Der gefallen stern --- Flaming Bess
I have something of a problem with this album. It’s not that I don’t like it: I do, very much. The music, that is. But there appears to be some sort of narration running through the album --- could be a story, could be a poem, could be anything --- and it’s all in German so I have no idea what’s being said. That’s bad enough, but without meaning to cause offence and with apologies to any German readers, or anyone who understands or enjoys the language, I’m sorry but as I said in a thread recently on the subject I just find the German language one of the harshest and most ugly in the world. I mean, I can’t speak Spanish or Italian or French (or indeed any language other than English and a very little Irish) but I could either guess the basic idea by picking up on certain words I know or can guess at the meaning for --- much of the usage of words in the “romantic languages” sounds pretty similar --- or at worst just listen to it and enjoy it.
German, not so much. It’s just so hard on the ears. Even to be honest if I understood it I think I would still consider it a terribly gutteral language, full of hard consonants and phrases that sound like they’ve been spat from a machine gun. I recognise this is my problem and that many people will have no difficulty with or dislike of the German language, but when you have to listen to literally minutes of someone spouting something in German, with no idea what he or she is saying, it gets tiresome. I have asked for a translation and Kartoffelbrei has said he will oblige, but he’s busy and I’m not holding my breath. He did mention that the narration seems to be part of an ongoing storyline, huge in breadth and covering several albums, so the chances of me getting the gist of it seem slim at best.
From other reviews I’ve read I’ve discovered that the idea, or part of it anyway, seems to concern the journey of the lead character through Hell, guided by a shining star, voiced by a lady called Mirjam Wiesemann, on some sort of quest. This is, apparently, the second in a triilogy of albums that seems to be titled overall “The music of the spheres”. The fact that I have no clue what’s going on makes the review very frustrating, and it’s just as well the music is so bloody good, otherwise I would not have bothered, which would I think have been my loss. To directly quote the contributor known on Progarchives as PleasantShadeOfGrey in his (or her) review of this album:
”Thus unfolds a mysterious quest, that, at its best moments, is utterly beautiful, endowed with a lyricism that will unfortunately be lost to those not familiar with the German language.” And he/she is right. I would love to know what is being said, I’d love to be let in on the mystery, find out what the story is, but I know nothing of the German language and until Kart comes back to me (if at all) with a translation I remain in the dark.
Even more impressive then the fact that I have really grown to like this album. The musicianship is completely flawless, with the main band already a five-piece and an extra seven players on this album making this a real almost cinematic experience. The album is made up of either three long tracks or fifteen shorter ones. I really don’t know which. There’s a title for each of the three parts but --- surprise, surprise! --- I don’t know what they mean. So they could be movements, chapters, sections, anything. As for the titles of the “songs” themselves, I can guess at one or two but that’s about it.
Before we get to the album though, let me just tell you that Flaming Bess have been together since 1969 would you believe, and have in that time released a total of six albums, of which this is the latest. Why such a relatively small output over such a long period of time, you ask? I don’t know. All I know is that their first album didn’t come out until 1979, ten years after they formed, and after that 1980 saw the release of their second, though sixteen years would pass before their third album hit in 1996. Then another nine years for the fourth, with the fifth out in 2008 and this their sixth. Guess they must be perfectionists or something. On the basis of this album you’d have to say that it was the right idea not to just rush out an album every other year, but even so, a hell of a wait between certainly the third and the fourth.
Wind sounds usher in a lonely piano before trumpet peals sweetly across the tune, the percussion cutting in powerfully as “Erwachen” opens the album. Now this is prefaced by the title or legend “Verloren im dunkel”, so we could be listening to part one of whatever that means, I don’t know. Strong guitar takes the tune as the tempo ups a little and breathy synth lays down its own flavour in the background. Then in the third minute there’s a sharp intake of male breath and the first narration begins. Behind the voice of Markus Wierschem, the character known as The Nameless, soft atmospheric synth and echoing, doomy drums in a slow pattern create the backdrop. A female voice joins the male, this being The Star, the female spirit that guides the Nameless through Hell --- apparently --- and voiced as I said earlier by Mirjam Wiesemann.
