It’s Nikolaus Day, which means: Same procedure as every year, time for my favorite 2024 albums.

This year (don’t take the order too serious):

• Laurie Anderson: Amelia
• Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (online version)
• Elephant9 & Terje Rypdal: Catching Fire
• Can: Live in Paris 1973
• Can: Live in Aston 1977
• Nick Cave & Bad Seeds: Wild God (Dolby Atmos)
• Einstürzende Neubauten: Rampen
• Peter Thomas: The Tape Masters, Vol. 1
• Hans Zimmer: Dune, Part 2
• Dubbelorganisterna: Volym 1

Furthermore:

• Hans-Joachim Roedelius: 90
• Pet Shop Boys: Nonetheless/Furthermore
• Hermanos Gutiérrez: Sonido Cósmico 

Rediscovered:

• Cowboy Junkies: The Trinity Sessions (1988) (Dolby Atmos)
• Godley & Creme: The History Mix, Vol. 1 (1985)
• Grateful Dead: Europe ’72 (Dolby Atmos)
• Jan Hammer: Escape from Television (1987)
• David (Dave) Holland: Life Cycle (1983)
• Peter Thomas Sound Orchester: Filmmusik (the 2-CD version, 1992)

All in all not the strongest year ever, and as always I’m sure I forgot something. I have to admit I fell in love with Dolby Atmos, a great new headphone experience that gives new life even to a record like the Dead’s (although I’m not their biggest fan, but this record is essential anyways). Nice to hear from Terje Rypdal again, this is a melange somewhat between EL&P and King Crimson, hard work, but worth it. Dubbelorganisterna, in case you never heard that name, consists of leftovers from the drawers of late Bo Hansson & friends, recorded 2007 and 2014, limited to 600 copies. Film composer Peter Thomas would be 100 next year, there will be more about him then. Ryuichi Sakamoto needs no comment, this is the final goodbye. Dave Holland’s solo cello recording is the right music for large, bright, white-painted rooms with few furniture. I love it.

May the next year come (in peace, if possible).

Albums 2024 (no particular order)

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future 
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
Laura Marling – Patterns In Repeat
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Oren Ambarchi, Johann Berthling, Andreas Werliin – Ghosted II
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty Acknowledge Its Grace
Gillian Welsh & David Rowlands – Woodland
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet – The Easy Way Out
Moor Mother – The Great Bailout

Reissues & Archival Releases

Byard Lancaster – Palm Recordings
Broadcast – Spell Blanket Collected Demos 2000-2009
Broadcast – Distant Call Collected Demos 2000-2006
Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum
Joe Henderson – Power To the People
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2
Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert

01. Alles von Jackson Browne
02. Eva Klesse Quartett, Stimmen
03. Reba Mc Intyre, Consider me gone
04. Lainey Wilson, Country ist cool again
05. Carrie Underwood, Before the Cheats
06. Miranda Lambert, I ain’t in Kansas City anymore
07. Willie Nelson, Last leaf in the tree.
08. Einstuerzende Neubauten, Rampen
09. Jeff Parker, The way out of easy
10. Und immer Anton Bruckner, Te Deum

Als Freund der Zahl 12 kommen meine Alben des Jahres im Dutzend; vielleicht kommen zwischen den Jahren noch Listen mit Reissues, Flohmarktfunde und Ähnlichem.

We‘ve had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy.

01. Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
02. Jeff Parker ETA IVtet – The Way Out Of Easy
03. Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace
04. Shane Parish – Repertoire
05. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
06. Kalma, Chiu, Honer – The Closest Thing To Silence
07. Rafael Toral – Spectral Evolution
08. The Necks – Bleed
09. Julia Holter – Something In The Room She Moves
10. Søren Skov Orbit – Adrift
11. Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes
12. Father John Misty – Mahashmashana

piece for late hours

there was a time we stretched the afternoon  
til all those lights from windows, cars, first fireplaces  
made us look for hints, traces of black skies  
to finally open its gates for the rain  
for songs about even harder rain hitting, bathing  
us, invincible children with a mission.

