Stefan Müller-Altermatt, President of the Parliamentary Group for Music PGM, was joined by National Councillors Estelle Revaz, cellist, and Vroni Thalmann-Bieri, folk musician, at the group's latest meeting to discuss the discrimination of Swiss musicians on streaming platforms.

Switzerland ranks sixth in the world for per capita expenditure on recorded music. In 2023, Swiss customers spent CHF 234 million on recorded music, 88% of which was spent on streaming. This enormous amount is offset by zero: not a single one of the digital service providers (DSPs) has even one employee who is primarily concerned with Swiss music, and not a single one has a branch in this country. The curators work the Swiss market on the side, in the case of market leader Spotify from Berlin as an "encore" to the ten times larger German market. They are not familiar with the local scene and don't have the time to deal with it. Acts from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino receive even less attention. As a result, Swiss music hardly features on the playlists they put together. This underrepresentation is exacerbated by the other playlists created by algorithms on this basis. There is clear discrimination against acts from comparable countries.

Previous initiatives by associations in this matter have been unsuccessful. Now Stefan Müller-Altermatt has submitted a motion demanding that DSPs of a certain size have a Swiss editorial office based in Switzerland. It will be dealt with by the councillors in one of the next sessions.

Detailed report on Swiss music on the streaming market

On the double-decker train, there are those who always sit at the top and those who sit at the bottom. There are Migros children and Coop children. Even the wolf has friends and enemies. We divide many aspects of our lives into either-or. Yet a little more diversity would do us a world of good. Not only as a society, but also when playing e-bass. It's the little things that make us realize this. In this case, the little thing is about 3 by 3 centimetres in size and is called a plectrum.

Most bassists play exclusively with their fingers or with a plectrum. The other technique is simply ignored, if not devalued. For me, this imprint led to a real awakening experience when I spent some time with the plectrum. It's not just a different world, it's a wonderful addition to my playing. But how exactly does it work? How do I practise it properly and who can give me some advice on how to get started?

As always, you can try it yourself. At some point you'll get the hang of the fire and then it won't be so difficult with the pick. But with the book Bass pick by Christoph Herder, success comes a little faster. And he doesn't make it complicated. He sheds light on the world of plectrum playing in a serious overview, gives tips, organizes the technical aspects and provides practice material. The basically simple exercises build on each other and help both beginners and those who are just starting out. Practicing will be rewarded with fascinating (new) soundscapes and sound technical know-how.

The only disadvantage: teaching aids for plectrum bass are still charming niche products. This is also the case with this one, which dates back to 2020 and comes with MP3 files on a CD. But if you can still find a drive somewhere, you can also use the crisp play-along grooves.

Christoph Herder: Plectrum Bass for four- and five-string, Everything you need to know about the Plectrum technique must know!, with CD and Plectrum, 128 p., order no. 20287G, € 23.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

Swiss composers have written countless wind quintets for the Stalder Quintet, which was founded in 1955, but not the ones that the Art'Ventus Quintet has recorded on its new CD. The ensemble, made up of some of the best young Portuguese musicians, has only been playing together for three years, but has already reached a very high level. The flautist and oboist studied in Switzerland. For their program Swiss Treasures they have chosen works by Peter Mieg, Paul Huber, Paul Juon and Gion Antoni Derungs; the first two are premiere recordings. The graphically appealing CD also contains an interesting booklet text by Dominik Sackmann.

When Goethe said about the string quartet that you can hear four sensible people talking, this should actually also apply to a wind quintet, despite the somewhat larger instrumentation. In Peter Mieg's quintet, which was completed in 1977, you get the feeling that everyone is constantly talking and no one lets the others have their say. A glance at the score shows that most of the time all five instruments play simultaneously, which is really a weak point of the composition. The beginnings of the movements sound promising, but interest quickly wanes because the music is incredibly repetitive.

The quintets by Paul Huber, who was a musical institution in St. Gallen during his lifetime, and Gion Antoni Derungs, who was an important representative of Grisons music, are significantly better. Both works, composed in 1963 and 1977 respectively, adhere to tonality, but from today's perspective this cannot be a sign of a lack of open-mindedness or quality. The Portuguese quintet audibly identifies with the pieces and guarantees ideal performances. Huber's work consists of an expressive, melancholy Adagio and a virtuoso Scherzino, in the trio of which Ferdinand Fürchtegott Huber's folk song Luegid vo Berg und Tal is easy to recognize. Derungs' Divertimento, somewhat more modern than the other pieces on the CD and difficult to categorize stylistically, is, contrary to the title, not a particularly cheerful piece and may not be obvious on first hearing.