The next track, if it is a track, is the title of the whole section, so to speak. Um. It’s called “Verloern im dunkel” and it’s a slow but measured drumbeat with spacey keys and a vaguely AOR sound on the guitar when it comes in. The guitars are handled very ably by Achim Wierschem, surely the brother of the voice of the Nameless? Nice keyboard run, then it gets more dramatic and oppressive … oh wait a moment. This is very confusing. I think (though I can’t be sure, it is very disorienting trying to sort this out when you don’t have a word in the language to work from) that the first track was as I said, but the second part of it, from where the Nameless comes in and starts talking, is actually called “Verloren im dunkel”. Now this track I’m listening to and have been describing above is I think called “Nosce te ipsum”. Maybe. Anyway, there’s a running keyboard riff going through it which is nice but the guitar pretty much holds court here. Nice squeaky, sort of brassy synth ending and it seems there will be no speech on this track. Thank god for small mercies!
It’s not that I don’t like the talking, but I just don’t know how to talk about it, as I have no idea what’s being said, or why. Anyway, next up is, I think, “Verzweifelt und Vergessen”, and here Flaming Bess hit you with yet another surprise. No narration (yet) but a vocal, which is in English! Sung by Jenny K, it’s a joy to hear something other than music that I can understand, and the song itself is an uptempo AOR style song, which seems to question why the character is not in Heaven but in Hell, as she asks
”Where are all the stars in Heaven?/ Where are the golden rays of light?” Sort of a funky dance feel to it too, with samply synth and ticking percussion. The song kind of puts me in mind of Daft Punk, especially when they employ some vocoder, then a Lizzy-style guitar break from Achim which soars into quite a solo that takes us into the last minute of the song.
The title track is next, and I did at least find out that “Der gefallene stern” means “the fallen star”, so that’s something. A very emotive guitar solo opens the song, and Jenny K makes her return for what will be her last performance on the album as the track hits into its second minute. Very Genesis feel to this as it gets going with dark, dramatic keyboards and thundering drums. Despite, again, the fact that the title is in German I’m glad to find the lyric is in English. It’s a slower, moodier piece than the last, with a really nice melody. Achim really shines on this, putting in a fine shift on the guitar. It slows right down then in the last three minutes or so, with flutelike synth and wind sounds, before picking up again on a keyboard line almost ripped out of Tony Banks’s playbook.
If I understand anything about the structure of this album --- and I don’t --- then this song ends the first part of the triplet, and part two is made up of five tracks, as was part one. If they are parts. “Anderwelt” opens with, well, “Anderwelt”, a lovely acoustic guitar playing over broody synth, then the voices are back, sadly in German this time, talking to each other with me rolling my eyes and sighing. I honestly couldn’t even make a guess as to what they’re saying: they could be reciting poetry or their shopping list. But the acoustic guitar keeps a nice atmospheric background behind them, a little light percussion complementing the dark synth as Mirjam and Markus jabber on about whatever it is they’re discussing. They seem to get very animated, excited, but it’s lost on me.
A sort of Parsonsesque instrumental then in “Lichtpfad”, with some stabbing synth and hard guitar and a gorgeous thumping bassline from Hans Wende, before Achim sets off on another superb guitar solo. More vocoder is brought in for the last two minutes, with peppy squeaky synth leading the way to the finish line. We then get a different vocalist as Mike Hartmann takes the, er, mike for “... wie Wüstenregen”, which opens with a fine guitar line and then it’s great to hear that the vocal is again in English. Hartmann’s voice is soulful and powerful, complementing the music here perfectly. Some really nice keyboard work on this from Peter Figge, then what sounds like violin leads into a very Pink Floyd-style guitar solo from Achim. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that “Identropie” means identity, and it features more spoken passages from the Nameless as a very new-wave style reminiscent of maybe Duran Duran or OMD takes us into a nice instrumetnal with some Brian May overtones on some quite superb guitarwork from Achim, more vocoders and more Lizy influences on the guitar. “Erlösung ?” is obviously a question but what the question is I have no idea. It does however feature a sort of far-off vocal that’s not too distinguishable, but I think is again in German, as well as bassy piano and echoey slow percussion. This gives way to a very gorgeous piano line that’s almost classical in tone, leading into a deeply sumptuous strings section that nevertheless reminds me of the closing track on Genesis’s “Invisible touch”. Hmm.
Powerful guitar from Achim then takes up that melody, giving it real teeth as the strings keep going. We’re back to solo piano then for the last two minutes of the song, as it all quiets down, with some flutey keys joining in, Achim adding his own touches on the guitar while the distant vocal returns. And so we move into what I guess may be the third movement, “Am Fluß von Sein und Zeit”, which again opens with the title with some Mike Oldfield guitar and choral vocals giving way almost to the opening to “Shine on you crazy diamond”, then the vocal is back, behind a soft lush synth line that reminds me of Pendragon’s “For your journey”.
