Out via Bureau B on February 9th is the all new Karl Bartos (former member Kraftwerk) soundtrack “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” which includes narrative film music and sound design for Robert Wiene’s classic 1920 psychological thriller. The film comes digitally restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation.

Musician and writer Karl Bartos has long been an admirer of Weimar-era culture. During his time in Kraftwerk, he helped create the stunning track ‘Metropolis’, directly inspired by a band viewing of the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The original orchestral music composed for “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” by Giuseppe Becce had long been lost and in 2005, after watching the film, Bartos imagined what it would be like, to create an entirely new one in the 21st Century in his home studios in Hamburg.

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is his first piece of film music and sound design. The release is planned on double vinyl and digipak CD.

Now with crystal clear images, digitally restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, the film is visually the best quality it has ever been, and now comes with Bartos’ soundtrack.

About Karl Bartos

Born in Germany in 1952, sound, music and culture have been a lifelong fascination for Karl. He studied at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, played at the Deutsche Oper and was in several experimental bands before he joined Kraftwerk for their Autobahn tour of the US in 1975. He co-composed tracks and performed with the band until 1990 and is featured on the seminal albums “Radio-Activity” (1975), “Trans-Europe Express” (1977), “The Man-Machine” (1978), “Computer World” (1981), “Electric Café” (1986) and “The Mix” (1991).

After leaving Kraftwerk, he first formed the band Elektric Music (2 albums in 1993+1998), collaborated with Bernard Sumner (New Order), Johnny Marr (The Smiths) for their Electronic band project and with Andy McCluskey (OMD), and released two well-regarded solo albums (2003 & 2013).

In 2021, Karl Bartos was awarded the Early Influence Award / Kraftwerk as a member of the ‘classic line-up’ and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His autobiography “The Sound of the Machine – My Life in Kraftwerk and Beyond” was published in 2022 worldwide.

Below is the original film, albeit in less good quality for reference.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Fresh from two recently completed tour runs across the US, first as the headlining act and second alongside Ministry and Gary Numan, EBM legends Front Line Assembly release a brand new single today, a dark electronic reimagining of Rammstein’s groundbreaking “Deutschland” track.

“Deutschland” was released as the lead single from their untitled seventh studio album on 28 March 2019, it was their first new music since the song “Mein Land” in 2011. The song’s music video was directed by Specter Berlin and sparked controversy because of its dark, violent, and macabre style featuring various events from German history, including Roman times, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Middle Ages, witch hunting, the November Revolution, the Golden Twenties, Nazi book burnings, the Hindenburg disaster, the First and Second World Wars, the Holocaust, the Weimar Republic, the Red Army Faction, and the division of the country into West and East Germany. The most obviously shocking scene references the Holocaust and the Nazi period. Four members of the band, in the striped uniforms of camp inmates, wait at the gallows, about to be hanged. They wear the cloth emblems used to identify their ‘crimes’: a pink triangle for homosexual prisoners, a yellow star for Jewish prisoners, a red and yellow star for Jewish political prisoners.

It also featured science fiction scenes set in outer space, cannibalism in which people were eating Germania, the personification of Germany, and a bank robbery featuring lead singer Till Lindemann crossdressing as Ulrike Meinhof. The song also twice uses the line “Deutschland, Deutschland über allen” (“Germany, Germany above everyone”) as a reference to “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles” (“Germany, Germany above everything”) from the Deutschlandlied.

Front Line Assembly’s cover serves as a standout track on the upcoming (August 25th.) cover compilation, “A Tribute to Rammstein”, featuring both old and new school industrial acts. Included in the 13-track strong release are renditions by Burton C Bell, Big Paul Ferguson & MGT, Front Line Assembly, Skold, Priest, Laibach, The 69 Eyes, Jah Wobble & Jon Klein, Julien-K, Stoneman, Lacrimas Profundere, Manntra, Original God and Leæther Strip.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

(Photo via anneclarkofficial.com) In 2020, English poet, songwriter, and electronic musician Anne Clark was diagnosed with cancer, which led to extensive treatment throughout the year. Consequently, her Fall 2020 Visions European Tour in Germany, Holland, and Belgium was canceled.

Over the following months she spent many days and weeks in hospital. Anne Clark wrote this about that period: “Some of that time, although I remember little of it specifically, I was being cared for in the hospital Intensive Care Unit. Being cared for is an understatement. They saved my life and subsequently kept me alive until my condition improved enough for me to be moved to a general ward.”

Now, she is back with the Borderland tour, featuring Nikolaus Jira on piano, replacing Ulla Van Daelen on harp. These concerts will be her first live performances since 2019, with a lineup consisting of Anne Clark on vocals, Nikolaus Jira on piano, and Justin Ciuche on violin. That tour will be followed by the “Together Again” Tour.