Confectioners from the canton of Graubünden were successful throughout Europe and often achieved considerable wealth, as evidenced by the villas of returnees in Poschiavo and Val Bregaglia. Paul Juon, born in Moscow, was the son of a Grisons confectioner from Masein. He received a sound musical education and studied composition with Anton Arenski and Sergei Taneyev. He himself later taught at the Berlin Academy of Music before spending the last six years of his life in Vevey. You will search in vain for Swiss traces in his music, but there were contacts with Swiss musical life. The Wind Quintet op. 84 from 1928 recorded here is dedicated to Jakob Vogel, who was president of the Bern Orchestra Association for many years.

Some of the best-known and most frequently performed wind quintets were written in the 1920s, such as those by Paul Hindemith, Carl Nielsen, Hanns Eisler, Arnold Schönberg and Jacques Ibert. Juon's quintet can easily bear comparison with these works. It is impeccably crafted, powerful and imaginative, often harmonically bold and challenges every instrument. The new recording by the Art'Ventus Quintet is very energetic, but the first movement is played noticeably too slowly, which gives it too much earthiness. The dynamics should have been better respected in some of the quieter passages, as it would have given the interpretation a little more relief.

Overall Swiss Treasures a CD worth recommending, as it documents works by somewhat lesser-known Swiss composers.

Swiss Treasures. Chamber Music for Wind Quintet. Art'Ventus Quintet (Paula Soares, flute; Tiago Coimbra, oboe; Horácio Ferreira, clarinet; Nuno Vaz, horn; Raquel Saraiva, bassoon). Prospero PROSP0081

In his music, the German composer Johannes Schöllhorn (*1962) has repeatedly explored the music of others, transcribing and transforming it, making music about music, such as Bach and Ravel, Purcell and Satie and, wonderfully, Gabriel Fauré. Several of these pieces can be found on the double CD Sérigraphies (bastille musique 20).

Schöllhorn himself is therefore an expert in appropriating and transforming. His 500-page book, a partly loose and yet internally consistent collection of shorter texts, is also about the dialectic of this approach. The conquest of the world is at the center, as well as its accompanying music, which has always been one of appropriation, even theft - and one of ordering: that is why the map, clock and score play the main role in the title.

Our European culture has made the globe its own with the help of these instruments. Schöllhorn follows these traces, to the printing press and across the seas, into painting and compositional technique, into the past and into the future. And because he has a broad horizon, there is an enormous amount to learn from him. The book seems to be written quickly and also reads quickly. This spontaneity is refreshing, full of verve, sometimes the author is gripped by anger, sometimes the thoughts run wild and confuse, because Schöllhorn ventures into unfamiliar territory with the help of good secondary literature.

The whole thing is unsystematic, does not bundle things together, but lays out threads that could be traced back to a core point. There are a few gaps you would like to fill, others you would like to know more about, and you often have objections while reading, many in fact, but they should be fine. Because the book is stimulating - and despite all the doubts and despair, it does not leave us hopeless, because "music can always do one thing - comfort us".

Johannes Schöllhorn: Map, clock and score. Variationen und Volten über Eroberung und ihre Begleitmusik, edited by Rainer Nonnenmann, 512 p., € 24.00, MusikTexte, Cologne 2022, ISBN 978-3-982467-0-2

Niklaus Keller knows no fear of contact. The catalog of works by the percussion teacher, who studied composition under Hans U. Lehmann in Zurich and Paul Glass at the Lugano Conservatory, begins in 1994 with a Ländler-Fox for marimba, electric guitar, drum set, vibraphone, melodica and electric bass. His last three works, available via Bandcamp, range from ecclesiastical-mysterious choral chants to a cheerfully rushing Sicerto for string orchestra through to country & western persiflage White Coffee.