Putting together
a year’s end list is like
playing solitaire by the window.

Any of the stuff not-ranked:
on a special evening
the gateway number one
(soul food horizon)

(in anderen worten:
lass den samtvogel fliegen!)

My 20 Albums of the Year 

01. Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown ***
02. Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowlege Its Grace
03. Erik Honoré: Triage*
04. Fred Hersch: Silent. Listening 
05. Jessica Pratt: Here In The Pitch 
06. Anna Butterss: Mighty Vertebratae
07. Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: The Way Out Of Easy
08. Jakob Bro: Taking Turns (my radio review: HERE)
09. Ganavya: like the sky i‘ve been too quiet
10. Einstürzende Neubauten: Rampen
11. Nala Sinephro: Endlessness
12. Kalma / Chiu / Honer: The Closest Thing To Silence
13. Eric Chenaux: Delights Of My Life  
14. Laurie Anderson: Amelia
15. Danish String Quartet: Keel Road**
17. Laurence Pike: The Undreamt-of Centre
18 Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman: Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On
19. Pan American & Kramer: Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road
20. Tindersticks: Soft Tissue

* Erik Honoré’s ‘Triage’ can easily be categorised as abstract sound art, with itsdiscreet electronics, noisy passages, dark lyrics and the refusal of clear song structures. However, this shows the error of a reception that only skims the surface and subsumes everything under ‘avant-garde’ that doesn’t deliver a three-minute song and doesn’t immediately groove and thrill in mainstream‘s predictable ways. Just switch off the lights and give this album your undivided attention! Prepare yourself for music that will barely keep you in your seat, encouraging you to – often simultaneuosly – float, dance and sink into it. Erik Honoré’s ‘Triage’ is a journey in nine stages, grooving and swirling from power spot to power spot. 

** a trip through the folk worlds of the Northern Sea.. a disc of quiet revelations and arrangements that are as exquisitely crafted as they are captivating, performed with abundant spirit and conviction, and captured in warm, close sound.

*** this cover lives up to the masterpiece of my album of the year. But, bet you this will be my last list til December 6 of 2025 (except radio playlists). So much memory work, listening back, and fidding in the details: even the line-up of these covers is sequenced:)

Favourite surround albums (quad / 5:1 / atmos)

• The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
• Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark & For The Roses
• King Crimson: Red (50th anniversary edition)
• Frank Zappa: Waka / Jawaka*
• Randy Newman: Good Old Boys

*often seen as a preparation for The Big Wazoo, I love this fusion album even more. I am a bit worried, that the older I get, the more i like to listen to Zappa. The family enterprise Zappa Records delivers first class vinyl, cd and surrounds from the archives – for the first time in my life I‘ve listened to „Roxy and Elsewhere“, and I love the live vibes in there, the overflowing energy of the band in full action (Ian Underwood, George Duke…), Zappa’s storytelling, and his electric guitar work😉

Favourite live albums 

• Alice Coltrane: The Carnegie Hall Concert 1970
• Arild Andersen: Landloper (bass solo excellence)
• Sidsel Endresen: Punkt Live Remixes, Vol. 2 
• Wayne Shorter: Celebration
• Keith Jarrett: The Old Country
• Bill Callahan: Resuscitate!
• King Crimson: Sheltering Skies – Live in Fréjus, August, 27, 1982
• Oregon: Ludwigsburg 1990

Deeply moving anglo-american song cycles dealing with failure, fools, decay, love, awareness and all

• Julia Holter: Something In The Room She Moves
• Father John Misty: Mahashmashana
• Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More (späte Entdeckung)
• Hayden Thorpe: Ness (a fantastic melange of song & spoken word)
• Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: Woodland
• Iron and Wine: Light Verse

