FÖN
Nobody misses Hiatamadl
Hubert von Goisern enthuses the audience with his new programme in the Weiden Mehrzweckhalle
Weiden. Atmospheric wafts of mist and a stage bathed in mystical blue light awaits the visitors to the Mehrzweckhalle on Sunday evening. In his autumn tour, Hubert von Goisern guests in Weiden and the visitors came in crowds in order to experience the singer of Hiatamadl live on stage. However many wait for this song, which resounded from all radios ten years ago, in vain. Instead there were sounds from Jamaica, East Africa, and folk songs from the Tyrolean mountains.
At the beginning of the nineties, Hubert von Goisern made the breakthrough with his Alpinkatzen band into alpine rock things. With the till then unusual mixture of folk music, pop and rock, he and his band conquered not only the Austrian music scene, but also celebrated success abroad. In 1994, at the high point of their career, came the - for many surprising - end. After three farewell concerts, Hubert von Goisern parted with the Alpinkatzen, in order to devote himself to new things.
A long drawn out yodel
He wrote the film music for Schlafes Bruder and was to be seen as an accordion playing actor in the film Hölleisengretl. Important stations in this life period were his journeys to Tibet and East Africa. With the demand "to make something perfectly new, something different" Goisern returned in 1998. His new sound, influenced by the cultural meetings in Africa, Asia and America, found expression in his alpine-jazzy album Fön, the songs from which he presents in the first part of the concert in Weiden.
Goisern begins the evening with a yodel, long and wonderfully atmospheric. And soon everything becomes clear, that he has enriched the music of the Alpinkatzen with many new facets. He broadened the traditional forms and the instrumentation of Austrian folk music with rock, soul, funk and jazz, and also with the sounds of foreign cultures. With guitar, accordion, flute, flugelhorn, harmonica and drums Goisern gives evidence of his accompanying musicality.
A humorous presenter
The once "rebellious alpine rocker" has also changed himself into a good conversationalist who in the first part spoke between the songs with lots of fun and humour. So after Katholisch he ran down preachers and churches, wishing for a female God. And what he wanted so much for himself, one found out in an unusual and original reggae version of the Janis Joplin classic Mercedes Benz: not just a car, but also a halo, for "oans des is g'wiss, mit'n Heilig'n-schein hat ma an weit bessern Riss" ("one thing is certain: with a halo, you have a much better chance") with the women.
However, for Goisern, it is the Catholics who found the easiest access to the blues. Because "with the blues, it is important that it hurts," he ruminates and the capability for suffering of the Catholics is originally more pronounced than the Protestants.
The musical translation of his woeful experiences shows itself in the wonderfully expressive ballad Weh toan tuat's auf jeden Fall. He ends the first part of his concert with music from Tanzania, in the middle of which all the musicians present on stage drum, rattle, clap until finally the whole auditorium is seized by the rhythm.
In the second part, Goisern predominantly presents titles from his album Trad, released in March this year. "Trad" stands for Tradition. For the 49 year old Austrian, it is a musical return to his roots. From his homeland, the Salzkammergut, Goisern and his band brought back to life again old barn songs which had long since vanished into oblivion.
Affectionate and ardent
Songs of simple beauty, doubles and country dances, shine in new splendour. Affectionately and ardently, Goisern sings of lads who chuck stones at the window of their sweethearts, love songs which the sweetheart sing: "Dirndl woaßt no den Bam, wo ma z'samm kemma san" ("Lass, do you remember the tree where we can be together").
With this music, he definitely departed from Hiatamadl, which after this evening will not be missed any more. The audience celebrated the new Hubert von Goisern with thunderous applause and standing ovations.
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © Witt
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weiden - 14th October 2001
Photo: © WittThe highly musical genius
Hubert von Goisern guests in the Oberfrankenhalle:
yodelling with keyboard sounds, blues with primal scream therapy
Bayreuth: It is difficult not to digress with such an exciting biography, and only report on the concert in Bayreuth. Austrian and globetrotter, university-educated musician and autodidact, folk musician and rebel: Hubert von Goisern has already played in clubs in front of five people and in multipurpose halls in front of five thousand. But back to the Oberfrankenhalle. The audience, mostly senior, fight their way to the numbered seated places on the covered parquet of the hall. To the front, the view applies itself to the still empty stage, on which, apart from the milk churn, only the usual band equipment is to be seen. At the back there is the mixing desk, separated by a curtain that covers the rear wall of the hall.
