SCHLARAFFENLAND

I have to admit I bought this CD for one reason and one reason only: because there’s something appealing about a lovely German girl with long dark hair playing a hurdy-gurdy and holding a fish. There, I said it.

Okay maybe that’s not a good reason, but as it turns out this is also a decent album. Not great, but decent nonetheless. On first spin I was almost disappointed though, since the opening title track is a sort of mixture of pop, dance and rather strident German vocals. The liner notes are all in German, but I looked up ”Schlaraffenland” and apparently its equivalent to the old English mythical land of Cockaigne where the drudgeries of peasant life are vanquished and social norms are turned topsy-turvy. Okay, whatever. Life was hard back in those days, so what’s the harm of a mythical land of milk and honey?

Babelfish translates “Wer alten Weibern traut” to “who trusts old women”, which means nothing to me. But the tune is interesting, although leans closer to hard rock than folk. Konstanze Kulinsky’s vocals are barely perceptible here, although she has an interesting way of sort of plucking her hurdy-gurdy that lends a folkish air to the music. There’s also a bit of dobro in the background that sounds more like a flat bass, and some sort of airy keyboard-sounding thing that is probably an accordion. Nice instrumentation, even if you can’t understand what the heck they’re singing about.

Kulinsky airs out her beautiful vocals on the mellow “Nu ruh mit Sorgen”, but honestly I could do without Christoph Pelgen’s singing which reminds me of some old German metal-head trying to squeeze out a ballad. Again the guitar is closer to metal, but the hurdy-gurdy and accordion give a nice touch.

“Lieg still” actually is a sort of ballad though, with both Kulinsky and Pelgen sharing vocal duties again. Here the accordion and cello are the distinguishing instruments, but again I hesitate to call this folk music. This feeling is reinforced with “Herrm wer hat sie begossen” which sounds closer to a German Nightwish than anything else.

But the acoustic ”Es ist ein Schnee gefallen” saves the day with Kulinsky’s gorgeous vocals and a very exquisite but undetermined string arrangement that might be acoustic guitar and dobro, but I can’t tell for sure. Later on in the album a similar “Wohl dem Leibe” also rates high mention as an acoustic folk ballad with great and eclectic instrumentation including a primer by Kulinsky on an electric hurdy-gurdy. Honestly, I never knew such a thing existed.

“Minne ist ein süßer Nam” and “Komm her zu mir” are a couple more neo-prog numbers, alternatingly heavy and mellow but more emphasis on electric guitar and the keyboards and very little acoustic accompaniment; while “Der Edelfalk (Es ist nit alle Lieb verloren)” is a pleasant light acoustic tune but the acoustic instruments (and even some of the vocals) get buried a bit behind the overbearing Fender Rhodes keys.

Toward the end “Frau, du sollst unvergessen sein” comes off like a torrid German version of a Bluehorses semi-punk ditty, while the closing “Psalm XIII” has great acoustic arrangements, but again Pelgen’s vocals are a bit annoying.

Adaro are a band that don’t have a whole lot of exposure in the United States, and I actually had to pay a pretty penny to have this CD imported. I’m not sure it was entirely worth it, but you don’t get too many opportunities to hear a comely female wail on a hurdy-gurdy, so now I can add that to my list of experiences. Three stars, mostly for ”Es ist ein Schnee gefallen” and “Wohl dem Leibe”, but I’m not sure I’d recommend this unless you can get it without shelling out nearly $30US like I had to.

peace