Mathias Rüegg & Vienna Art Choir – Five Old Songs (CD2036)

Alphorn, dulcimer and a jazz choir. On Five Old Songs, Mathias Rüegg and the Vienna Art Choir take five traditional folk songs and turn them into something new. Each piece starts from an old melody and opens it up to modern choral sound, free improvisation and jazz harmony. It was recorded in May 1984 at Studio Kornhäusel in Vienna.

Vocalist Lauren Newton is again at the centre, surrounded by a twelve-voice choir. The instruments give the album its own colour. Herbert Joos plays flugelhorn and the alphorn, Woody Schabata plays hammered dulcimer and xylophone, and Wolfgang Puschnig plays saxophone, bass clarinet and flutes. George Lewis and Christian Radovan play trombone. The result is folk tradition and avant-garde in one, sometimes moving and sometimes ironic. It’s always unmistakably Rüegg.

The album is the follow-up to the choir’s debut From No Art to Mo(z)art (CD2002), and the two make a perfect pair. Released on Moers Music. When you buy here, you’re buying directly from the label, and we only sell originals.

The Side Story

Mathias Rüegg was born in Zurich, but he made his career in Vienna as founder of the Vienna Art Orchestra. On Five Old Songs he goes back to his Swiss roots. Four of the five songs are Swiss-German folk songs, including the Guggisbergerlied, one of the oldest and best-known folk songs in Switzerland. The fifth, “La Girumeta”, is a song from the Italian-speaking tradition. Rüegg’s interest in his home country wasn’t new. With the Vienna Art Orchestra he had already staged a “musical-critical examination of Switzerland” (“Musikalisch-kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Schweiz”), with Lauren Newton and Woody Schabata in the band.

The alphorn and hammered dulcimer aren’t just decoration. They are the classic sounds of Alpine folk music, and here they sit next to a free jazz trombonist from Chicago’s AACM. For anyone interested in the meeting of folk music and jazz, few albums are this original.

Tracklist

1. Song 1 (based on “Luegit vo Bärg und Tal”) – 11:47

2. Song 2 (based on “Es git kei söligi Stamme”) – 5:41

3. Song 3 (based on “Zoge am Boge”) – 4:32

4. Song 4 (based on “Guggisbergerlied”) – 7:32

5. Song 5 (based on “La Girumeta”) – 9:21

Arrangements/compositions by Mathias Rüegg. Total running time: approx. 39 minutes

Personnel

• Mathias Rüegg – conductor, arranger

• Lauren Newton – vocals

• Wolfgang Puschnig – alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, piccolo

• Herbert Joos – flugelhorn, alphorn

• George Lewis – trombone

• Christian Radovan – trombone

• Woody Schabata – hammered dulcimer, xylophone

• Vienna Art Choir: Renate Bochdansky, Maria Bayer, Lis Malina, Sharon Natalie, Karin Riessner, Peter Jelosits, Kurt Azesberger, Christof Prinz, Roland Streiner, Winfried Stelzmüller, Johannes Prinz

Details

• Format: CD

• Label: Moers Music

• Catalog no.: CD2036

• Recorded: May 1984, Studio Kornhäusel, Vienna

• Price: €14.00