Adjusting the sound for multipurpose halls on a tour, is a difficult and thankless job, which on this evening, - disregarding what you may say about that hall otherwise - was fully successful. Smaller details like a triangle or a rattle are not just to be seen, but are also to be heard, which shows that the most important band members are sometimes not in front, on the stage at all, but are to be found in the background.
Traditional costume and pinafore shirt
The light goes out on the dot and Hubert von Goisern steps onto the stage with his five member band. Each simply has on what he likes. This reaches from the traditional costume on Burgi Höller (violin, vocals) to the pinafore shirt on Wolfgang Blümel (guitar, vocals), whom one could also imagine any time on the building site as he reaches for his next beer. Above all, the pieces come from the new CD Fön and also from the album Trad.
Right at the beginning, von Goisern dives deep into the sound world of the Alps. The left hand fully relaxed, or the music going over in the air, his voice blends with celestial keyboard sounds - he yodels. Rather less than in the Musikantenstadl, sensing and feeling the sound colours of the different instruments. One not inconsiderable contribution to the impression of this opening was the professional - planned down to the smallest detail - light show, which picked up the atmosphere in the music through the whole spectrum and played with him.
Von Goisern would not be von Goisern if things did not go so well on the stage. A blues is not conceivable without primal scream therapy, folk songs mix with reggae and borrow from heavy metal. Apart from the countless instruments that von Goisern plays this evening, impressive above all is his voice, which is reminiscent in places of Deep Purple's experiment on their Japan tour.
It is almost strange to look at how the band pick up more and more speed and the audience sit peacefully in their seats. Here and there a bashful foot jiggles along, but then at some point von Goisern had seized them. Talking charmingly, he propped himself up on his accordion during the comedy interludes, and at the latest with Bernd's drum solo, during which the aforementioned milk churn went into action, it clicked. At the end, everyone could get their money's worth, in any case the audience found themselves not sitting any more for the encores, but pressed closely against the stage.
Hubert von Goisern in Feldkirch
His comeback in the spring was sensational and he took the audience by storm. On Wednesday 26th September 2001, Hubert von Goisern and Band came to the Feldkirch Montforthaus.
You had waited six years for him. Hubert von Goisern used these years of his creative break to take in worldwide collected musical experiences. At the beginning of May, he was awarded the "Austrian Music Award 2001" in the category "Solo Artist Rock/ Pop National" for his album Fön.
According to his own statements, Hubert von Goisern will only play current songs. We expect new sounds from Bad Goisern - a Fön storm from the Alps.
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeople
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Feldkirch - 26th September 2001
Photo: © PartyPeopleTones not of this world
Yodelling about it, instead of talking: Hubert von Goisern in Pfullendorf
Certainly there are words for everything. Everything can be described, characterised, explained. But what almost two thousand visitors heard and experienced in Pfullendorf on Thursday evening, scarcely lets itself be put into words. Let alone be pigeonholed. A concert, certainly. With a band and singer: Hubert von Goisern, the former founder of Austrian alpine rock, earlier successful on tour with the Alpinkatzen, now more mature, after journey years around the whole world. So far so good.
But then it gets complicated. How does one describe someone who yodels in tones never heard before, groans and cries? In tones that at their peak are not of this world any more. What do you call someone from Bad Goisern in Salzkammergut, who ruthlessly rocked, bluesed, popped, jazzed up the folksy tunes and melodies from the depths of his homeland and wildly mixing African drums under it? That does not suit any convention, any corset.
He is almost 50, the Goiserer. Not a conspicuous type. Were he to drive a tractor with liquid manure in front of the Seepark area, nobody would recognise him. He is externally unprepossessing, but musically a rarity. He sings, he yodels, cries and whistles, plays the guitar, flugelhorn, althorn, harmonica and naturally his "Styrian", the diatonic accordion. He squeezes catchy rhythms and many foreign sounds out of it. He moves about the stage as if high on love, at times softly and tenderly, then wildly and passionately.
