TRAD II

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

With his twelfth album, Hubert von Goisern once more shows who's boss. Without the great wind of native media, the recording artist delivers solid fare, just as expected.

In the foreword to the record, the Upper Austrian writes against the "music police", who accuse him of vilifying traditional singing - in that he consistently does without multi-voiced singing. He's right; because the effect the 14 songs of Trad II have cannot be further strengthened by two and three voiced singing.

For a long time, HvG was the Koa Hiatamadl singer in the consciousness of the consumer and it always smelled a bit like Bierzelt, at least from the point of view of the 12 year old I was back then. Hiatamadl then died somewhere between the charts and the garage compilations with names like Austro Super Gold, there was nothing more of HvG in people's consciousness. Until the Africa records came and at least the name fell here and there. Suddenly, in 2000, comes Fön and should I ever find the opportunity to hug von Goisern, I'll do it. That is Austrian folk music and even the joie de vivre that you get without asking from the packet fits like a glove.

Three albums later, you land by Trad II and you're delighted. No compromises. You can now say "folk music" with a calm conscience. The numbers are brought forth affectionately, almost inconspicuously. A summer morning, in the shade in front of the house, with coffee, cigarettes and reading matter - that describes Trad II best.

Hubert von Goisern - new album Trad II

The brand new album from Hubert von Goisern, released on 13th October 2003, is a true delight for the ears for all fans of folky music. According to the artist, the 14 songs on the disc sound honest, from the heart and totally unacademic. There's nothing more to add. When you've heard it, you can only agree with this statement. A "must" for all fans!

Successful return to the roots of alpine rock

Hubert von Goisern is one of the most famous representatives of Austrian alpine rock. On Wednesday, 31st March, 8pm, he is coming to the Congress Centrum Ulm with his new production Trad II. With this album, the world musician returns to the folk music of his homeland, to which he, however, lends his most distinctive characteristics. Austria: it's not just Viennese jokiness, Haider and Co, but also Hubert von Goisern. The singer and multi-instrumentalist does not represent the Musikantenstadl populism, but rather real folk music - even though he does not have a totally stress-free relationship with it. On the partly unwieldy, but nevertheless very much worth listening to, CD Trad I, von Goisern played the old dances and songs of his mountain homeland in their original sound, with pithy brass music from pure village bands. On Trad II, von Goisern does not take it so strictly any more. The gstanzl, yodels and songs from the Salzburg province are traditional, the music is mostly freer. An ambient sound comes after the Kohler yodel, and merrily many musicians - also from the Alpinkatzen - are there with dobro, guitar, mandolin, steel guitar, harmonica, accordion, Jews' harp, didgeridoo and various brass instruments. The old songs sound powerfully across the mountains, the chamois, the girls who "could be a bit more beautiful" and the old shooting march. Thus Hubert von Goisern brings the folk music of his homeland directly into the 21st century, taking nothing of its ethnicity.

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

After Trad I now follows Trad II and further instalment of Hubert von Goisern's affectionate, but open to innovation, folk music adaptations. According to Hubert, some musicians previously had little to do with alpine folk music tradition. Mind you, at least Monika Drasch is known through another pleasing Bavarian project, the Bairisch-diatonischer Jodelwahnsinn. With the new recording, which incidentally took place in an abandoned hotel at 2100m on the Dachstein massif, a drum loop might meet yodelling, or electric guitars might remind you of African pop music with their jingle jangle (what is possibly not an intention - perhaps alpine countries also feel reminded of a zither). In any case, the result is very pleasurable, so you wish that Hubert von Goisern had performed this programme in Rudolstadt - but that is certainly a matter of taste. By the way, there is also an extensive tour from 25/2/04 with this programme.

Soundcheck

The Mupos (music police) will cry out again, Hubert von Goisern conjectures in the booklet for Trad II. The chamois tufts of the advocates of the one and only folk music probably stand up on end when they hear Hubert yodel. Because the air is thin there and the ridge is narrow, from where the big game hunters suddenly get chamois in pink-purple and with "sunglasses" in their target and the accompanying combo (with Max Lässer on the guitar) give a little rock. Yodelling with irony and melancholy - that is the delicate business that HvG controls brilliantly. But the CD recorded at 2,100m will never be really bad and loud. No case for the Mupos, but a delight to listen to, certainly live too.

