Herr

Available from Were Di! c/o De Schutter Mattias, Jasmijnlaan 12, 2880 Bornem, Belgium.

THIS Dutch project is the brainchild of Michiel Spape and has been released by Mattias de Schutter's newly-established Belgian label, Were Di! The dreamy images of statues, manuscripts and medieval regality depicted on the cover of this three-track promotional CDR, suggest that both men come from Low Countries with very lofty ideals.

The first track in this thirteen-minute trilogy, 'Guck Die Welt Noch Einmal An', begins with a hollow whistling and the sound of marching feet. If the birds flew south permanently and passed responsibility for the dawn chorus over to an army of stormtroopers, this would be the result. Advancing slowly, a heavy patter of crunching boots in a chorus-line of synchronisation grows ever-louder as a frenetic tapping joins the militaristic fray. Meanwhile, the swaying of a low-pitched steel drum creates a light stereophonic boom that alternates between the ears like a sighing pendulum. The way the orchestral synths add a constant air of power and suspense, on the other hand, remind me of The Protagonist and tracks like 'The Puritan' and 'Kampfende Pferde'. I really like this piece. Instead of using an ordinary brass sound, which one would almost expect to accompany a martial atmosphere of this kind, Michiel has gone for a high-pitched trumpet effect and the results are quite dramatic and compelling.

'Ferme Jongens, Stoere Knapen', however, does opt for the horn effect and when the drums begin to pound vigorously it sounds like a musical war between a Roman legion and a Salvation Army brass band. But as the music thumps along the synthetic horn then assumes a slightly folkier style, rather like a theme for a Mayday procession winding its way through the battered and hammering turmoil of an industrial steelworks. Soon enough, everything grinds to a halt whilst the drums hold centre court and Miklos Hoffer utters a few stern and expressive sentences. The themes of strength, bravery and youthful athleticism are followed by the return of the horn, oscillating momentarily before the sudden crashing of a drum-induced finale. Two-thirds of the way through this CDR and it's already becoming increasingly clear that HERR is more than capable of composing some very memorable and tuneful melodies.

The final track, 'Hojotoho', is shorter than its predecessors and is taken from the aria at the opening of Richard Wagner's 'Flight of the Valkyries'. The title itself is borrowed from the famous battle-cry which Brünnhilde uses to warn Wotan that his spouse is on her way to give him a severe tongue-lashing. Launching into a series of droning bells, drumrolls and darkened vocals, the familiar and completely overhauled sections of the 'Valkyries' theme is soon heard sweeping to and fro like an operatic cacophony as the slain warriors are whisked off to Valhalla amid a strident, humming symphony of auditory dissonance. And, like a timeless memory of 1930s Bayreuth, it works like a veritable Gesamtkunstwerk of sound, ideology, emotion and imagination. The full version of 'Es Regnet Das Leben Heraus' comes out in February 2004 and will include the participation of Oskar Ludwig van Dijk, who does not feature on the promo edition reviewed above. And if this is an example of what to expect, I would urge all fans of military-classical music to get their orders in right away!

For more information, please visit http://www.home.zonnet.nl/Pseudoverlighter/HERR and http://www.were-di.cjb.net