FÖN

From folk music into a new world

New release: From today, the waiting for "Fön" from Hubert von Goisern is over

Six years after the end of the Alpinkatzen and a phase shaped by diverse productions, Hubert von Goisern is back again in the influential music business. The hotly desired album is called Fön and is on sale from today.

"Fön is a state for me, which is not dissimilar to the very intensive and artistic work of creativity. There is a considerable pressure there. It is a large clarity. Things seem much nearer than they are in reality. And it is actually a beautiful state, you just have to bear it. You must be well, because when you are already groggy then you get a headache, or you can't lie down because your circulation can't take it any more. The feeling is similar, when you write songs" said Hubert von Goisern about the choice of title in the OÖN interview.

The "ö" is very important

But Fön does not only stand for this whim of nature. The title was also important to him because an "ö" had to be included. Why? "If the CD is to be published internationally, then people ought to immediately recognise that this is not about someone from America or England."

Musically, Fön is the expression of stylistic variety. Sure, Hubert von Goisern once again makes his unmistakeable mark on one song or another with his squeezebox. But the symbiosis between folk music and pop is no longer in the foreground.

Caribbean rhythms find a way in, elements from his experiences with world music are to be heard. With that he builds up moods that have special effects.

This integration of, for example, Caribbean folklore is not new. "I played like this 6 and 8 years ago on the accordion because the rhythm is the poorest part of our folk music. There are the waltzes and the Styrians also have such a characteristic. But if you want to have something lively, then you have to take inspiration from other cultures," says Hubert von Goisern.

With his new musicians, he has now succeeded in making this so transparent that it becomes audible.

The musicians were also partly responsible for the fact that you can hear a brilliant cover version of Mercedes Benz on Fön. "I played this alone on the accordion years ago with a touch of reggae. But nobody could play anything with it that would have suited it. So seen, it is the oldest song on the album, not just because it is by Janis Joplin." Half of the lyrics for Mercedes Benz came from earlier days, but were only completed for Fön.

This is the cheerful side of the album, which seems otherwise very peaceful, very reflective, very melancholy. At the beginning of the new album, with Drawig, Da Dåsige and Katholisch, are some songs that in his view link best to the former days, in order to then lead the listener into another world, a new world.

"Kalt" in this country

In the new world there is lyrically plenty of room for songs about life and love, about disappointments and hopes, about hypocrisy and also about a mood in a country. Kalt quickly makes it clear that a great deal has changed politically in this country. Original quotations from Jörg Haider are printed in the booklet as coded eight-liners, while Hubert sings "complete rubbish". There is a reason: He begrudges him having his name in it. And besides, it's funnier when it is in code.

Finally, only Hubert von Goisern's own definition remains: "Fön is again a conglomeration of emotions. I am too, and really so it goes for each of us, that the days are different."

The rock yodeller is live again

PORTRAIT / Hubert von Goisern's comeback with the album "Fön"

With his Original Alpinkatzen, Hubert von Goisern filled the largest halls after a remarkable storm of the pop charts. His musical expeditions led the musician to Tibet and Africa. With his album Fön he now returns once more to his folk music roots.

He has always gone his own way, the Goiserer, who as a young man tried his luck far from the mountains of home, in South Africa and Canada. It fits quite well into the picture that Hubert von Goisern gave the Alpinkatzen up exactly when they had become commercial self runners. Six years the band played Hiatamadl and Heast as nit live for the last time "It had to be that way", the musician, who had given rock to the country dance, said succinctly back then.

After many tiring tours, which had even led to the USA, he wanted to finally look after his family and friends. But the creative guy, who, apart from music, can get excited about fashion, painting, photography and filming. He wrote the music for the film Schlafes Bruder and other films, produced Wia die Zeit Vergeht, the live legacy of the Alpinkatzen and took time for extensive journeys.

In India he met the Dalai Lama in his exile and a little later put Tibetan music into a new pop music context. He went to Gombe in Africa and visited his friend Jane Goodall, the well-known behavioural scientist, and plenty of material was put together on this journey too. Two years ago, Hubert von Goisern released two world music albums in one blow - Inexil and Gombe. He did not concern himself with their marketability. The CDs were a need for him.