Hubert von Goisern - TRAD II

Hubert warns the "mupos", the music police, straightaway. Trad II will also not be a homage to the alpine region, but an examination of his sources, of his ABC in notes, respectful, but above all: full of relish. It was recorded with musicians and singers from Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Austria in the mountain hotel on Krippenstein, high above on the Dachstein plateau. The songs and yodels have their origins there, in the surrounding valleys, villages and lounges. Sharp fun at the crude tables, joy and sadness, making music from life experience for life accomplishment. Nothing right or wrong is called for there, only sincerity. There you can help yourself, that is from flesh and blood. But you must bring respect, affectionate respect. And you feel: Hubert von Goisern has not simply learned these songs, but experienced them, lived through them. The sonorous grooving contrabass gives the Gamserln almost jazzy swing, the harmonica supplies the blue notes, the guitar sings at time bluesy unusual and rocks, with a wink, with the accordion in the dance. And brass music has its fun too. Everything is instrumented beautifully, with taste, wit and fine irony. But there are also songs of wonderfully simple poetry, genuine, unsentimental declarations of love to a landscape, its people, the life which makes hearts beat. And that is rare, very rare. "I take my hat off to those unknown men and women," says Goisern, "who wrote these simple but masterly songs." We take our hat off to him.

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

Arisen at 2100m above sea level in a deserted hotel, Trad II continues the Austrian world musician Hubert von Goisern's series begun in 2001, hopefully further parts will follow. High up on the mountain, Goisern gathered the strength and achieved the inspiration to newly set old homeland songs to music - gstanzls and country dances, yodels and eccentric lyrics. Trad II gives folk music its dignity back so to speak, 90% tradition, 10% modernity and guaranteed Karl Moik-free. A wonderful piece of culture without any kitsch!

Hubert von Goisern

Hubert von Goisern set up his recording studio for Trad II on the 2100m high Krippenstein in the Dachstein massif. The musicians came from five countries (Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and England) in order to play natural songs, impressed by the great nature. For Hubert they have been part of his life story for many years. Whether coarse or sentimental, hidden or erotic, or simply bluntly funny, they always sound honest, played with all their heart and not at all academic.

Just as they were perhaps sung and played before, as no folk music custodian wants them laid down once and for all, as they sounded in their opinion. And so Hubert and his comrades-in-arms approach the pieces with respect, but not with unreasonable reverence. As on Trad I before, the new work also gives folk music back its dignity. An electronic drum loop or a slide guitar may seem strange at first, nevertheless the continuation of the folk music tradition only comes to life with other means. After all, it is about the passing on of the fire for Hubert von Goisern, and not the worship of the ashes.

Hubert Von Goisern: Trad II

Malicious gossip has it that folk music is only something for wimps and weak beer drinkers. Understandable - you inevitably think of the Musikantenstadl with drinking song, feeble-minded, grinning traditional costume fools, who get rid of the false feeling of happiness. However, the pot pourri of homeland sounds expected there usually has little to do, in terms of content and musically, with the traditional rural village songs, which one originally called folk music and from which variety Hubert von Goisern interpreted in a small select number in his usual eccentric style on his Trad II. With Trad I he had offered proof that you don't have to make yourself the grinning clown of the nation in order to sing old folk tunes and that you don't have to mutilate them beyond recognition to frighten off an often pushy adhering morbid stink.

But the fundamentalist critics, whom HvG calls Mupos (music police), lose the pretty accessories and plumes on their hats partly through anger, because instruments which are very unusual for this genre, like the lap steel guitar, mandolin and dobro are used and the singing is sometimes one voice instead of multi-voiced, but the Goiserer doesn't give a shit, as he clearly admits. He wanted nothing more and nothing less than to sing his favourite folk songs, which come from the area around the Salzkammergut, as it suited him. The end.

