencing“. One could easily make one or two more intoxicating nights out of these works. Here most of these „excavations“ – nearly all five-star albums to my ears: „rarities, evergreens, discoveries“. Maybe there’ll be some last-minute „reshuffles“. „In Memory of Elizabeth Reed“ simply shouldn’t have been missing – I actually owe myself that much sentimentality, since I’ve been listening to this heavenly music again and again since I was sweet sixteen. „Muswell Hilbillies“ turns fucking 50 this year. Good at least, we all are forever young.

This is a ghost story. Nova Materia‘s new album came by midnight. A place nearby a nature reserve. My home. A taxi stopped, motor still running, ringing the bell, a young man said sorry for being so late, we had both our masks on, I received the envelope. Inside, the cover of the vinyl had something familiar (the old Made To Measure-label from Bruxelles back again!), set for release at the end of June. First pressing, fresh from the factory, a short note added, and, hand-written, the permission to play it – first time ever – in my next night show. If I like it. Too kind. I cannot remember I ever got an album under such circumstances. Secret delivery by night. I was awake, had done my little meditation exercise – a glass of „Two Left Feet“, two candles burning, my record-player in motion, gave it a go. I didn‘t know the name of the composers – that can happen, months ago, I couldn‘t relate anything with Floating Points.

I listened to the album from start to end. „To enjoy in all its aural elements, please listen on headphones. Compatible with stereo on loudspeakers.“ These guys care for sound, don‘t they? My headphones are quite good ones, and though their suggestion is old school, it makes sense. The sound quality stunning *, and more important, the whole album is a quiet burner. A revelation. A journey through an ancient area, real, surreal, desolate, full of mythology, history, horizon.

Now here comes the challenge. It‘s known as „The Stonehenge Trap“. Imagine you are impressed by  the aura of such a power spot, and want your music to be informed with it, live up to its nameless mysteries. So what will happen with fresh field recordings, the music in your mind at hand (in fragments)? It can all too easily end up in some „new age nirwana“. Or „electro-acoustic ivory tower studies“. Nothing like that. Listened a second time, a third time. I was caught inside, softly seduced, on the other side. A lesson in getting there, A five-star album in the rare genre of where-am-i-music. Eduardo Henriquez und Caroline Chaspoul have painted their masterpiece.

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