But now Hubert von Goisern is really here again, live. For almost two months he was on a promotion tour for Fön. A hard business for someone who would much rather be walking in his mountains or standing in his own studio. He wants to have a CD of original folk music from his homeland ready for the big tour in the spring, "timeless interpretations of songs, which are very important to me" and have nothing at all to do with Musikantenstadl. "I also want to create access to this type of music."

He also has the successor of Fön in his head, because Hubert von Goisern is still far from his target. "I have the need to make completely new, something different. I want to plumb the boundaries of the diatonic on the Styrian accordion", says the instrumentalist allrounder, who would also like to bring yodelling onto completely a new level, "onto a new, yet to be explored level. Which is not yet exhausted."

And there are his lyrics - still in the dialect, although many arose in high German. "But then I sing and realise: It is useless. It's too dramatic and cannot not be sung. High German is unbelievably hard, and is not suited to me for singing." So dialect. No question.

In the end the quality of composing always depends on the form of the day too. Also a recognition of the work on the album Fön, which Hubert von Goisern presents as a self-confident wanderer between almost all musical worlds. At times he sounds like a Austrian Sting, then like the yodelling Satchmo or the world musician from the mountains, who opens completely new doors with his singing. "I wanted to work more inconsiderately, not under the thumb of other cultures, or a film director, like before with Gombe or Inexil. I didn't want to have to ask anybody for their opinion whether I may do something or not." Nevertheless or even therefore the album sounds very round, and Goisern paints marvellous atmospheric pictures. "I wanted to make a CD, which does not hit a corner and scratch, and which I would also put on at home."

Creative pressure

Sometimes, the Hubert on Fön sounds just like the old one. There the matured Alpinkatzen gleams through, but as he convincingly assures, without any calculation: "I don't want to caricature myself. I was surprised myself by how much of the old time has remained. I did not try to avoid anything." Nevertheless he has the feeling, "That I am coming ever more into my own style."

And why is the album called Fön? "For one, because the abolition of the umlauts gets on my wick. Also, Fön is a condition, to which the creative status comes very close. With Fön pressure, there is always very beautiful weather for us in the mountains, it also means that everything is very close. In the creative process it is also like that, you grope in the dark, look for the idea and if the pressure is big enough, you have the feeling, I must do it now. It seems to be so close, but the way there is always much further than you think."

Hubert von Goisern: No more Hiatamadl

Hubert von Goisern does not want to speak in dialect. He speaks naturally in the dialect, in his dialect, which sounds very Salzkammergut, a little less Salzburg city, a tiny bit Vienna, and of world (the big, wide world). But he does not want to read his words in dialect. It looks odd if the interviewer speaks high German and the interviewee dialect. Apart from that: "you must know how to write dialect."

Language colours defines homeland, colourless language defines homelessness. Goisern feels "happy in Goisern, in Salzburg ... everywhere, wherever I live." Goisern, who has already lived in Goisern, Salzburg, Vienna, Canada, Africa and Tibet, defines homeland in such a way: "where I feel at home, there I have the right to criticise." On the new album is Kalt, an argument with the dialectic of the other famous son of Bad Goisern, who later converted to Carinthia. The stanzas consist of senseless jabbering. "It is no more than hollow words, completely interchangeable." He has become accustomed to Haider, the other Goiserer to be discussed: "The basic need of humans is an unpolitical one. I would rather go up the mountain or read a book. But when I must deal with it myself, then I see it as chance."

As an artist Goisern is interested in the "boundaries": Something between urban and rural. He can only work in the city. "In nature, there is perfect order. I do not want to add anything to it. If I pick up only one stone and put it down somewhere else ... In the city everything is man-made anyway, made by human hands, there I do not have a bad conscience." That completely contradicts the image as a mountain yodeller. "Thousands would bet all their worldly goods that I make appearances in leather trousers. I never wear lederhosen."

His new album again echoes music from all over the world - including folk music from Austria and pop music from America. "I look to see whether things, which do not fit together can perhaps nevertheless fit." But the energy bubbles under the surface, the folk rock of Hiatamadl is passé. "I also ended the Alpinkatzen project because the smooth-running was not enough for me. I wanted to become subtler."

