H.E.R.R

SINCE reviewing the promotional three-track CDR version of H.E.R.R.'s debut album in the last issue of Synthesis, I've become part of the group myself. But I don't make any contributions to the full version of 'Es Regnet Das Leben Heraus' either, I might add, so the fact that I'm involved in future recordings conveniently leaves me free to offer my thoughts regarding the efforts of Michiel Spape (orchestration and guitar), Miklos Hoffer (vocals) and Oskar van Dijk (cello and sampling).

There are eleven tracks on this album, no less than eight more than on the promotional release, and the fact that it appeared far later than planned does not detract from the overall quality. The internal packaging contains a visual tapestry of imperial kings, crowns and columns, whilst the cover itself shows a red rose pressed into the partially-hidden notes and quavers of a musical score. And rightly so, for these compositions are indelibly stained with an impression of lasting beauty.

The title track, 'Es Regnet das Leben Heraus', is a gentle blend of rain-lashed melodies and storm-driven drumbeats. A church organ dallies with alternating yells before a bass drum is added to the rising volume amid the perpetual clatter of snares. A dark cello is introduced, too, and the results are truly uplifting and astounding. This is classical-militarism at it's very best, a legendary musical tome to entertain the triumphant generals in the banqueting halls of the Imperium. In fact this is one of the best tracks I've ever heard within this genre and the name H.E.R.R. could be poised to become a legend in its own right. '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 vigorous drums begin to pound 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 in Dutch. 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. It's already becoming increasingly clear that HERR is more than capable of composing some very memorable and tuneful melodies.

The structureless, discordant beginnings of 'Charlemagne' soon gather themselves together like the parts of a scattered jigsaw puzzle and smooth a light classical melody onto a background of thumping beats and flickering snares. You can almost hear the Frankish armies clattering their swords against the skulls of their Saxon adversaries. And, in between it all, a glorious harpsichord moves in and out like a weaver's shuttle as the snares grind to a halt and the crashing beats carry on unperturbed, themselves disappearing several seconds from the end. The ominous rumble that greets 'Neue Welten', on the other hand, is soon joined by the rhythmic shake of a tambourine and other more unusual percussion, sounding like the shattering of a glass sphere. The fragility of new worlds, perhaps, crushed beneath the all-conquering heel of an expanding empire. The constant blare of the horns, meanwhile, there to announce the arrival of this indomitable force as it sweeps all before it.

The name 'Hojotoho', a fairly short affair, is taken from the aria at the opening of Richard Wagner's 'Ride of the Valkyries'. The title itself is borrowed from the famous battle-cry which Brünnhilde uses to warn Woden that his angry 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 are 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. In the credits, meanwhile, we discover that this track is indeed credited to a collaboration between Michiel Spape and Wagner himself. Who would have guessed that the Dutch would be the first to invent the imperial time-machine?

'Een Machtige Vuist' enters menacingly like a silent German U-boat nosing its way through foreign waters as a high-pitched audio clip is launched towards your eardrums like an order bellowed across a Prussian parade ground. The form certainly resembles a march, too, detached orchestral symphonies - borrowed from Rachmaninov - quickening the pace slightly and then brooding like a self-conscious demagogue immersed in a flurry of nasal radiophonic samples. Despite the title, 'Zachte Heelmeesters' - meaning 'gentle doctors leave rotting wounds' - is about as gentle as a flamethrower in a kindergarten. This is probably the closest H.E.R.R. will ever get to making a dance track, although it's the actual style of drumming that creates this effect rather than a synthetic club beat. More Dutch vocals and atmospheric synths create an energetic hodge-potch of sound. Somewhere in the middle, the horns start to resemble an early-1930s love song and you can almost imagine two illicit lovers smooching in a busy Munich thoroughfare before being trampled by an army of advancing brownshirts (just in case you thought my description was a little on the sentimental side).

The soft lilt of 'Ases Tod' contains a wealth of calm, sweeping melodies slighty overshadowed here and there by the distant barrage of twentieth-century warfare. Bombs falling like rain and whistling their way towards the enemy alongside a juxtaposed Grieg lament, portray both the sophisticated and barbaric elements of the European mindset. Music worth going to war for. The wind blows and a tolling bell announces the arrival of 'Glocken im Gehirn'. Heavy synths, too: my favourite kind. Better still: a glockenspiel, producing the kind of metallic patter that was used so frequently in 1970s theme tunes. Here, it sounds infectious, the melody gradually being converted from glockenspiel over to keyboards to usher in a darker edge. This track is fairly different from the others on the album and I could seriously imagine it being used as a musical backdrop for a typical Hammer horror scene featuring vintage cars, endless driveways and remote mansions set into the heart of the English countryside. 'Freiheit' returns to the imperial blare of Roman-style trumpets and militaristic drumming, producing results that are extremely similar to the early Puissance sound. Like a barbarian invasion of the Colosseum, its cheering crowds and proud fanfares find themselves underscored with a German diatribe about freedom and liberty: 'Freiheit, freiheit, frei-heit!'. Another extract is taken from a German mini-series about Julius Caesar and Miklos Hoffer's vocals are taken from Goethe's 'Faust II'. Like the first track, this is absolutely incredible and a fantastic way to bring to close what is a remarkable album.

It's impossible for me to adequately describe the sheer quality of this release. Indeed, if you buy just one album in the next five years, make it 'Es Regnet Das Leben Heraus. Biased? Perhaps, but there's no mistaking the talent and originality that has gone into this brilliant and enchanting album. The group (including myself) are now working on a new album based on Joost van den Vondel's 'Lucifer', as well as on a project involving the legendary Von Thronstahl. For more information, please visit: http://herr.tegendemuur.nl/