Albums I wish to materialize in 2025

Brian Eno: An album of songs following the magic „All I Remember“ from the doc „Eno“ / Scritti Politti: a man who only made fantastic cover versions of two Anne Briggs songs from her classic album in years and years should finally finish new songs to remember / Steve Tibbetts: a new (wild?) album by the guitarrero from Minneapolis (after the quiet brilliance of „Life Of“ on ECM)

Albums I wish to reappear remastered on vinyl after a very long time

• Mal Waldron, Eberhard Weber et al.: The Call *
• The Human Arts Ensemble: Under The Tree
• Anthony Braxton Quartet: New York, Fall 1974**
• Jan Garbarek: Sart

*one of the most underrated european fusion masterpieces of the 70‘s

**Braxton‘s albums on Arista Records between 74 and 76 were all brilliant. A shame they missed the 50th anniversary of one of his crownung achievements, that quartet with Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, and Barry Altshul.

My fave albums for deep dancing with or without moving

• Nik Bärtsch‘s Ronin: Spin
• Underworld: Strawberry Hotel

Ancient song cycles, missed in their wild days, finally found

• Paul McCartney & Wings: Band On The Run
• Joni Mitchell: For The Roses

Easily trance inducing, „far out“-albums from the department of „Where am i-Music“ (a question you can ask yourself even while strolling through Clevelode‘s Epping Forest) – every album a grower, some „easy on the ear“, some challenging.

• The Necks: Bleed
• Rafael Toral: Spectral Evolution
• Arushi Jain: Delight
• Sören Skov Orbit: Adrift
• Feliciá Atkinson: Space As An Instrument (spoken word thrills)*
• Rachel Musson: Ashes and Dust, Earth and Sky
• Alva Noto: HYBR:ID III
• Kit Downes, Bill Frisell, Andrew Cyrille: Breaking The Shell
• Clevelode: Muntjac (HERE, my conversation with Paul Newland)
• Fennesz: Mosaic
  
  * „Since the late 2000s, this French musician and visual artist has been releasing collages of field recordings, midi instrumentation and her own hushed vocals, performing abstract poems and stories – in her native French and in English – over ambient clouds of sound. Her most recent album Space As An Instrument comes equipped with everything a great Félicia Atkinson record needs, while not deviating wildly from her proven recipe. This was my comforting go-to headphone soundtrack during fall and early winter.“ (Stephan Kuntze)

Finally, my eighteen favourite reissues & archival discoveries

01. Ank Anum: Song Of The Motherland  
02.The American Analog Set: New Drifters 
03. Taylor / Winstone / Wheeler: Azimuth 
04. Jan Garbarek: Afric Pepperbird 
05. Can: Live in Paris 1973 
06. Günter Schickert: Samtvogel (späte Entdeckung)
07. Annette Peacock: An Acrobat‘s Heart**
08. Julie Tippetts: Shadow Puppeteer 
09. Byard Lancaster: The Complete Palm Recordings 1973-74  
10. Anne Briggs: Anne Briggs *
11. Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz: The Invisible Road
12. Linval Thompson: Ride On Dreadlocks 1975-77
13. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru: Souvenirs
14. Steve Beresford & Anne Marie Beretta: Dancing The Line
15. Peter Thomas: The Master Tapes, Vol. 1)
17. Dennis Bovell: Sufferer Sounds
18. Toumani Diabate & Ballake Sissoko: New Ancient Strings

*(„A stone-cold British folk classic, rendered all the more precious by Briggs’ reluctance to add to her slender catalogue down the years. As a result, the four unreleased recordings included as a bonus 7” with this remastered vinyl reissue – including typically spare, devastating takes on “The Cruel Mother” and “Bruton Town” – were something of a holy grail.“)

** I met Amnette back then in Munich (in the summer of 2000), and she told me, at one point, about sensitive moments in the production. Once, in the morning, she felt her energy waning, couldn’t make the appointment, everything was up in the air. Manfred Eicher carefully knocked at her door. Helpful words, encouragement. It ended well. Fortunately. By the way, she never got together with Brian Eno (they would have made an interesting pair in the studio), but once, early in the seventies, he lent her a wonderful pair of old horn loudspeakers, she fell in love with their sound and never gave them back.

