Squaring the Circle (Album)

Squaring the circle
Studio album by Freundeskreis
Publication (s)	February 21, 1997
admission	1996
Label (s)	Four Music
Format (s)	CD, double LP
Genre (s)	Hip hop
Title (number)	19th
running time	69:32
occupation	Max Herre Philippe A. Kayser DJ Friction (Martin Welzer)
Studio (s)	NoSé Studios
chronology - Squaring the circle Esperanto (1999)
Single releases February 1, 1997 Put your ear on the track of history June 30, 1997 ANNA October 27, 1997 When the curtain falls

Squaring the Circle is the debut album by the German-speaking hip-hop band Freundeskreis . It was released by Four Music in 1997 .

Emergence

Freundeskreis recorded the songs from their debut album in October / November 1996 at NoSé Studio A in Stuttgart . It was mastered by Tom Krüger . In addition to the cast of Freundeskreis, Ahmed Sékou Neblett (MC Koukou) was involved in the album as a special featured artist .

Squaring the Circle was released on February 21, 1997 by Four Music, the Fantastischen Vier label , and was distributed by Sony Music Entertainment . It was released on CD (FOR 487245 2) and on double LP (FOR 487245 1). In addition, Four Music released an instrumental edition of the album, with 13 instead of 19 tracks (without intro and other short recordings of the original). Quadratur Des Kreis Instrumentals was released as a limited white label double LP (FOR 970801).

content

In addition to hip-hop, the album Squaring the Circle contains elements of reggae , jazz and soul . It takes up political issues, but some songs also deal with relationship issues and other topics.

Singles

Three weeks before the album was released, the rap song Lay your ear on the track of history was released as the first single. In it, the then 23-year-old Max Herre tells his personal life story based on historical events and biographies of other people. Among other things, he addresses the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Cold War . While the verses are in German, the chorus is in English and sums up the song's message that the human being is a part of something bigger and is influenced by history and politics with You're just a part of it . The song originated from an instrumental piece by Philippe A. Kayser, for which Herre formulated a first verse during a two-week stay in Egypt. A demo of this was recorded and presented to various record companies. The song caught the attention of the newly founded band, Herre describes it as a "door opener" for Freundeskreis.

The second single ANNA (Whenever it rains) was released on June 30, 1997. The love song is about Max (Herre), who remembers how he met Anna, unknown to him, on a rainy day and a spontaneous affection arose between them. The original version of the hip-hop song with pop elements had already been released by Alternate / Intercord the previous year under the band name “Maximilian und seine Freundeskreis”, but was ignored at the time. The new edition, on the other hand, turned out to be a summer hit . The single sold well and was able to place itself in the German-language charts, in Germany it reached number 6.

In the third single, Wenn der Vorhangfallen , which was released in October 1997, Herre and Wasi Ntuanoglu rap about their self- image as musicians and their view of hip-hop culture in Germany: “Banal rap is public and closes us when it comes to art Herre sings in the second stanza.

More tracks

The track Baby, when I'm down is a cover of the song of the same name by Udo Lindenberg . It's about a man who praises his lover (in German) for always standing by him, even when he's cheating, and a woman who agrees with him (in English) because she loves him. The original first appeared on Lindenberg's album Panische Zeiten in 1980 and was released as a single. Lindenberg sang the song together with Leata Galloway (and later live with Helen Schneider ), while Max Herre and Theresa J. Burnette interpret it on the square of the circle . Herre sings an additional verse in which he refers to Lindenberg with the line “We are a panic duo like Udo and Nina”. Lindenberg has a special meaning for Max Herre, among other things because he experienced his first rock concert with him at the age of eleven and thus developed an interest in a musical career.

Telephone Terror is a Dub - Reggae -Song with even a hint of irony. Maximilian is disturbed by an intrusive groupie on the phone in the morning . Cassandra Steen , who was still unknown at the time, took on this role .

In Cross The Tracks , Freundeskreis address political injustice, similar to The Last Poets . They present quotes from Ulrike Meinhof and Mumia Abu-Jamal , in which they describe their experiences in prison.

