ARTIST...: Elephant ChΓteau
TITLE....: Dreamings & Offshore Drilling û Pearls And Turtles
YEAR.....: 2020
LABEL....: Bureau B
CAT.NO...: BB328
GENRE....: Electronic
TIME.....: 50:15
SIZE.....: 115.27 MB
QUALITY..: 320kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2020/04/30
WEBSITE..: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/?id=By4zvw7ofadopqktxyic7odqpai
TRACKLIST
01) (08:20) Dreamings
02) (04:49) Not All The Day
03) (04:12) Wir fangen mit der Arbeit an
04) (03:38) 1.03 cm Abover Their Heads
05) (02:29) She Had Hair
06) (01:40) La Fin
07) (04:28) Semmelweiss
08) (04:01) Strange Days
09) (03:03) How To Fall In Big City
10) (03:38) Nebellied
11) (04:34) Rendez-Vous In The Sky
12) (04:18) JÆaime rien
13) (01:05) Cathedral 1
½It's like an illegal anti-freudian love affair, or am I too romantic?"
Marlene McCarthy in "Wir fangen mit Arbeit an"
Songs leave us cold or we fall in love with them instantly. That's probably what
happened to Okonkole y Trompa 2017 when he wrote a euphoric review of Dreamings by
Elephant ChΓteau on his webblog and infected quite a few music diggers. Up to Olivier
Lamm, who commented euphorically on Dreamings in the LibΘration on 3 February 2020
½C'est de la dynamite, Le son du jour #423: ΘlevΘ comme elephant chΓteau à cette
odyssΘe alanguie d'un collectif bΓlois inconnu dans nos contrΘes va vous trotter dans
la tΩte toute la journΘe.╗ And dreamings was not the only song that found its way to
listeners and into their legs, as songs or as remix material. The 30-year delay
between creation and discovery is astonishing. But as Veith Stauffer already wrote in
1998 on "Offshore Drilling" "One of the most underrated albums in the history of
experimental rock music in Switzerland".
From 17 April 2020, the productions of Elephant chΓteau are now available again. With
the title "Dreamings & Offshore Drilling - Pearls and Turtles" the Hamburg label
Bureau B combines the 12" Maxi released in 1985 and the CD/LP "Offshore Drilling"
released in 1990.
"Offshore Drilling" is a work full of emotion, melancholy and unacademic joy of
experimentation. (Veit Stauffer, April 1991)
The recordings show the work of "Elephant ChΓteau" in a variety of different
formations with various guest musicians, recorded between 1982 and 1989. Well-
sounding film music ("Le Fin"), free jazz experiments ("J'aime rien") and ambient
electronics ("Nebellied") up to the showpiece "Wir fangen mit der Arbeit anfangen", a
German monologue spoken by the American artist Marlene McCarthy, accompanied by a
sensual crackling sound backdrop.
The songs are of a kind that could not be done today.
Elephant ChΓteau emerged from this collaboration with Marlene McCarthy, as a loose
formation for a performative publication of texts. The core consisting of Max
Spielmann (git, keyb), Johannes Vetsch (bs, voc, keyb) and until 1986 Christian
Schaffner (git, voc, perc) continued working afterwards. With Franziska Strebel (dr,
perc) it became something like a band, with the claim to record credible intellectual
rock music. They exploited the sound spectrum of the 80s, from analog synthesizers
and rhythm machines to samplers and digital effects units without technoid coldness,
but full of emotion, melancholy and unacademic joy of experimentation. Analogue songs
like "We start with work" and "j'aime rien" stand besides rhythm and sequencer tracks
like "Dreamings" or "Fog Song", which often brought the available technology to its
knees, at least live.
Veit Stauffer's description of Offshore Drilling's songs probably remains unsurpassed
even today: "Although the album was put together over several years, it seems
determined, as if all of a piece. "She Had Hair" was immediately covered by SKY BIRD,
"Semmelweiss" tells the tragic story of the discoverer of childbed fever 100 years
ago and sounds like a THIS HEAT outtake, "Strange Days" turns the DOORS title into a
charmingly underexposed hymn, "J'Aime Rien" sounds like the meeting of the ART
ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO with CATALOGUE and THE GOVERNMENT. "La Fin" on the other hand
reminds us of the credits of a German TV crime thriller. Page 2 starts like WIRE with
"1.03 CM Above Their Heads", "Not All The Day" celebrates pure CAN magic, the climax
of the record with real DAMO SUZUKI groove and strong lyrics, "Wir fangen mit Arbeit
an" sets the crazy everyday lyrics of a German-speaking American to music.
Feat. MARLENE McCARTHY, FRANZISKA STREBEL, CHRISTIAN SCHAFFNER, BASCHI
BAUMGARTNER, CHRISTOPH GALLIO, CORNELIA MELIAN and others". (Veit Stauffer, October
1998)
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