Five smart and deeply touching music documentaries from the last two years

• „Beatles 64“ (Disney plus)
• „Eno“ (by Gary Hustvit)
• „Music for Black Pigeons“ (on Jakob Bro and friends)
• „Zutaten für ein Desaster“ (on Nik Bärtschs, Prime, Apple+)
• „Zero Gravity“ (about the life and times of Wayne Shorter)
• “In The Court of the Crimson King“ (By Toby Amies)*

* I remember that Bill Bruford moment: „Change is part of what King Crimson is about. Change is essential. Otherwise you turn into the Moody Blues, for heaven’s sake.“ Change – and discipline, I should add, with all its good and not so good implications. Humour is an antidot of the doc that has its clear amount of bitter an bitter sad moments. Thinking back, my memory loves to return to a scene that seems like a moment of letting go: people in a park, it‘s raining, they are dancing, floating, kind of. Not easy to link that one with the film‘s dynamic structure, but Toby Amies has been looking, in between, for places of tranquility and surrender, a counterpoint to tough thinking and a means to overrule the intellect. Well done.

Postscriptum 1: Your first song from a great 2025 album, dear reader, comes from „Cold Blows The Rain“, the forthcoming album by Taylor Hayden and The Apparitions: „Lovely On The Water”, listen to it HERE, and immerse yourself into the moving pictures from an old time. In the words of Rob Young, „it’s a song originally collected by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1908, and it sets the tone for the rest of the album. It’s a lament for a pair of young lovers ripped apart. A last, tearful embrace before he must set sail for a distant war. The incomplete song’s last lines describe the collective mourning on Tower Hill of bereaved mothers, wives and lovers. The Apparitions take the song at a steady, funereal pace, adding dignity to devastation.“

Postscriptum 2: I want this „list“ to be a field to stroll around. Making discoveries, and meeting the thin line between memories and imagination, something that so often happens when listening to music you love. It is only a few days ago I heard from the death of my best childhood friend Matthias. We lost one another when being around 12 years young, there never was a wrong note between us. I was looking for him over the last months, and I had nearly found him. A few minutes, a few houses away. But, bad detective work. If I would be a singer, I would write a folk song about our adventures in Dortmund-Hombruch. In fact, my search for him began in springtime, and found its way into the poem „piece for late hours“ that was written while losing myself into the latest album of Pan American and Kramer, my ambient album of the year, and my number 16 in this field to stroll around – making discoveries, and meeting the thin line between memory and imagination that so often happens while living our life.

• John Sugar (one season only)
• Shogun (one season only) 
• The Newsreader, season 1 (mit Anna Torv)
• Criminal Record (one season only)*
• Blue Lights (season 1&2) 
• Die Toten von Marnow (2) (German Noir)
• “Women In Blue“ (season 1)
• Peaky Blinders (the whole journey, six seasons)**

*Criminal Record is unnerving television. A modern-day hard-boiled detective story with intricate plots, the morally ambiguous, and plenty of suspense and intrigue. There’s everything you’d want from a contemporary London-set thriller here…

**We‘re happy to report that we fell hard for Peaky Blinders. However familiar its building blocks, the U.K. gangster drama is positively bursting with irrepressible energy, and it’s proof that, whatever a show’s premise, capable execution is everything. A dance from abyss to abyss. Noir and deep. There is probabyly no lover of Nick Cave‘s musical worlds who doesn‘t fall for this epic journey. P.J. Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, all these usual suspects, are joining the festival of noir. On the last two seasons Anna Calvi delivers. Sometimes haunting and overwhelming, always powerful and affecting, Calvi brings Shelby’s life before our eyes purely with her sound. Impressively, she plays all of the instruments – including ones she was less comfortable with, namely violin, piano and percussion – the results are unforgettable and the rawness is completely intended.