It all kicks up then for the rockiest track on the album, so different to what has gone before that I’ve wondered if it is really on the album or if I have inadvertently downloaded the wrong track somehow. “Die kyberniten” however makes sense when you listen to the lyric, which is sung in English, Mike Hartmann making his return. The title seems to translate as “cyborg nation” and it’s jammed full of guitar riffs, solos and keyboard arpeggios, with a driving beat and a sonorous organ too. The epic is next, the longest track on the album -- assuming you don’t take this as an album with three tracks; you know what I mean. Don’t you? --- at over twelve minutes, “Haravienna” keeps Hartmann behind the mike for the final time, as a heavy, ominous intro on synth and then howling guitar gives us the final English vocal. It again reminds me of the best work of the Alan Parsons Project, particularly on “The turn of a friendly card” or “I robot”.
You get some part of the story here in the lyric as Hartmann describes, or seems to, the journey these lost souls are making and the quest they are on. There’s also a sense of Asia in the song, though it does get a little repetitive in the third minute or so; after the fifth or so it becomes mostly an instrumental, allowing first Figge then Achim to shine as they go through a workout on their individual instruments: even Wende on the bass comes more to the fore. It’s well into the eighth before Hartmann comes back with the vocal, but to be totally fair it’s nothing more than a reprise of the chorus, the bit that had bored me before the instrumental break and it probably was not needed. Nice acoustic guitar passage from guest Julian Küster, then in the tenth minute it gets really stripped down, to just flute and piano, before kicking up for the big finale with guitar and choral vocals and ending with lone piano and wind noises which carry us into the penultimate track and turn into a rainstorm with pealing church bells as “Rückkehr” opens on flute from guest Markus Roth, who had been responsible for that fine organ in the epic just now. Another really nice acoustic guitar solo before harder electric guitar from Achim joins in, then the closer features the return of Markus Wierschem as the voice of the Nameless. Against the backdrop of synth and crying guitar, “Friedhof der Träume” seems to feature an exchange, argument or realisation between the Nameless and the Star. I think I can figure out that he’s trying to discover who he is and the final words
”Ich bin musique!”, well, they tell their own story, don’t they?
TRACKLISTING
Verloren im Dunkel:
1. Erwachen
2. Verloren im Dunkel
3. Nosce Te Ipsum
4. Verzweifelt und Vergessen
5. Der gefallene Stern
Anderwelt:
6. Anderwelt
7. Lichtpfad
8. . wie Wüstenregen
9. Identropie
10. Erlösung ?
Am Fluß von Sein und Zeit:
11. Am Fluß von Sein und Zeit
12. Die Kyberniten
13. Haravienna
14. Rückkehr
15. Friedhof der Träume
Truth to tell, I feel slightly cheated by this album. It’s my own fault and nothing I can blame the band for --- they’re singing after all in their native language --- but precisely because of that, and the fact that I can’t understand what’s being said, what it means and how it ties into the album, I feel like I haven’t really experienced the full effect of “Der gefallene stern”, and I think it would be so much better if I could follow the story.
Which is high praise, as this is one amazing album, even notwithstanding the above. The wealth of talent on display is staggering, and the album has clearly been carefully constructed over a number of years to ensure they provide the very best result to their fans. It’s just a pity that I’m not one of them. I think the music is excellent but though I made myself listen to this several times for the purposes of this review, it’s not something I would do for pleasure. Nothing to do with the music, and those sung in English are great. But the overpreponderance of dialogue in German just makes it hard to keep listening. As I said at the beginning, were this any other language I could probably just listen toit, but German is way too harsh for my ears to have to deal with for any protracted length of time.
Still, I can see why it’s on the list and if the rest of their albums are this good it explains why there are so few of them over a more than forty-year period. Flaming Bess may not release too many albums, but when they do, it looks like they’re masterpieces.
The rating sadly has to reflect the problems not being able to speak or understand German caused me. Were these just German lyrics in a song I would not be so harsh, as I could still listen to the music. But though music did accompany the spoken parts, it was very much in the background and you couldn’t really concentrate on it, so you were forced to listen to two people ramble on, with increasing passion and excitement, about something you had no clue about. So anyway, given that I enjoyed the music but not the spoken parts, I think the best I can award this album is a probably undeserved
5.5/10. Sorry guys!
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Kartoffelbrie for offering to translate this for me. Maybe someday he’ll get back to me with the full story, but even if not, the intention was there and that’s what matters. Thanks man!