So, in the seclusion of the Krippenstein (high plateau in the Dachstein massif in the Salzkammergut), the musical globetrotter fiddled about in all composure and without outside pressure with his very personal interpretation of these songs together with his band thrown together from diverse countries (musicians from Austria, Italy, Germany, England and Switzerland). Mind you, whoever is prepared for funny, lively melodies like Stadltür from Trad I will be disappointed because it is altogether more leisurely and stately, with a great deal of "hut-flair". As always, with the often bulky HvG food, I had to occupy myself longer with the CD before I could really make friends with it. First of all, it struck me negatively that the electronic drum in Kohler is very sterile for my taste. I also had to fight terribly with the last Gamserln verses, in which the poor creatures are lyrically spoiled with sunglasses and a sticky marzipan vanilla taste is imputed. Well now, I ask you, has someone simply been drinking too much? That certainly happens more quickly in the thin air up there - or is that the semantic middle finger of Mr Moik and Co.? And while I grumble about it, still walking with the headphones in my ears, a pink-purple water bird crosses my path like a slap to the face around the Düsseldorf duck pond. Exactly at the point when the two-voiced shattering "Huuuuiiii" sounds, which reminded me of doomed lemmings which hop straight off the cliff together. I scratch my head thoughtfully and quietly stop my criticism of the pink-purple chamois from now on ... have I said that, or only thought it? ... the traditional songs are otherwise respectfully converted and even as a completely unalpine contemporary, you get the breath of an idea of the provincial life in the mountains - and wanderlust.

Da Insrige, an almost languorously played beautifully unusual country dance, sounds original as if the gathered village community would sit in the pub with their beer and warble comfortably away to themselves with beer-relaxed tongues just for the fun of it.

In order to describe s Büscherl, I must misuse the term "easy listening", in the sense that it reminds me of such wonderful half-slumbering moments, these phases where you don't realise that half asleep you have clucked to yourself.

Beautifully safe and with characteristic Styrian diatonic squeezebox. Abend spat also sounds more like a lullaby, with which you can confidently relax and let your soul swing. Halt oder and Eiszapfen are enjoyable good mood songs with accordion and harmonica.

Security is the prevailing mood which I connect with the whole CD. Often the sound of bass, Jews' Harp or violin comes softly creeping along and flatters the simple melodies to then carefully match the contour like a purring cat. Wiederum dahin is underlined with sounds of the steel guitar, which seem nearly Caribbean. With ardent yodels and synth effects the Schönberger invites you to a fantasy mountain walk with a goosebump atmosphere, just like Neuer Tag on Iwasig. It splashes, rattles, rushes and goes "pling" thanks to Bernd Bechtloff's inexhaustible fund of percussion implements and it forms a droll patchwork sound carpet.

Even for confirmed HvG fans, the CD is certainly a challenge. My opinion is that Hubert von Goisern successfully wanders the narrow line between schmaltz and melancholy. Not schmaltz, but nostalgia, not sentimental artistic substitute like on Musikantenstadl, instead this folklore.

8.5/12

Hubert von Goisern - TRAD II

It remains unanswered, whether or not the atmosphere of the songs of this album would have been noticeably different for the listener, had Goisern not undertaken the strong-man act of climbing 2100m up the Krippenstein and finding an empty hotel for the recording with all the equipment. It was an experience for the musicians - in any case Goisern could become (quotation) "addicted to such situations"...

With musicians from Austrian, Italy, Germany, England and Switzerland, Hubert von Goisern recorded songs from the Austrian mountain homeland for the second time, in the vernacular " yodel music", on Trad II. The songs also have a long tradition to show for themselves, Hubert von Goisern and his accompanying musicians bring them unconventionally into the here and now.

Folk music and yodelling can nevertheless be a lot of fun and Trad II is also really something to sing along to - no matter whether you know the songs or not! - it was never about misunderstood tradition-devoutness; in his words: "...My dealings with what is delivered is no homage, but always respectful and above all, full of relish!" Yes, that's about right!

Hubert von Goisern: Trad II

The Dachstein breathes its atmosphere, Goisern must have felt that when he transported the whole studio up to a height of about 2000m above sea level for the first time. He discovered a clapped-out hotel up there. Nowhere else, he thought, could the expanse of the mountains be captured on CD.