The lyrics also became subtler. He hates writing lyrics. "Music has so much scope for fantasy, and then I have to restrict it, it's ... ahhhhh! But I think, I have found lyrics which have enough holes in them for fantasy." One such text is Katholisch, in which he satirises his own longing for ritual. "From the Buddhist point of view, religion is a vehicle which brings us to God. With the Catholic church the vehicle became God. But I am certainly a mystic."

At the end of the interview the batteries of the recording equipment cannot hold the voltage any longer. Only a snippet of conversation is on the tape. Finishing, Hubert von Goisern says something like this to us: "Or philosophers or because it is tradition because I am looking forward to where we recording hours programme nobody like me where everybody participates an excellent band and then we had 60 centimetres of newly fallen snow. I just love playing".

"What's between the lines is important"

Hubert von Goisern back again after six years: New CD and tour - actor and opera fan

Numerous television appearances, the CD Aufgeigen stått niederschiassen with gold and platinum status, a sold out European tour and success with Austrian folk music in the USA - a project few musicians would terminate when it is at its most successful. Six years ago, Hubert von Goisern und die Alpinkatzen stopped at exactly this point. Now the folk musician is to be heard again: With his new CD Fön and a tour, which also leads him on the 5th April to the Zentrum in Bayreuth. The Kurier spoke with him about the past six years, about his CD, about inspiration and acting.

You disappeared from the scene for a long time. What did you do?

I was away a lot, in Africa, Tibet, north India and Trinidad. And I was at home and in the studio a great deal. It wasn't planned this way, the journeys happened to me. One day, in the winter 94/95, the behavioural scientist Jane Goodall was at my door. A friend of mine introduced us. I then visited her in Africa. She is so interesting that I made a documentary about her for television. The journey to Tibet was also a happy coincidence. I slipped into the music through presenting the Austrian tour of a Tibetan dance and music group. I then made myself a picture of the situation in Tibet. The Tibetans sings about a life that no longer exists. So, I suggested making a production and placing their culture in a contemporary reference. That happened, and I am really very proud of this project.

How strongly is your current CD influenced by this time?

These experiences found their outlet in the two CDs Inexil and Gombe. During these years I met musicians who are now on the CD and who helped me to find this sound. At first sight there is no connection. But the two productions influenced me in such a way that after four years I wanted to deal with the various people again with my own sentiments. It is time to go on stage again.

What meaning do the lyrics have for you in the comparison to the music?

I primarily feel myself to be a musician. Music is the language that is most important. Music touches the listener more deeply. The lyrics gives an additional dimension, if they are good. If not, they restrict the possibilities of the interpretation. The better the lyrics are, the more holes there are inside, because what's between the lines is important. There, where there is room for fantasy. I need the lyrics, because I like to sing. On the new CD there are many passages, where there is only yodelling and there are passages with sounds and playing with the voice.

You play many instruments. Which is your favourite?

It depends. A piano is always harmonious. You don't make tones yourself, but rather you just play them more loudly or quietly. It's very different with guitar and trumpet. I am composing more and more on the piano, but I like the synthesizer too. For trying different sounds out I use the computer.

What inspires you?

Everything except nature. Nature gives me strength, but no inspiration. What often inspires me is what I don't like, or where I get the feeling you should do it better.

You were to be seen in Jo Baier's film Die Hölleisengretl with Martina Gedeck. Where does acting stand in your life?

It really interests me. The film was great fun for me. But the roles which have since then been offered to me, have only been along the lines of mountain doctor. In Hölleisengretl I played a role, which went totally against the grain, and I stood the test. For Joseph Vilsmaier's Schlafes Bruder I did the film music.

Do you like being on stage?

I like being on stage and really looked forward to the tour. But I'm also afraid and have extreme stage fright before each show. In the first years I was ill before each appearance, until I realised that really nothing really bad can happen. The anticipation is great than the fear of disgracing oneself.

Have you been to Bayreuth before?

Yes. We were in Bayreuth in 93 or 94. I would also like to come to the Bayreuth Festspiele sometime. That is to say, I'm an opera fan and really enjoy going to the Viennese opera. I prefer the performances there to the whole festival hype, where 80 per cent of the audience are not interested in what is happening on the stage, but are there because it is chic.

Back to the top!

At the beginning of November, Austria's CD shelves will be loaded with the new Hubert von Goisern CD. Exactly six years before he surprisingly departed his audience after highly successful years, in order to find peace and to collect strength for new projects. No wonder then that expectation is now accordingly high on the part of public and press.