Track list

No.	title	Music and lyrics	length
1.	Squaring The Circle (Intro)		2:43
2.	Put your ear on the track of history	Philippe A. Kayser , Martin Welzer, Max Herre	5:11
3.	Don't leave me alone	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Max Herre	3:26
4th	Enfants Terribles International (feat.Déborah)	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Ahmed Sékou Neblett , Max Herre	5:20
5.	Last Sunday At Donato (feat. Afrob )		1:24
6th	ANNA (feat.Donato Wharton (guitar) and Davide Petroca (double bass))	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Max Herre	6:06
7th	Addendum		0:37
8th.	Future Mothers	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Ahmed Sékou Neblett, Max Herre	4:26
9.	foreplay		0:38
10.	Baby When I'm Down (feat.Theresa J. Burnette)	Udo Lindenberg	5:16
11.	Cross The Tracks (feat.Donato Wharton (guitar))	Philippe A. Kayser (music), Martin Welzer (music), Ahmed Sékou Neblett, Max Herre, Ulrike Meinhof (text), Mumia Abu-Jamal (text)	4:56
12.	When the curtain falls (feat. Wasi )	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Max Herre, Wasi Ntuanoglu	4:15
13.	Intermediate part		0:58
14th	Overseas / Übersee (feat. Afrob)	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Ahmed Sékou Neblett, Max Herre, Robert Zemichiel	6:53
15th	Cassandra & Christina		0:34
16.	Telefonerror ( feat.Cassandra Steen )	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Ahmed Sékou Neblett, Max Herre	5:45
17th	In the land of the 1210s		4:21
18th	Enfants Terribles '96	Philippe A. Kayser, Martin Welzer, Ahmed Sékou Neblett, Max Herre	5:45
19th	Easy At Last (Outro)		0:58
Overall length:			69:32

meaning

In relation to the development of German hip-hop , Squaring the Circle was one of the publications with which the importance of the New School continued to grow. At the end of the 1990s, the hip-hop scene became the central German youth culture .

For Freundeskreis the album Squaring the Circle was a financial success. It made the jump into the German, Austrian and Swiss charts. In 2017, it was awarded a gold record for more than 250,000 copies sold in Germany . The second single ANNA became a hit and made the band known to a wide audience. Freundeskreis became a popular live act. Her next album, Esperanto , came out two years later and was even more successful commercially.

For Max Herre, squaring the circle was an important first step in his musical career. Even after the Freundeskreis broke up, the songs continued to be part of his repertoire. In 2004 he published a sequel to ANNA on his self-titled solo debut album. Anna '04 is about the fact that he and Anna meet again after years and are tempted again despite families that have now been established. ANNA and the other two singles extracted from squaring the circle appeared in 2013 on Herre's live album MTV Unplugged Kahedi Radio Show .

Squaring the Circle was the first album that Mark Forster knew completely by heart.

Chart successes album

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1997	Squaring the circle	DE12 (32 weeks) DE	AT38 (5 weeks) AT	CH34 (8 weeks) CH	First published: February 21, 1997 Entry into the German charts: July 7, 1997 Sales: + 250,000

Chart successes singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1997	ANNA	DE6 (19 weeks) DE	AT27 (6 weeks) AT	CH16 (15 weeks) CH	First published: June 30, 1997 Sales: + 250,000
1997	When the curtain falls	DE77 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: October 27, 1997 with Wasi

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} squaring the circle at Officialcharts.de Anna at hitparade.ch
2. ↑ Squaring the circle in the Pulse Hall of Fame
3. ↑ ^{a b} Interview with Max Herre about the song Put your ear on the track of history in the hip-hop magazine All Good
4. ↑ ^{a b} biography of Freundeskreis at laut.de.
5. ↑ Album at weltklang.de
6. ↑ Review of the album  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in intro  
7. ^ Robert Heyer, Sebastian Wachs, Christian Palentien (eds.): Handbook Youth - Music - Socialization. Springer, 2013, p. 95.
8. ↑ DE: Gold
9. ↑ SZ for children, Easter 2016.