Diesen Zauberern bei der Arbeit zu lauschen und zuzuschauen, war wunderbar. (Achtung, dieses Wort wird dreimal in diesen Zeilen auftauchen!) Das Trio spielte zwei lange Sets völlig frei improvisierter Musik, und als Zugabe „New Morning“, das am ehesten ihre feingeschöpfte LP / CD „Uma Elmo“ in Erinnerung rief. Zuvor, das waren zwei wilde Ritte zwischen kontrollierter Wucht, überfliessender Spielfreude und tonaler Versenkung.

Arve Henriksen verband sein Trompetenspiel mit tollkühnen Gesangseinlagen und (sehr freien) Tasten-Electronica, Jorge Rossy verstand selbst den Quietschgeräuschen seines Schemels perkussive Reize zu entlocken, und Jakob Bro konnte seine Gitarre in verwegenen Zwischenzonen wildern lassen, die wir mal, ohne zu lang zu überlegen, unbeschreiblich, subtil und hochspannend nennen wollen.

Kurz vor Ende des zweiten Stücks schlug die Musik ein mediterranes Flair mit einem Hauch von Martin Denny an, Arve sang von „dreamy beaches“, und davon, das man nun nach Mallorca fliegen würde. Tatsächlich spielen sie dort, in einem Theater, wie er mir hinterher bei unserer herzlichen Bergrüssung erzählte („long time no see“), am Samstag in einem Theater, und alle freuen sich auf 24 Grad in der Sonne. Wer die Drei also erleben möchte….

Zum ersten Mal lernte ich auch Jakob kennen, mit Händeschütteln, nettem small talk, und dem Verweis, dass morgen Abend um 21.05 Uhr, im DLF, unser noch sehr frisches, virtuelles Interview verarbeitet würde. „Taking Turns“ ist ja jetzt erschienen. Wer allerdings den Bro dieses Konzerts kennenlernen will, sei auf sein fantastisches Live-Album „Strands“ mit Palle Mikkelborg und Marilyn Mazur verwiesen, das eine grössere strukturellen Nähe, soundwise, zum „free improvised spirit“ des Dortmunder Abends besitzt als die poetischen Destillate von „Uma Elmo“. Wunderbar, ganz wunderbar!

(Toller Sound im Domicil übrigens, einst ein altes Kino, in dem ich so viele Filme in jungen Jahren sah, unter anderem „Barry Lyndon“!) – m.e.

• Beth Gibbons – Lives outgrown (flowworker tip-grandios)
• Ariel Kalma Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing To Silence (flowworker tip-instrumental, ambient und irgendwie ganz eigen)
• Lizzy McAlpine – Older (tolles Songalbum mit immer wieder kleinen Überraschungen)
• Anna Butterss – Mighty Vertebratae (flowworker tip-tolle Stücke und ungewöhnlichen Sounds)
• Tindersticks  – Soft Tissue (immer wieder tief und schön)
• Einstürzende Neubauten – Rampen (tolles Album, hier finde ich sogar das deutsch und englisch Singen in einem Song nicht seltsam)
• Emiliana Torrini – Miss flower (Liebesbriefe, die die Mutter einer Freundin bekommen hatte, in Songs verwandelt – eine schöne Idee, richtig gut umgesetzt )
• Willie Nelson – Last leave on the tree (eine schöne Überraschung: von seinem Sohn sparsam und oft ungewöhnlich produziert (z.B. Sam Gendel‘s Saxophon)-„Teatro“-Liga für mich!
• Element Of Crime – Wenn es dunkel und kalt wird in Berlin (ohne den Film gesehen zu haben – wunderbare Live-Versionen)
• Meshell Ndegeocello – No more water, the gospel of james baldwin (starkes Jazz, Soul, Spoken Word Konzeptalbum)
• Iron and Wine – Light Verse (dieses mal im Breitwandsound – aber nie zuviel – eine Kunst)
• Loma – How I Live Without A Body (auch ihr drittes Album begeistert mich mit ihrem eigenen Sound)
  