And really, whoever has climbed or walked in the Dachstein knows this unbelievable distance which perfectly contradicts the silence. You see, no, you breathe the world - but you nothing apart from the breathless thumping of your own heart.

It is certain that the former master of alpine rock is in the meantime far from those raw sounds. Recognising tradition and perhaps even developing it a little further, that is probably what he meant when Gustav Mahler said: "Tradition is the passing on of fire and not the worship of ashes."

Goisern's tradition of Trad II passes something else onto the listener. It forces you to listen formally, to put off the noise, the enormous chaos of the incessant workaholic-nightmare for a while. It is an endless symphony, with which nobody waits for the end of the last sentence, a compound even, which clarifies its place of origin.

At this point, I certainly regret a little having given the ice-breaker time on city radio. You should not describe Goisern, you must simply listen to him. And in addition there are plenty of opportunities in the coming year. For example, he is making a guest appearance in the Stadthalle in Kassel on 10th March 2004.

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

His unconventional methods are already a trademark. That's why it is barely surprising that not only the presentation of HvG's newest work took place on the Krippenstein at 2,100m, but the whole album arose there in an empty hotel. Habit-needy style and sound combination openers provide briefly for confusion, but gradually change into inspiring and fresh sound pleasures.

Hubert von Goisern - as unconventional as ever

Already in the booklet for the new Goisern LP Trad II it becomes clear to whom this folksy painted up opus is dedicated - the "music police" who find fault with everything...

The reason: many people criticised the predecessor album, Trad, (it stands for 'traditional') because it was not traditional enough. Because: the vocals were not recorded in more than one voice, as is actually appropriate for "our" music tradition.

Von Goisern's answer: "I confess, I don't give a shit. I simply sing and play music as I like it." Then as a little warning comment: "Warning! These recordings, due to their free treatment, can lead to violent controversy in the presence of Mupos (music police)."

And what is actually the bone of contention? Actually only the usual Goisernish music mix, which mind you is - admittedly - not easily digestible for the purists. What begins as a folksy music piece (including yodelling), also ends as such in the rarest of cases: bass and drums secretly creep in and one or the other electronic beat also finds its place with Hubert von Goisern. And then the lyrics! But best you listen yourself. A Goisern CD was never a bad investment ...

Hubert von Goisern : Trad II

Goisern is someone who gives folk music back its dignity. Someone who, in defiance of the traditionalist music police, preserves the songs of his Austrian homeland and brings them into the present. And shows that there is more than folksy hit parade. He did that with his rock band Die Alpinkatzen and his excellent solo album Trad, which this second part follows. With 14 folk songs in moderate contemporary arrangement. Lap steel and dobro guitars are also used at times. Nothing for fundamentalists, great for the others. Huidiridulie!

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

Alternative alpine country dance - Hollaridudödeldi Diridiridudeldö

When I was able to see him together with his combo last summer at the Königsplatz in Munich, I was first lifted surprisingly high with juicy reggae tunes and similar groovy things ... the album, Iwasig, which was released shortly afterwards, took up this strong idea.

Now, a year later, Trad II comes out - and a lot is different. He has brought no reggae and no hard beats from the alpine output of his Alpinkatzen. The thin air of the recording venue (at 2100m) probably had an effect on the sound.

The Fön wind let almost exclusively native alpine folk blow around his hair, which he resurrects with a touch of irony and one or other electric guitar in his rucksack (alpine folk, not his hair!).

This group can be as astounding as diverse, like a Zap Mama from Heidiland. From airily light country dances, to live intoned roots reggae. Hubert von Goisern roams everywhere, even if not one record, and perhaps the whole world does not always have to be in one song, with which world music can be meant - Triaholdriö!

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Trad II

There has been criticism, Hubert von Goisern writes in the booklet. For example, that the songs on Trad were not multi-voiced. Actually understandable, because "Trad" or "traditional" always stands with song and melodies when nobody knows anymore when and where they arose: true folk music even. But who really expects Hubert von Goisern to play music strictly according to tradition will inevitably be disappointed. So there was criticism and Goisern continues: "I admit, in relation to that, I don't give a damn. I simply sing and play music as it pleases me."