Chrome Shuffle - a cycle of eleven pieces for a nontet with vibraphone, electric bass, electric guitar, drums, trumpet/flugelhorn, tenor saxophone, trombone and two synths/samplers (one of which is operated by Keller himself) - is yet another completely different "kettle of fish". The idea behind it was to write pieces that did not make any great technical demands, "so that I could devote myself to the music as such as quickly as possible without technical difficulties interfering with the performance", explains the composer, who works in Bologna. At the same time, however, he also notated the solos, "because improvised solos usually sound standardized and standardized".

The results - each piece a sonic short story - are incredibly difficult to describe. Vibraphone and horns characterize the consistently heartfelt mood, the rocky, funky rhythms, breaks and hooks pull you along, the melodies remind this ear, for rather inexplicable reasons, of the music of British eccentrics such as Kevin Ayers, Lol Coxhill or Art Bears. Conclusion: double and triple bass music that is reminiscent of many things, but remains uncompromisingly itself.

Niklaus Keller: Chrome Shuffle. Bandcamp

The Austrian guitarist, music teacher and publisher Michael Langer has enriched the "Saitenwege" series from Edition Dux with two more music books, this time with a total of 88 pieces for two guitars. The structure of the albums corresponds exactly to the editions The very easy entry and The easy introduction to the world of classical guitar Each volume presents between five and eleven more or less representative pieces from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Multicultural and Pop styles. The only difference, apart from the duo instrumentation: instead of the categories "very easy" and "easy", the two volumes are assigned to the categories "easy" and "moderately difficult".

Michael Langer deals freely with the musical material, with a good sense for a sensible middle way between faithfulness to the original and technically easy to realize interpretation. Most of the pieces are newly arranged by him. Thus we encounter not only typical guitar pieces, but also, for example, excerpts from Vivaldi's Four seasons or Mozart's Magic flute. Only a few duos - for example by Maria Linnemann - appear in the original musical text, and some arrangements were originally solo pieces.

Within the stylistic areas, the pieces tend to be arranged in progressive levels of difficulty. One focus, especially in the second volume, is on Latin American numbers from the simple Bailecito to the Libertango by Astor Piazzolla. In the pop category, there are real hits from Queen, George Ezra and Ed Sheeran included Happy by Pharrell Williams. If you don't know how this is supposed to sound on two classical guitars, you can download all of the publisher's recordings with a download code or listen to them on Spotify.

Michael Langer: Saitenwege for two guitars. Six centuries of guitar music for guitar duo; vol. 1, easy, D 918; vol. 2, medium, D 919; € 29.80 each, Dux, Manching

In 1680, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704) wrote six suites as table music for his brother, Prince Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf von Kuenburg in Salzburg. They are deliberately not too difficult, in clear forms and do without virtuoso "show effects" - in contrast to most of Biber's instrumental works.

The editor has provided the first two partitas with modern clefs and time signatures. In the Partita I a Largo Sonata encloses the dance movements Allemanda, Courante, Sarabanda, Gavotte and Gigue. In the Partita II an Intrada opens three balletti in alla breve time, separated by two quiet sarabands. As the first viola never takes up the C string, there is an additional second violin part, so these suites could well be played with a string quartet (or orchestra) and continuo.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber: Mensa Sonora, Partitas I and II, for violin, 2 violas (2 violins, viola) and basso continuo, edited by Markus Eberhardt, EW 1051, € 19.80, Walhall, Magdeburg

Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a successful composer in her time. She lived in Mecklenburg and Berlin. Her works include symphonies, concert overtures, a singspiel, four-part choral pieces, piano and chamber music. Despite performances in numerous major European cities in the 19th century, most of her compositions remained unpublished.

The pianist Katharina Sellheim came across the unpublished manuscripts of the four piano trios and recorded three of them on CD with her Hannover Piano Trio (Missing Link: Emilie MayerGenuin 22790). Now, assisted by the members of her ensemble, she is in charge of publishing at Furore-Verlag Kassel.

Her efforts pay off: Emilie Mayer's piano trios radiate freshness and vitality; the composer was a master of her craft. Stylistically, this music lies between Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Anyone who goes on a treasure hunt, playing or listening, away from the main pillars of the repertoire and the "great" masters will make a delightful discovery with the Piano Trio in E flat major. Works by female composers of the 19th century are also rarely found in concert programs. Wrongly so, as Emilie Mayer shows us here!

In terms of playing technique, this piano trio is also accessible to experienced amateurs. It is less difficult than the works by Beethoven and Schubert. All instruments, especially the violoncello, can develop beautifully.