Hubert Achleitner, alias von Goisern, and his new work will be submitted to a critical hearing more than many other productions. Whether Fön - the title of the new opus - is the same as its namesake, spreading only warm air or whether innovative music making was immortalised on the silver disc is a question everyone must answer for themselves. So we listen in ... Drawig - a driving double bass line determines the groove (excellently plucked by Arnulf Lindner), is that really the new Goisern CD? Sounds like more like hip hop, funk - there the Steiri (the diatonic accordion) sets in, a moment later, unmistakably the voice of Hubert von Goisern - like a rapper, but in the Bad Goisern dialect. Between flash electric organ and funky guitar riffs.

You rush hastily towards the first hookline, which comes along very quickly. The first point goes to Hubert von Goisern, he has managed the leap into the new millennium and has left his ear for music of the time wide open. At the same time lyrical and musical translation fit perfectly, with full power the listener slides into the Hubert Achleitner's folk music world. The second number begins more cosily with a contrast bass on the accordion and a four line stanza from the Salzkammergut. But already Arnulf Lindner comes along again with a bass line that goes straight to your legs. Burkhard Frauenlob joins in with a Salsa-like piano accompaniment, someone is on the organ's tail, it howls, and it's already grooving again. Unimpressed by the instrumental style variety, Hubert sings his gstanzls over a rhythm, which was probably not familiar to his ancestors. "Versteht eigentlich irgendwer, wås i då sing ..." ("Does anyone actually understand what I sing... ") - clearly, the refrain from Da Dåsige. But on my first listening, I don't understand why steel drums can suddenly be heard. Regardless of this, you can recognize Hubert's talent for catching melodies that go straight to one's ear, even ten years after his first great successes.

A relaxed reggae is begun. "I wollt, i war a wengerl mehr katholisch ..." ("I wish I was a bit more Catholic... "), he sings in the refrain. No desire for more depth of faith, but much more a critical song going into court with the banknote moral of our society. Musically rather unspectacular, the most interesting thing of the number is the integration of the critical text with the playful conglomerate from reggae and yodelling. The tempo is consistently turned down from number to number. Da Diab emerges as harmless love song - harmonious, balanced, soft. Another title with very relaxed Jamaica grooves - similarly unspectacular as its predecessor, also a love song: number five - Ång'låcht. However the first high point is Spåt, that was consistently aimed at. The tempo continues to not just simply slow down, but continues into a rest. Hubert von Goisern produces a yodel, the rhythm of which is maintained only by the breathing rate of the singer. Up to now I had a split relationship with this production, but in the first minute of the sixth title it is successful, the timelessness of the singing style underpinning it - and the proximity of the reverent yodellers to other archaic singing forms, which get along without rhythm and accompaniment show it in a favourable light. The second point goes to Hubert von Goisern. The title song Fön is perfectly placed - after the absolute calming influence now a blues, which can offer sensitively sung vocals with a captivatingly beautiful flugelhorn improvisation. We flick to the musician list and look up the name of the soloist. The surprise is perfect, when it turns out that Hubert von Goisern personally sends his Fön into the brass and immediately starts a second improvisation round to involve himself in instrumental conversation with guitarist Helmut Punzenberger.

Gabriel learns to yodel

The first bars of number eight arouse memories of old U2 tracks, initiating the political part of the production. "Mir is kalt und wird immer kälter" ("I'm cold and getting colder" leaves no doubt about Hubert's attitude to the momentary political situation in our country, without calling Beelzebub by name. The ten year old son of the recorder of these lines has acknowledged the song as his current favourite, as with many "ear-pleasing refrains". We stay with Brit-Pop-Rock influenced numbers. Die Stråss'n could be a composition of Peter Gabriel's, only one would have not removed the yodel in the middle section. That is just the advantage, when you have roots in the alpine region. With Weh toan tuat's auf jeden Fall Hubert again approaches the blues very carefully, structures the song in a very exciting way, in order to finally get out of hand with a wild vocal and old horn improvisation (good guess: he plays it himself again !). "Geh Herrgott, hiazt kauf ma an Mercedes Benz ..." - whoever is now thinking of the prematurely deceased rock singer, is perfectly right. Title eleven is simultaneously the only foreign composition of this CD and an alpine-like Janis Joplin quotation, which probably borders on desecration for purists from the Hippie era. For me it is simply an amusing cover version of a classic, which captivates by its being divorced from reality. Fia di is a very beautiful point of conclusion for this production and lives from the unusual singing line. The constant change between head and chest voice is actually the outstanding feature of the yodel. Here this style is built into the melody of a ballad, lifting it above average. Admittedly, I was very sceptical. A first brief listen to this CD did not persuade me either. But the more I listen to this production, the more I come to the conclusion: Good, that Hubert von Goisern said goodbye at that time six years ago and very good that he is here again now.

