Folk country
Folkländer, Folkländers Bierfiedler, Bierfiedler, The Seven Lives |
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General information | |
origin | Leipzig , Germany |
Genre (s) | Folk |
founding | 1976, 1994 |
resolution | 1991, 2008 |
Founding members | |
Elke Raaz | |
Jürgen B. Wolff | |
Gabi Lattke | |
Horst Groeschel | |
singing |
Wolfgang Leyn |
Guitar, vocals |
Peter Uhlmann |
Uli Doberenz |
Folkländer was one of the most successful folk bands in the GDR . After numerous line-up changes, they renamed themselves several times, but essentially remained the same band.
history
Folkländer was founded in 1976 by Jürgen B. Wolff and other students at the Leipzig University of Graphics and Book Art and was one of the first folk bands in the GDR.
The cast at the time included Horst Gröschel, Gabi Lattke, Wolfgang Leyn, Elke Raaz, Peter Uhlmann and Jürgen B. Wolff . Uli Doberenz joined the band at the end of 1976, Erik Kross in 1978 and Manfred Manne Wagenbreth in 1979 .
The name of the band is based on a play on words from folk and Vogtland , as two of the founding members come from the Vogtland . In 1976 Folkländer organized the first GDR open folk workshop in Leipzig. This is also considered to be the birth of an independent folk scene in the GDR. After a few changes of line-up, Folklander was at times a trio.
From 1979 the band was able to play abroad, also visiting western states such as France and Cyprus. In 1980 the cooperation with the dance group Kreuz und Square began . In the same year Amiga released the folk LP Frisch auf ins wide field , on which five folk country titles were represented. In the following year, the band temporarily expanded to become a folk big band . In the same year the authorities of the GDR officially classified him as a professional musician .
The first open folk workshop developed from 1980 into the Central Folk Workshops of the GDR, which took place annually in Leipzig until 1984.
In January 1982, the folk opera Die Boten des Todes was written under the direction of Jürgen B. Wolff , but its premiere was banned. Die Folkländer-LP If you ask who did it, it was released the following month. The group now devoted themselves to folk dancing together with Kreuz and Square . At the same time, the band was renamed Folkländers Bierfiedler . In 1985 the Amiga LP Folk's Tanz Haus was released.
Band founder and singer Jürgen B. Wolff left Folkländers Bierfiedler in February 1985 and became a member of the folk cabaret Duo Parasol . Folkländers Bierfiedler disbanded in 1991. Wolff's successor founded the band Drumalane Waltz. The original band was re-founded in 1994 as a beer fiddler . At the same time, in 1998 some members and again Jürgen B. Wolff founded the Leipzig Folk Session Band. The band Bierfiedler, on the other hand, changed its name to The Seven Lives in early 2004 . From March to June 2008 the band was on a farewell tour.
music
In the beginning, the band's music was mainly influenced by Irish folk . The orientation towards West German folk formations such as Zupfgeigenhansel or Liederjan soon followed . Some pieces of these groups have been interpreted by Folklander and supplemented by their own works. From 1978 the band began to search intensively in libraries and archives for forgotten folk songs and to revive them. Folk folk played mostly happy hiking, journeyman and drinking songs, and more serious pieces about the misery of people in the past. This could be understood as a commitment to socialism , but also as a criticism of the real conditions in the GDR. Her goal wasn't necessarily to be authentic. It was their goal to make folk songs usable for the current time, to "blow the dust off them".
Some of the band's pieces were sung in the moderate Vogtland dialect. An example is the Vogtland translation of the Australian anti-war song And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda .
Wolff's voice was characteristic of the band's music in the early years; after his departure, Manfred Wagenbreth became the lead singer.
Print publications
Folkländer did not only use her research for buried folk songs for her own record releases. The band also published a total of eleven song books and a “Bibliography of literature on German folk songs”, which comprised 230 pages.
Discography
Folk country
LPs
- 1980: Fresh into the wide field (sampler with five pieces by Folkländer) ( Amiga )
- 1981: If you ask who did it (Amiga)
Folkländers beer fiddlers
LPs
- 1985: Folk's Tanz Haus (Amiga) (together with the group Jams)
CDs
- 1991: crash on the way home
Beer fiddler
CDs
- 1995: The next steamer
- 1995: Live at Killiwilly , with Wimmerschinken (Löwenzahn)
- Our craft is spoiled (dandelions)
- 2000: The Best & Leftovers (Löwenzahn)
- 2001: Under the Bohemian Wind (Dandelion)
- 2002: Take from me (dandelions)
The seven lives
CDs
- 2004: The Seven Lives (Löwenzahn / Heideck)
- 2005: Everyone knows (dandelions)