Emilie Mayer: Piano trio in E flat major, for violin, violoncello and piano, edited by Katharina Sellheim, score and parts, fue 10346, € 69.00, Furore, Kassel

Müliradverlag has published another interesting book of sheet music for violin or other melody instruments. It contains folk dance music from the first third of the 19th century and thus offers an insight into the early days of couple dance music; the collections known to date are almost all from later decades.

The booklet contains one hundred dances, most of them in three-four time. The discovery of the collection is due to the editor Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser. Nothing is known about the original owner Anton Hotz, but Bachmann credibly locates the dances in the Höfe/March area in the canton of Schwyz thanks to her immense knowledge of the sources.

Co-editor Christoph Greuter has transcribed the dances and provided chord indications, which are very useful for the accompaniment. You can tell that Greuter is an excellent expert on the subject. The dances are written down with a practical orientation, without ornaments and without first and second endings in the repetitions. At the time, it was left to the players' taste to make the pieces appealing. The notes were merely a template or reminder for the individual performance.

The pieces are attractive to play because the tonal language of the early dances differs significantly from those at the turn of the 20th century. In some cases, modal influences are still present, which later give way to cadential harmony. However, the booklet also offers historically interesting insights: Half of the dances are still in two parts, the other half are already in three parts. The term "Ländler" appears in some of the dances and is thus the earliest evidence of the term being used in Switzerland; others are referred to as "Walz" or "Walzer", some also as "Langus". The few two-quarter dances are entitled "Allemander" or "Allimand"; "Polka", "Galopp" or "Schottisch", on the other hand, do not yet appear.

The booklet, which is supplemented with informative information on its origin and edition, is therefore not only a pleasure to play, but also a rich source for the development of dance music in Switzerland.

Old Schwyz violin dances - The dance book by Anton Hotz, Höfe/March around 1830, edited by Christoph Greuter and Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser, Mülirad no. 1069, Fr. 38.00, Mülirad, Altdorf

Holzschuhverlag has published another valuable book in the "Tastenforscher" series. As a répétiteur and conductor, Guido Klaus is well aware of the importance of sight-reading skills. As a pedagogue, he advocates the inclusion of sight-reading from the very beginning in order to support playing by ear and learning by imitation. In doing so, he pursues the goal of guiding learners towards a musical independence that is often lacking.

The booklet is clearly structured and cleverly structured in terms of progression. I like the fact that Klaus first gives a big overview of the notes and keys and then, with the notes C and G, allows the whole keyboard to be explored with reading exercises without a fixed pulse. Recognizing small groups of notes in combination with fluently reading the next beginning note in advance is intended to promote summary reading as a basic skill. In addition, there are sections with pure rhythm training before pitch and rhythm are combined in small monophonic, later two-part melodies.

Another basic skill for fluent reading is recognizing and grasping individual intervals and triads. There are numerous examples of exercises and music puzzles. After the theoretical introduction of the accidentals, they are to be placed in scales by ear. The importance of active listening for sight-reading cannot be emphasized enough.

This booklet is probably aimed more at older children and young people and is also ideally suited as an opening in lessons, as rhythmization or for "lazy weeks" in which not enough practice could be done.

Guido Klaus: Keyboard researcher, sight-reading training from the beginning, VHR 3418, € 14.80. Holzschuh, Manching

There is hardly any other music that is so difficult to make music from. Johann Sebastian Bach's cello suites are a challenge - and quite a few have already failed. Many recordings of the suites sound brittle, without arcs, spelled out from note to note. Bernhard Maurer increases the risk by recording all six suites live. Not in the studio, but in medieval churches around Thun. "Whenever I had the opportunity to play a Bach suite in a Romanesque church, it seemed to me that this was the ideal space for this music, even if the music was composed half a millennium after the building," explains Maurer. And so no sound documents were created, but six films in light and dark church rooms, which can be viewed on the website bachsuites.ch can be accessed as a YouTube link.

There is the recording of the sixth cello suite in Blumenstein church. In front of an empty audience, Maurer plays a five-string cello piccolo, built in 2012 by Stephan Schürch after a model by Nicolò Amati. The instrument of baroque provenance does not sound as domesticated as the modern cello, but it is brighter and perhaps also more honest. Maurer not only plays with somnambulistic assurance, but also with a clear, low-vibrato tone and a pronounced sense of timbre and dynamics. The intimate setting, the solitude of the church, emphasizes the private character of the suites. Various camera angles show the virtuoso fingering of the left hand, the bow in close-up, the colorful church windows or the long shot with Maurer in the center of the church. This Bachian concentration on the essentials would have done the films good; sometimes the changes of perspective seem unnecessarily hectic and take away from the tranquillity of the music.