Dates for the Borderland tour include:

• 31.05.2023: Marburg, Germany (KFZ)
• 02.06.2023: Bremen, Germany (Sendesaal) – SOLD OUT
• 03.06.2023: Osnabrück, Germany (Lagerhalle)
• 04.06.2023: Köln, Germany (Kulturkirche) – SOLD OUT
• 06.06.2023: Göttingen, Germany (MUSA)
• 07.06.2023: Magdeburg, Germany (FestungsMark)
• 09.06.2023: Glauchau, Germany (Stadttheater)
• 10.06.2023: Dresden, Germany (Schauburg) – SOLD OUT
• For more information, visit www.anneclarkofficial.com.

Anne Clark & Band’s “Together Again” Tour 2023 includes the following dates:

• 22.07.2023: Weimar, Germany (Seebühne – exclusive Open Air!)
• 20.11.2023: Leipzig, Germany (Haus Leipzig)
• 21.11.2023: Berlin, Germany (Huxley’s)
• 23.11.2023: Hamburg, Germany (Elbphilharmonie)
• 24.11.2023: Hamburg, Germany (Elbphilharmonie)
• 26.11.2023: Utrecht, Netherlands (Tivoli)
• 27.11.2023: Köln, Germany (Carlswerk)
• 28.11.2023: Saarburg, Germany (Stadthalle)
• 30.11.2023: Ludwigsburg, Germany (Scala)
• 01.12.2023: Reutlingen, Germany (FranzK)
• 03.12.2023: Munich, Germany (Muffathalle)
• 04.12.2023: Nürnberg, Germany (Löwensaal)
• 05.12.2023: Rüsselsheim, Germany (Theater Rüsselsheim)
• 06.12.2023: Karlsruhe, Germany (Tollhaus)
• 08.12.2023: Paris, France (La Café de la Danse)
• 09.12.2023: Strasbourg, France (La Laiterie)
• 10.12.2023: Zurich, Switzerland (Kaufleuten)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Manchester’s post-punk act Weimar presents the single “I Smashed The Looking Glass”, as a teaser for their new album “Dancing on a Volcano” which is out now on German Shepherd Records.

Weimar is a four-piece made up of vocalist/ guitarist / songwriter Aidan Cross (The Bacillus, Black Light Mutants), bassist John Armstrong (The Speed Of Sound), drummer Anthony ‘Eddy’ Edwards (The Deceased) and guitarist Stephen Sarsen (Frank Is Dead, Playground).

“Thematically, this song is a response to Kraftwerk’s classic ‘The Hall Of Mirrors’, which explored how an artist’s true self is distorted and eventually lost in the creation of an ideal persona. ‘I Smashed The Looking Glass’ is it’s spiritual sequel, exploring the artist’s escape from the trappings of such a persona, a significant challenge in an age of cult icons and social media performity,” says frontman Aidan Cross.

Embracing post-punk to no wave, cabaret, psychedelia, alternative folk and gothic rock, all blended in a distinctive fusion, this album was produced by Adam Crossley and Chris Guest of Vibratone Sound Studio. The cover art was created by acclaimed artist and writer Brian Gorman.

Here’s the video for the new single.

The single is the follow-up to the April released “The Girls of LA”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, folk, cinematographic.

Format: CD.

Background/Info: Ô Paradis is the Catalonian project driven by Demian Recio. An impressive number of productions featuring several collaborations have been released in nearly twenty years time. “Weiter Weg” is the second album released by the Polish label Wrotycz Records and features ten new songs by the band.

Content: The work takes off with a poignant although sad sounding, instrumental intro, which has something cinematographic like. We next get tracks with alternating vocals by female singer Rosa and Demian Recio. There’s another instrumental piece right at the end while the last song is a surprising, but intimate cover version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” originally written by The Beatles. The sphere running through the work is deeply melancholic and that’s mainly due to the kind of Tango influence hanging over some songs. There’s a part of folk music in Ô Paradis, but also very experimental arrangements and sound treatments. The melancholia sometimes moves into reverie while there also is a part of emotion –mainly emerging at “Sonnet, Weimar 1808” with lyrics based upon the work of Schopenhauer.

+ + + : Ô Paradis accomplished a delicate and emotional piece of music. This is a band with a unique style and identity and this work simply confirms this approach; a touch of folk with an explicit experimental writing on top! Emotional- and often cinematic music with extra melancholia on top. I like the songs sung by Rosa and especially the title track is a little sonic jewel. But I also have to mention the instrumental “Zu Hause” with an extra neo-classic element on top while the cover version of The Beatles accentuates the intimate character of the composition.

– – – : The biggest challenge for this band will be to catch the attention of a wider audience or at least, an increase in their popularity. This album really deserves it!

Conclusion: I’m not familiar with the entire and impressive discography of Ô Paradis, but this album is without a shadow of a doubt one I’ll keep in mind!

Best songs: “Weiter Weg”, “Zu Hause”, “Abrigo”, “Sonnet, Weimar 1808”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.facebook.com/oparadis.official

Label: www.wrotycz.com / www.facebook.com/wrotycz.rec

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com