In the middle of the 90s, at the high point of his career, Hubert Achleitner, from Goisern, withdrew himself from the music scene. In Tibet he discovered new horizons which he now opens to his listeners. Many pieces from his current disc Fön are quiet, contemplative, almost meditative. "Wås g'wesen is des wår amål" ("Things that were will never come back") he breathes in the tent dome. Past are the times of rousing alpine rock, when the mountains still shook. Today Hubert lets his concerts be seated. Great for the many older visitors, terrible for everyone under 40 who has to wait for the beer bench rows in Pfullendorf.
Political messages flash far less often through the new programme than earlier. "Ob Araber, ob Jud, ob I oder Du, ob Serb' oder Kroat', um ein jeden is schad", he updated an old refrain. But he does not say or sing much more about current events. Away from the stage, in interview he also said why: "Nobody is helped if you just sit there more now and let your head hang and everyone else gives up what is full of relish and a pleasure. If I were to talk about the terrorists at the beginning of a concert, it would be difficult to play a song afterwards. If I were to say something at the end, I would destroy a lot of what I want to achieve with a concert: that people go home with a good feeling."
Von Goisern has his own individual view of the world - and his own view of folksy music. The listeners in Pfullendorf understood this. Some are disappointed, but most loudly demand encores and are really enthused. For instance when, shortly before the end, he started to sing Fia Di, the most beautiful love song that has ever echoed around the Linzgau Seepark.
Hubert von Goisern even lets the violin yodel ...
After the warm-up in the Léhar-Filmtheater this evening will be FÖNed again
Bad
Ischl. He could not have let it back completely, the nervousness - all
the same it was the first time since he stood on the stage since the
departure of the Alpinkatzen. But what degenerates
into uncertainty with others, discharges itself as a voltage curve with
musicians like Hubert von Goisern, like an electrified pulse between
him and the audience.
That there just at "Buama stehts zam in Kroas", the thread snapped for a short time, is almost a relief for Hubert. For after all, a "public rehearsal" - and that is what it was on Ash Wednesday in the Léhar Filmtheater - is still not the premiere, which first follows three days later in the Linz Brucknerhaus (the "real" appearance in the homeland follows this Thursday in the Kongress & Theaterhaus and has been sold out for weeks; the it goes to Germany via Graz with two dozen concerts until the middle of April).
Fön and Trad
To let the clocks stand still and to not freshly interpret the point at which he hung up his microphone six years ago would not suit Hubert Achleitner. Naturally since then, he has not become a completely different person, but he has nothing more to do with Hiatamadl since he would much rather travel "Mit da Zilln übern See" (with the barge over the lake).
On the other hand, there is still Heast es net as an encore. Everything else is more or less new, even though Fön has already been on the market half a year (and in the meantime has gone gold). But to make up there is Trad, Hubert's newest CD, only available from the beginning of this week - and with it he digs deep down into the soil of unspoilt folk music (accompanied by, among others, Hohtraxlecker Sprungschanznmusi), showing himself as a Traditionalist in the best sense.
The courage to take risks
To sing and play on stage what is otherwise produced in the small circle ("something you cannot force") which is a risk Hubert admits. But it is too important to him to abstain because of that. And the audience agree with him - and not only on this point.
What the Goiserer serves up has become a little more "controversial". There is more time to occupy yourself with what he has to say - in engaging lyrics as with music. There is not a female yodeller any more, instead there is Agnes Grasberger and her violin.
Like Arnulf Lindner (bass), Bernd Bechtloff (drums) and Burkhard Frauenlob on keyboards, she is one of the young people in the group, into which Heli Punzenberger, as a "prehistoric rock", brings creative routine. Technical frippery was abstained from, only the musicality counted.
For no-one understands how Hubert von Goisern accommodates world and folk music. Message instead of fashion. That is good.
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Gleisdorf - 15th June 2001
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Gleisdorf - 15th June 2001
Photo: © beisltour.at
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Gleisdorf - 15th June 2001
Photo: © beisltour.at
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Gleisdorf - 15th June 2001
Photo: © beisltour.at
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Gleisdorf - 15th June 2001
Photo: © beisltour.at