The third suite, captured on film in the sparse Schlosskirche Spiez, sounds darker and more familiar. Here Bernhard Maurer plays on a more common baroque cello from the school of Giovanni Battista Maggini. Once again, you can feel that Maurer has been studying the suites for decades. There are no intonation uncertainties, the tempi seem natural, no gigue, which others sometimes turn into a superficial virtuoso piece.

So: It's worth visiting the website, which also offers good background information in addition to the links. Of course, the usual advertising interruptions on YouTube are terrible - perhaps something could be done about this and the films could be linked directly on the site? These sensitive works in particular really don't need screaming commercialism.

bachsuites.ch

Goethe - as much musical authority is granted to him here - was moved by her playing, but also by her charisma, and wrote a poem to her, which ends with the words: "There felt - oh that it would last forever! - /the double happiness of sound and love." He was deeply moved by his encounter with the Polish pianist Maria Szymanowska: "Talent would crush you if her grace did not make it forgivable." [That was in Marienbad in 1823, and it is natural to hear all the undertones of the gender understanding of the time in such statements today. An artist who moved so freely in the world was astonishing (one could at best place her alongside Hélène de Montgéroult), and this led to descriptions such as the "female Vulcan" and the "Queen of Tones".

The Polish musicologist Danuta Gwizdalanka, who published a biography of Witold Lutosławski with her husband, the composer Krzysztof Meyer, is a profound connoisseur of Polish music, and in her portrait she approaches Szymanowska with admiration as well as caution and calm. She presents her works with a critical eye and points out details. However, the result is neither a musicological book nor a sentimental biography. Szymanowska is described as a "charming, enlightened and pragmatic woman". She died all too young at the age of 41, from cholera, a stroke or fatigue, perhaps from all of the above.

Gwizdalanka tells this biography from the testimonies and details of a richly lived life. Szymanowska, who separated from her husband at an early age, was independent and self-reliant, traveled extensively and was celebrated throughout Europe. How she fared, but also how she coped with everyday life, often accompanied by siblings and children, gives a deep insight into her way of life. The book closes a serious gap in the reception of female composers, which certainly existed at the time, but unfortunately did not last.

Danuta Gwizdalanka: The "female Vulcan". The pianist and composer Maria Szymanowska, translated from Polish by Peter Oliver Loew, 176 p., € 19.80, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2023, ISBN 978-3-447-11913-9

Anyone who first thinks of Czech chamber music for string instruments should not overlook the fact that one of the most frequently performed flute sonatas is by a Czech composer. Together with the sonatas by Poulenc and Prokofiev, Bohuslav Martinů's sonata, written in 1945 in exile in America, is one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire. The long chain of recordings has now been extended by a Swiss production that makes you sit up and take notice. With the Zurich-born solo flutist of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Sarah Rumer, and the pianist Ulrich Koella, who teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts, the Zurich label Prospero is releasing a new recording under the motto Slavonic Journey CD, which offers not only standard works but also little-known curiosities.

Martinů's masterpiece already receives an admirable interpretation. In addition to wide-ranging breath bows in nimble semiquaver passages, the pianissimo transitions from vertical sections to horizontal-linear ones, played with the finest rubato, stand out. The flutist and pianist owe nothing in terms of brilliance to the musical corner movements of Jindřich Feld's sonata. In Feld's Quatre pièces for solo flute quotes the "Hommage à Bartók" from his Concerto for orchestra. The duo charges Erwin Schulhoff's frequently encountered sonata with the necessary joy of playing the many ostinati and harmonic frictions.

Through her marriage to the writer Jiří Mucha, the son of the Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha, the London composer Geraldine Thomson became a Czech citizen and was therefore included in this production. Her Naše cesta (Our Journey) is characterized by elegance and folksong-like melodies. The imaginatively designed booklet features various photos of Prague's main railway station to reflect the travel theme.

