a r t i s t : Ekkehard Ehlers
t i t l e : A Life Without Fear
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Staubgold SG066
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Apr/2006
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 62,2 MB
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Following a series of releases that are the Illustrated Encyclopedia
entry for esoteric, Ekkehard Ehlers has moved away from his devotional
streak to craft an album which strives to find its own place within the
musical world. Taking it's starting point as the hiss which emanates
from wiring up multiple amplifiers and allowing them to "speak naturally",
'A Life Without Fear' is a Blues-pickled journey down the wires that
happily shirks any notion of 'easy listening' for a challenging musical
diktat that manages to' be both genuinely odd yet consistently charming.
Opening through the gorgeous 'Ain't No Grave', Ehlers cadges a traditional
song (i.e., sans copywrite) wherein a bourbon-soaked guitar part lurches
around the husky/layered vocals which swan-neck into a fusion of unfocused
noise. It's a blinder. From here we're dunked straight into the spiraling
drone of 'Frozen Abischt', a compulsively taut cowl of thrumming
percussion, mangled melodies and quaggy fissures that seem outwardly
austere but (through a bit of perseverance) reveal a welcoming heart -
a trick repeated on the almost Fennesz-fog of 'A Second Fire' and bowed
guitar of 'Nie Wieder Schnell Sagen'. Elsewhere, 'Strange Things' is the
kind of Delta Blues that should come with a health warning, '
Meeresbeschimpfung' is four minutes of acoustic rectitude, whilst the Ralph
Stanley penned 'O Death' is a murder-ballad dredged straight from the
River Styx. Fearless.
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01-ain't no grave [04:23]
02-frozen absicht [04:33]
03-strange things [02:46]
04-a second fire [03:43]
05-die sorge geht über den fluss [03:16]
06-nie wieder schnell sagen [04:53]
07-misorodzi [03:34]
08-maria & martha [08:49]
09-meeresbeschimpfung [04:07]
10-o death [05:24]
11-the end [00:04]
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45:32 min