Goisern in conversation

As there is new CD to promote, you presently find Hubert von Goisern in the Federal Capital again.
On 22nd September he talked to Herbert Höpfl ...

You appeared for the last time with the Alpinkatzen in November 1994 and said that you would like to have a rest. What has induced you to produce something new again?

Back then I said to everyone that I want to end the project so that I can imagine doing something in this direction again in two years. The two years became six, but there have been so many exciting things in the meantime that it just lasted that long. I quite simply wanted to have direct contact with the audience again.

Was it enough for you at the time?

If I had continued, it would have been a kind of repetition, I could certainly have made a few more records in the same style, but that would have been variations on the same theme. And I did not want that. I simply need the adventure, where I can try new things out again myself. And that would not have been possible in the form at that time because the dynamic of a group that has experienced such a thing and had such success, then nevertheless wants to continue what was so successful. The joy of experimentation then remains in the distance. So I wanted to let some grass grow over it.

Did you find that Hiatamadl hindered your creativity due to its surprising success?

That was not the case up to the public's expectations. Hiatamadl was just one of many songs I had written at that time, it was simply played by the radios up and down the country. From 1992, when we then played in front of larger audiences, live often came as a great surprise to the audience after two or three songs because the next two hours didn't continue Hiatamadl-like. It was an intense process and a conflict with the audience, I sometimes just spoke to them for a quarter of an hour and made it clear to them what to expect in the next 2 hours, and it did not suit them, then they could go quietly and have their money returned to them. And people really did go - however I was simply uncompromising. And those who remained understood.

Are you trying to link to this time?

Not at all. Man can plan all kinds of things beforehand, but I am not the sort of person who sits down to the instrument and just writes the notes down. These things develop, the only thing you can do as a composer is to be ready to absorb whatever moves you one way or another. It never happens that I sit down and a song like one of Peter Gabriel's or like Hiatamadl comes out. Afterwards, on reflection, it emerges that the song was inspired naturally by this or that. Then I am surprised myself, when a number like Katholisch for example, is connected to the old times in the remotest way, and I think to myself, aha, there is still something there from former times. The whole thing is of course connected with the instruments too, a ziehharmonika is a ziehharmonika and diatonic is diatonic and you must make an effort to get away from what comes from the instrument itself. It's the same with singing. If you dismantle yodelling, exhaust it and try to discover new ways, then people will still associate it with our alpine tradition.

In the song Die Strassn it says: "Wer si no nie g'fürcht hat wird si niemals a was traun" ("he who fears nothing, will never be brave enough to do anything") - what frightens Hubert von Goisern?

Wooh, I can only think of this Gallic saying, that the sky will fall on my head (laughs!). There is nothing particular that I am frightened of, but naturally fear is something familiar to me. I am worried, when my children are not at home at the right time, or when I climb a mountain with high degree of difficulty. I can only quote Heinrich Harrer, who in answer to the question from a small child, whether was he afraid, answered: "Certainly very often, but someone who isn't afraid, can't be courageous either". I was caught up with this for the CD track, I had high German lyrics, but that was too lofty.

The new CD is convincing partly through very successful instrumentation and excellent performances of individual musicians. On the basis of which criteria did you select the musicians for the CD?

The compositions were finished, and I had a vague sound in my ear and after that I selected the musicians. But I don't want to play with musicians who are perfect in every way. I select people, who are exactly as I want them. In the six years I was often in the studio and got to know quite a lot of good musicians, for example pianist Burkhard Frauenlob. Naturally, it has to work on a human level, not only all of them with me, but the musicians must understand each other. I had already played with the drummer, Bernd Bechtloff, in Tibet, with the bassists I tried a few out and then I chose Arnulf Lindner.