The wind sextet Mládí (youth) integrated, shrill repeating March of the bluethroats by Leoš Janáček for piccolo and piano derives its supposedly ornithological title from blue choirboy uniforms. With Sarah Rumer's curious transcription of the Slavic fantasy by Fritz Kreisler is a transcription of a transcription, the latter consisting of Kreisler's arrangement of two themes by Dvořák.

Slavonic Journey (Martinů, Feld, Schulhoff, Mucha, Janáček, Dvořák/Kreisler). Sarah Rumer, flute; Ulrich Koella, piano. Prospero PROSP0049

Fritz Stüssi (1874-1923), like so many Swiss composers of this generation, would have been long forgotten were it not for the enthusiasm and dedication of his grandson Ulrich Stüssi. Stüssi was a "Zurich native" and attended music school there; Lothar Kempter and Fritz Hegar were his teachers. He was later joined in Berlin by Max Bruch. From his home in Wädenswil, Stüssi dominated the musical landscape on Lake Zurich for a long time.

He left behind an extensive oeuvre that is strongly rooted in the Romantic tradition. His main focus was on sacred works such as cantatas and motets. The sheet music is kept in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

His most important work is the oratorio, which premiered in Wädenswil in 1914 and lasts around thirty minutes Decay and resurrection, which is now available at Claves together with the Psalm 28 as well as other short pieces. Stüssi was not a dramatist, but rather a composer strongly rooted in Protestant religiosity who courageously confronted his role models. He begins his oratorio with "All flesh is like grass", which Brahms wrote in the German Requiem into one of the most touching movements. In Stüssi's work, it is the bass who begins with a moving recitative after a few bars of orchestral introduction. The model of Mendelssohn with the Elias is unmistakable, the striding ductus is also strongly reminiscent of Wagner's Parsifal. However, Stüssi is only able to build on the promising beginning in fragments.

For long stretches, the soloists dominate the action recitatively, which at times seems somewhat uniform, even though the lower voices in particular are formidably cast with Ingeborg Danz (alto) and Krešimir Stražanac (bass). The way in which the Zürcher Sing-Akademie under Florian Helgath celebrates the choral passages with outstanding vocal culture is also magnificent.

It is a pity that the CD is supplemented by other short choral pieces in a similar style, which makes listening to it somewhat tiring. Stüssi certainly has other works to offer, such as a C minor suite, which the Avalon Quartet has already played.

Red. The documentary short film offers an insight into his life and work Fritz Stüssi - Where you are going by Esther Kempf and Julia Ann Stüssi, to be seen on YouTube. Over 30 of the 134 works have been digitized and are available from the music publisher Musica Mundana.

Fritz Stüssi: A Swiss Romantic. Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Zürcher Kammerphilharmonie, conductor Florian Helgath. Claves 50-3085

Deletion at the instigation of Verena (Mail 12.1.24)

Although Albin Brun (*1959) and Kristina Brunner (*1993) come from different generations, they are committed to a common vision: Both the Lucerne native and the Bernese are eager to constantly develop Swiss folk music. While Brun, who was awarded the Swiss Music Prize in 2017, is regarded as one of the key figures between jazz and contemporary folk music, Brunner has made a name for herself thanks to her virtuoso playing on the cello and Schwyzerörgeli.

After the two met at the Lucerne School of Music, they began working together in 2017. The duo rehearses weekly, developing dense sound poetry and coming up with magnificently sophisticated chamber music. Their debut from 2020, MidnangBrun and Brunner are now Inland follow. An album made up of 13 original compositions, which, in addition to reduced instrumentation, also offers atmospheric excursions and constantly varying melodies.

Although the opener presents itself Fex initially lively, but the piece soon turns to more contemplative motifs, which seem to be driven in particular by a nameless longing. In songs like Shovidar! or Aube it also becomes clear that wanderlust and homesickness are lurking around the next corner. This results in a mood that ranges from melancholy to dreamy and is touching throughout.

Brun and Brunner have fun using changing combinations of instruments: Sometimes cello and organ play around each other, at other times two organs bait each other. The result is convincing. Schratteflue for example, draws on the melancholy and testifies to alpine closeness, while the W., the fish proves to be related to the chanson. With Inland Brun and Brunner have released an album that is so playful, profound and wonderful that you'll want to play it again.

Albin Brun & Kristina Brunner: Innerland. Self-published, www.albinbrun.ch