And in defiance, the first yodel does indeed begin multi-voiced, but then the listener is pulled from the safe idyll with bass and drums. Now more than ever! Goisern's plan works out: old melodies and forms are discovered again, but do not remain in delivered rigidity. So De Gamserln (The Chamois) slowly transform from the familiar "black and brown" into "pink-purple", drums begin in the middle of yodels as if it had always been that way, and electronics take over the melodies so discreetly that it is not at all noticeable. Naturally there is enough to laugh about ("Nudel in da Brüah, hoam in da Früah" ("Noodles in the soup, home in the early morning")) and even when it's about the age old story of the dairymaid on the mountain pasture, there is nevertheless no kitsch.

This time, Goisern received support from musicians who have been his friends for a long time, who transported the instruments, equipment and themselves up the Krippenstein on the cable car. In the atmosphere of the secluded mountain hotel on the Dachstein plateau arose a peaceful, traditional album with wit and depth that is worth discovering.

Traditional music performed with great respect

Trad 2 is the logical continuation of Hubert von Goisern's work, begun two years ago with Trad, to newly record folk songs from the Ausseerland and surrounding area in the most natural sense. However now each lover of folk and drinking songs á la Seer and consortium is advised against immediately buying it because of course here it does not concern this pseudo-folk music which moves in the deepest realms of schlager, but instead the genuine song material of the rural population from the last hundred and more years. But naturally it has its incentive for open ears, since, as the title suggests, Hubert von Goisern lets tradition reign by means of the simplest accompaniment. It is especially difficult for me to emphasize an individual number here, but perhaps you should refer to Da Insrige or Eiszapfen, which I particularly noticed to be pleasant through their beautiful melodies and refrains. To sum up, this is a very honest production, even though there are points of reference to rock and pop music in the very broadest realm, which is quite a follow-up. Hats off to Hubert von Goisern.

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

When Hubert von Goisern drowned himself and his Alpinkatzen in the Hallstatt lake in 1996, there was a lot of misery, especially in the south German-Austrian border area, because it was there that the Goiserer from the Salzburg province had his most numerous and truest customers. From now on they mourned quietly to themselves and viewed suspiciously his activities which from then took him far away from home (to Africa, Egypt and somewhere else). But Hubert "never cared" for such sentimentalities. He always got through his thing, whether it was looking after apes or pharaoh-jamming.

But the Goiserer would not be a Goiserer if he was not pulled back to his roots sooner or later and so two years ago, Trad I was born, Hubert von Goisern's renewed, respectful donation to the music of his socialisation. One had already noticed back then that in comparison to the alpine cat music, it was a degree more mature, more serious and worldly-wise, so now he consequently continues this way with Trad II. You must therefore view the schnapps idea (HvG's words) of sending all the studio equipment, including the instruments, into an empty hotel on the 2100m high Krippenstein, in order to go to work in the wintry seclusion there, right in the heart of the homeland, as a special grounding or homeland-uniting gesture.

You can prove the opposite to Hubert von Goisern with difficulty, that the Trad II album would have sounded decidedly different if it had arisen in a Salzburg studio. The fact is, however, that the 14 songs only squeal with creaking untouched nature even if occasionally unusual instruments like lap steel guitar, mandolin, keyboards or an ordinary drum set come into play. Von Goisern's country dance music knows no rules of the game. The main thing is that one has fun and nevertheless also respects the traditional. Even if it is somewhat drilled, tuned or turned here and there, everything sounds nevertheless very organic and folk-like, but without being folksy. At last, someone is playing music like a "hillbilly", without driving you up the wall, at last the Moik music police are successfully tricked and folk music is taken as it really should be: roughly, melancholy, humorously, ornately, or lovingly. And not as spruced up and old-fashioned as the tourism associations, including their calcified tradition guardians, want to fool us into believing.

On balance: Hubert von Goisern proves himself once more to be a musically open-minded thinker in all things folk music. It is quite simply no matter to him whether you sound one way or another in this field. He defines himself and his musical world by his own standards and they are not so wrong.