Musically, the new CD is characterised by an enormous variety of stylistic influences, however from time to time it seems inhomogeneous. Is stylistic self-sufficiency a question of musical maturity?

I am a conglomeration of impressions and have been around a while. And when you consider what you experiences of a whole day as impressions, then that's also anything but homogeneous. The only homogeneous thing is yourself. And so it is with all my CDs. But it is not the case that there is a narrow thematic arc or a programme, let alone a concept - or concept album - that is not my thing. I am the concept! (smiles). The nearest thing to a concept album was my Africa CD.

How did your productions Gombe and Inexil affect the preparations for this CD?

It was an experience and an enrichment for me, and if I had not made them, then I would surely have brought these stories into my new CD. However, after making these two CDs, I had a really strong desire to make something of my own again. Where I don't have to ask anybody or give consideration to anybody. Because with Tibet and Africa CDs you always had to hold back so that you does not hurt or exploit anybody and so that you don't appear as colonial gentleman just because you have the means to produce a CD. That presupposes a careful procedure, you have to let yourself be handicapped by a theme. It's different from when you do your own production. I don't have to ask anybody, I'm the only corrective. I can then say : "I like that, and I don't care what you say about it. I'll do that how I want". In this respect, the previous experience was important for the current CD.

One gets the impression that the yodel is the real profession of Hubert von Goisern. Is yodelling, in connection with blues elements, your musical homeland?

... hmm (thoughtfully)... I believe it is our musical homeland.

What do you mean by "us"? Austria?

Yes, there's tootling in Vienna, there's yodelling in the Tirol, in Carinthia, Salzburg, but it is simply what is there. A musical tradition. And since I am at home there, it is important for me to deal with this fact, whether in a critical or creative form. The traditional forms of yodelling are available on CD in bulk, it is not necessary to work in this direction. The creative and playful contact is much more interesting for me. You don't suck it from your fingers, but of course from tradition, mixed with my many travel impressions - or what I present on CD.

What do you think of the categorisation "new folk music", which has actually arisen not least through you?

You can always present expressions one way or another. When you invent a new word, as in this case "new folk music", then the inventor defines in principle the meaning of this conglomerate word. So if the inventor says, Broadlahn, Attwenger, Hubert von Goisern we define as "new folk music", ok. What am I to say about it? If I say, no, that is not it, then I am presupposing to know, what "new folk music" is. I am certainly in this category, but people of the writing guild make this category, and those are not my people. I believe, however, that the folk music has had a renaissance at this time by the mentioned groups and by my music-making. But it was also a kind of renaissance of traditional folk music, because I've spoken with quite a few people researching folk music - clearly enemies of my music among them - they confirmed that children have shown renewed interest in singing a folk song, or that they think that yodelling is cool, or that they regard the Styrian diatonic ziehharmonika as a top class instrument. There has already been a boom. Apart from Broadlahn, Attwenger, Hubert von Goisern and perhaps a few others I don't know at all, no wave has been released. It is not the case that it has stimulated many people of that sort and they are now daring to blend musical traditions with the present. Actually nothing much has happened. But it seems that something is coming on again, Broadlahn never really died, even if they seem to have some "deaths" behind them, nevertheless, they are still alive. I heard from Attwenger that they were doing something again. Perhaps it will be an impetus for others, when I now do something again.

Are you a political person?

Yes, certainly. I believe that it is important to concern oneself politically. Strictly speaking politics simply means: dealing with others. We do not live alone on an island, we need each other. Even with the chimpanzees I observed with Jane Goodall in Africa, you can see that they need each other. If I say that I am not interested in what is going on, then you get exactly what is happening at the moment, namely disinterest. The disenchantment with politics has actually led to where we are now. The government parties which were voted out of office had it easy because nobody took any notice of them. Therefore the logical consequence. And I do not so much reproach the people, who voted for the FPÖ. I reproach the 20% who did not go to vote. Because then it would look different today. Since I am an optimistic person, I can only hope that the current situation will be a salutary shock, because political interest rose rapidly in the last half year. And you can only hope that political demagoguery will no longer be as easy as in former times.