  
  
  AUS DEM ARCHIV:

• King Crimson – Sheltering Skies (genau diese Besetzung hat mein musikalisches Leben sehr beeinflusst)
• Bill Fay Group – Tomorrow Tomorrow And Tomorrow (hier muss ich manchmal an Robert Wyatt denken)
• Brian Eno & Holger Czukay & J. Peter Schwalm – Sushi. Roti. Reibekuchen (was für ein Zusammentreffen)
• Brian Eno – Eno (Soundtrack) (eine prima Zusammenstellung)

Es wunderte mich ja selber, wie nah es mir am nächsten Morgen ging, als ich E. erzählen wollte, was an der Doku „Beatles 64“ so bewegend sei. Ich musste immer wieder an mich halten, um von einzelnen „Zeitzeugen“ zu berichten – da waren ja selbst zwei Mädels dabei, die damals mit gekreischt haben, als die Beatles in Washington Quartier bezogen hatten. Jede dieser Stories sass tief. Ein paar Monate, nachdem die Beatles kurz in Miami abhingen, erschien ihre Single „Rock‘n‘Roll Music“, im Februar 1965, und als diese kleine Scheibe (Rückseite „I‘m A Loser“) auf dem kleinen Plattenspieler im Weissdornweg 11 lief, veränderte sich bei mir so einiges. Natürlich kam mein Blutsbruder Matthias rüber, und wir hörten uns das gemeinsam an, wieder und wieder. Parallel bereiteten wir uns auf die Kommunion vor, schauten den letzten Dampflokomotiven im Baroper Bahnhof zu (von der Stahlbrücke aus), stromerten durch unseren Lieblingswald, gingen zu Spielen des Hombrucher Fussballvereins (das Loch im Zaun war unser freies Ticket), und wir sahen unseren Held Hans Tilkowski live im Fernsehen , wie er „das Tor von Wembley“ nicht verhindern konnte. Nachdrücklich sagte ich Michael Z., dass wir ihn jetzt ausfindig machen werden. Und das würde dann gefeiert. Es gab keinen Streit, bevor wir uns aus den Augen verloren, nach fünf, sechs tollen Jahren mit Cowboyspielen, Zündplättchen, Schwimmbadbesuchen im „Froschloch“, und „Donovanliedersingen“ mit 11 Jahren. Und wir fanden beide Beate toll und trauten uns gar nichts.

“Those Were The Days“

So war „Beatles 64“ nichts weniger als eine astreine Tranceinduktion, verlorene Zeit zurückzuholen. Gestern sah ich, dass eine 0160-Nummer mich versucht hatte zu erreichen. Die Nummer von Michael Z. Ich rief an, er rief zurück. Er erzählte mir, seine Schwester habe Klaus W., getroffen, damals unser „Anführer“ in der Brüder Grimm-Schule, egal, welche Streiche wir ausheckten. Matthias, sagte er mir, sei Ende September gestorben, an Speichelröhrenkrebs. Und ich wollte morgen einfach nur zum Einwohnermeldeamt in Dortmund, und eine Anfrage starten, um seine Adresse ausfindig machen zu können. Ich sagte E. vorgestern noch, diese Woche würde ich die Suche abschliessen. Die Erinnerungen flackern in hoher Schlagzahl auf. So traurig. Wir sind aus dem Club der Fische, und wir sahen, Schulter an Schulter, die Unterwasserabenteuer von Jim Nelson im Vorabendprogramm, wo immer auch „Von Rhein und Weser“ lief, mit der schönen Musik von Brahms. Donovan war aber besser. Dass wir den Refrain von „Atlantis“ auf dem Schulhof zusammen schmetterten, oder auf dem Weg nachhause, in der Singerhoffstrasse, ist unzweifelhaft. Wenn der Ball ins Spiel kam, war er Aki Schmidt, und ich Reinhold Wosab.