Trad II

All fans of modernised alpine folk music can be excited about the new album from Hubert von Goisern. It is a continuation of the CD Trad, released in 2001. As begun there, the second part is also concerned with the adaptation of old folk songs, which Hubert von Goisern has collected who knows where. The content of the songs is simple, rough and blunt, but sentimental too, covertly erotic and funny from the heart. The artist found a special place for the conversion. Calculated that an empty hotel on the 2100m high Krippenstein in the Dachstein massif seemed to be suitable for him. The extensive equipment had to be dragged up there several times. But the environment seemed to have contributed to the inspiration and those taking part became a community which was cut off from diverting influences.

Remaining true to his interest in the music of other nations, Hubert von Goisern let musicians from five countries come to him. Each brought a piece of the special mentality of their music with them. Nevertheless, it remains the unmistakeable alpine folk music with yodels, accordion, harmonica, Jews' harp and brass instruments. Just like its predecessor, Trad II also transports some pieces of these little known folk songs, into the conscience of new listeners and perhaps even lovers. But you must already like the music, or at least get involved with it. The 14 songs can also seem sometime irritating for whoever has little experience of it.

Hubert von Goisern - Trad II

The city person is amazed: is it right perhaps that happy and above all hard-working people live in the mountains? Or where do you otherwise get this energy and creativity? Hubert von Goisern, it seems, plays, writes, produces and releases continuously. And when he doesn't, he travels the world - in order to further his musical horizons and be inspired. So years ago, the "Goiserer" mutated from the "alpine rock" star he never wanted to be, into a world musician, or better to a folk musician who knows no bounds. He brought the squeezebox to the Bedouins, the bongos to the mountain farmers. It doesn't seem to matter to him whether it's 50 people in a mountain hut or 5,000 in a concert hall, like the drawing up of the border between traditional folk music, jazz, rock and pop. Hubert von Goisern plays everything, everywhere, in his way.

A tolerant person who only dislikes one thing: "music police", who always want to regiment everything. For example, his beloved folk music, which he honours on the new album Trad II.

And he has taken the honour especially seriously this time: Exactly three times between January and March 2003, Hubert von Goisern hauled his studio equipment up the 2,100m high Krippenstein in the Dachstein massif, with him in the empty hotel up there: musicians from Austria, Italy, Germany, England and Switzerland. "Nobody could leave. When you record in the city, everybody goes home in the evening. Here, everybody had to stay. That gave it a quite different intensity. And at the end, everyone went into the valley with melancholy." Why this extravagance? "Because such a place calms the senses, the eye, the ear. Everything becomes more sensitive," says the 51 year old. When you listen to the songs, you can imagine the atmosphere well. They are traditional melodies with their beginnings in the surrounding valleys which the musicians have got stuck into with respect, but without all too great reverence and often with a wink. Slide guitar, samples and loops were built into the yodels and country dances, but that does not sound as mad for long as you could now be thinking. Nothing was overproduced. The pieces remain small and intimate, the chamber music flair of the hut pieces is retained in the refurbished versions.

And von Goisern's earthy-rough voice alone lends enough road holding to the songs. Predominantly it is simple fun to hear this unusual album, to listen to the simple melodies and the often hidden biting lyrics. But sometimes with a song, the heart really rises, for example with Krippensteiner, a wonderful yodel with male and female voices, which von Goisern has simply put together from two old models and renamed. Then the confirmed city neurotic dreams of the seclusion of the mountains too. And suspects: there must be even happier people.

Tradition is given life

CD of the day

Hubert von Goisern and his lively musicians recorded Trad 2 (BMG) in the empty Krippenstein hotel. Two yodels hold the folk music together like clips, which will make the puristic preservers loose their place. The lively, stimulating Kohler, which can live very well with an electronic drum loop, forms the start. At the end stands the mystical Schönberger, flooded with tones and sounds. In between, familiar songs like De Gamserl or Abend spat, freshly fitted out without shyness, instrumented with devotion. The interpretations, whether loud Gstanzl, dynamic country dances or melancholy melodies, go a step further than on the first Trad, with slide guitar, percussive charm and magnificent atmosphere. Tradition is alive.