专辑简介

by François Couture Despite the fact that it was recorded and released roughly four years after Budapest and ac/dB [Hayden] , Wertmüller remains very close to them in sound and style. The album's title is in honor of composer Michael Wertmüller , a drummer who has previously worked with Stephan Wittwer (who himself has written a number of pieces for Steamboat Switzerland) and Alboth (whose singer is featured here). Wertmüller is a 12-piece cycle entirely penned by its namesake for the trio, plus singer Daniel Lieder , who performs five poems by Michael Lenz . Except for the vocals, the music is pure Steamboat: heavy, loud, both macroscopically complex and microscopically minimalist. Dominik Blum 's Hammond organ is thunderous in "VI" and "IV," among other places. Lucas Niggli 's drumming rests somewhere between Mike Portnoy and Yoshimi P-We , while Marino Pliakas ' electric bass often gets the stranger, more dissonant parts. Wertmüller 's compositional approach differs from Sam Hayden (the featured composer on ac/dB [Hayden] ) in that it relies less on pounding riffs and more on (a)tonal textures and melodic development -- another paradox for the trio to work from. Lieder 's voice is obviously the new variable. Highly expressive, with a penchant for switching from whisper to scream in a nanosecond (anyone else reminded of Mike Patton ?), the voice is used as a fourth instrument, blending in with the other parts. It is particularly convincing in "5:4 [darf das so sein]" and "rH.IH.IF.rF [schönheit]." Most of all, it expands the group's sound without denaturing it. The result is another strong, unique statement from one of the most unusual power trios in Europe. It’s been three years since Steamboat Switzerland created a sensation with the release of the CDs Budapest (GROB 315) and ac/dB [Hayden] (GROB 316). Since then the bad has played over 100 concerts and expanded it repertoire considerably. The Hammond organ post-progrock and post-death metal trio of the Swiss men Dominik Blum (organ), Marion Pliakas (electronic bass) and Lucas Niggli (drums) has included numerous compositions of other composers in its program, has worked out an acoustic set (with piano instead of organ, and an amplified acoustic guitar instead of the electronic bass), has played two-fisted rock sets, curated festivals, and has merged into larger ensembles. A new, long overdue Steamboat CD could have meant anything: a rock CD, an acoustic set, work with a larger ensemble. From this rich pool of work, they have decided to release a cycle of work: twelve compositions that Michael Wertmüller (who can be heard as a drummer on GROB204 ; some of his compositions are collected on GROB545 ) who wrote for (the fully amplified version of) Steamboat Switzerland. In addition he chose five poems from Michael Lenz, which appeared in the poetry volume Aller Ding in 2003. They are recited by Daniel Lieder, who is known as a singer of the legendary free-core combo Alboth! And by the way, Michael Wertmüller played drums for them. The music is austere in the clearest sense of the word: exact, without embellishments, worked out by composer and musicians into the smallest details (Wertmüller participated directly in the recording production and studied the text parts meticulously). This unshiftable order does not serve to create drab, monotonous or brutal music, however. The music is alive and very lithesome. The compositions correspond to the complex way the band works and the band has downright absorbed the compositions – nothing sounds put on here, nothing played with effort, or even haphazardly. A dialect relationship: the musicians completely submit to the compositional material and the compositions become a means through which the band expresses itself. On Wertmüller he most exact order is the catalyst for the vivid performance. The compositions are in constant movement, the music appears to move itself, reels, shoots forward and back. Therefore it rocks and there are terrific thundering power passages. But they also step back behind a multifarious, dazzling, constantly homogenous tonal image. «Actually, given the energy and the sound, maybe this trio is Grob's Motörhead? (...)To have brainy music sound like coming from the guts, you have to be good. Steamboat Switzerland are really good.» François Monti, MUSIQUE MACHINE «Die Kombination Steamboat Switzerland meets Wertmüller ist ein Glücksgriff. Ensemble und Komponist begegnen sich in Höchstform.» Christian Pauli, der BUND «Das Schweizer Trio erfindet sich abermals im Darkroom des scharlachroten Königs zwischen kopulierender Freiheit und Ordnung neu und verteilt dabei im stoischen Schweinsgalopp dialektische Punktmassagen ohne Wenn und Aber.» [hab ich, mp, jetzt glaub nur so halb verstanden...Honker, TERZ