Browse by Artist: MARZ

Artist:	MARZ
Title:	Love Streams
Label:	KARAOKE KALK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	KK 013CD

"Sometimes you think all has been said about some music, and maybe there is always a bit of truth in that. However, the good thing about music is that it is never confined to one 'true' moment but is with us in many different ones. And just like these moments change, the perception of and emotional response to the music you are listening to change as well. the music of März again creates new sensations and emotions once you let yourself be captivated by it -- some moment or other: at home, in the park, in the evenings in the company of friends. Some things on Love Streams will sound familiar, yet new -- as if having moved to a another neighbourhood, which is neither better nor worse than the old one. The overall composition of each separate piece and of the encompassing whole is so self-contained and dense and at the same time so close to us that one feels like sinking into it. This fascination might best be compared to that of some classic singer/songwriters, who by way of the lyrics let us share in their pain, melancholy, joy -- and their personal revelation. Only here, it's not the words but the music that is doing this to you. Maybe this is 'new folk'." Last copies, deleted item.

Artist:	MARZ
Title:	Wir Sind Hier
Label:	KARAOKE KALK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	KK 029CD

"März's follow-up to their 2002 début Love Streams on Karaoke Kalk. Eleven new songs by Albrecht Kunze and Ekkehard Ehlers. It's all about positioning, i.e. the question of where you / I / we are standing now and here and in this particular moment; and März's songs describe the Here from their own personal perspective. It would seem to be the aspect of someone looking out from a park, if the titles 'März Im Park' ('Park in March') and 'Oktober Im Park' ('Park in October') are anything to go by; and yet it remains uncertain as to whether the fenced-off area of a park, with its circumscribed freedom -- simultaneously including and excluding -- is a place of relaxed tranquility, (deceptive) security or indeed a place of pacification. Places both conceivable and inconceivable superimpose themselves upon one another, and what remains is a feeling of uncertainty as to whether one should like to stay here or not. März seem to value the tension, which such unclear positions generate; or, put another way, they seem to want to endure it, for in the manner of a counter-design to this uncertainty, Wir Sind Hier evinces them continuing to fashion their inviting and seductive landscapes out of folk, pop and club influences: explicit, prodigal, subtly differentiated, but also displaying a greater desire to take risks than on Love Streams, so much so that only an idiot would chose not to tarry here a while. Tarry in the interstices of their world, between song and track, guitars and glockenspiel, banjos and bass drums, hounds and Hawaiian guitars, plug-ins and trombones . . . A musical world however, which does not try to emulate the park itself -- a separate, enclosed area; and yet is aware of the danger of being fenced-off and occupied, which is why März keeps the borders open, both musically and lyrically and provides enough space for typically hymnal offerings, such as 'Biber & Enten' ('Beavers & Ducks') (which moreover considerably augment their arsenal of strange and self-generated sounds) as well as space enough for improvisation and songs, which proclaim: was uns verändert / holt uns am Ende ein / was uns verändert / könnte ein Anfang sein. (the things that change us / will catch up with us in the end / the things that change us / could be just a beginning). Songs, which, for all the self-evident guise of High Pop, perpetually pose the question about positions, about themselves, itself, and thereby about me as well; songs, which circle around the question of position, of place and the quality of that place and thereby circle and encircle me until at some point or other (and almost automatically so), their question is my question: where am I -- here?"

Artist:	MARZ
Title:	The River
Label:	KARAOKE KALK (GERMANY)
Format:	10"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KK 038EP

"The River offers two new tracks by März that give us a little foretaste of their new album, Wir sind hier. The title track as well as the B side with 'Blaue Fäden' are with their instrumentations and arrangements slightly reminiscent of tracks like Durutti Column's 'Summer'. But this comparison doesn't quite work, because the use of strings and melodies or personal moods and remembrances the music awakens are not enough to relate this kind of reference to an outside world usually very different from one's own and to the present. And März are present."

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