D & R Verlag 30th July 2003

Wonders of the inland seas

Everybody's talking about the "Year of Water" - but those in the know have known for a long time that you'll never find the wet element in a more beautiful form than you do in Austria's lakes.

Hubert von Goisern Musician

"Lakes have not had a direct influence on my artistic development, but the Salzkammergut - the landscape in which I grew up - taught me long ago that I live in a beautiful world. You only have to take a few steps off the beaten path and you're surrounded by nature. In the mountains the only place you have a feeling of great expanse is where the lakes are; otherwise you're always surrounded by sheer peaks and jagged cliffs.

It's the only area in the world I've ever had such a feeling: only in the Salzkammergut and in Carinthia. But these are places where the landscape has a softness about it, and the lakes always give you the impression that there's something there you can't see. You only have to think of Hallstätter Lake and Toplitz Lake: they are very deep, almost unfathomable - and when you imagine what could be down there, there's something very adventurous about it."

Hubert von Goisern's latest DVDs have just been released: Grenzenlos (documenting his work with African musicians) & Iwasig (material from his successful summer tour in 2002); both: BMG

Text: Peter Hiess
Photos: Lukas Beck