Ougenweide - Ungezwungen (1977/2007 Remastered Edition)
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Album: Ougenweide - Ungezwungen (Remastered Edition)
Released: 1977 (2007)
Genre: Krautrock, Folk-Prog
Gnosis Rating: 10.13
Bear Family - BCD 16141 AH
This is the fifth album by this German folk rock band, which was originally a double live album and which all fits here on CD and is released on CD for the very first time - Wayside Music
The only live album from OUGENWEIDE, recorded on their German tours in '77. A full band, 7 people, performing more kraut rock than their studio albums, but with their folky undertones, and produced by Achim Reichel. - Record Heaven
Ougenweide was one the most significant German folk-rock bands of the seventies. Their music was quite different from the 'progressive folk' music created by the early Broselmaschine and Holderlin. Ougenweide's speciality was shorter tracks in off almost medieval folk tradition with German lyrics. The result was a German answer to British groups like Fairport Convention, Gryphon and Steeleye Span. Like these groups, Ougenweide (from Hamburg) succeeded in achieving a distinct style of their own. Their records confirm that they were obviously great instrumentalists. Through the years the nucleus of the Wulff brothers, von Henko and Isenbart remained intact. Minne Graw was their female vocalist from the third album onwards. A large part of their repertoire consisted of traditional German folk songs. The early albums are their most acoustic ones, the later works also utilised synthesisers. - "Cosmic Dreams At Play"
Ougenweide are to Germany what Malicorne are to France, Horslips to Ireland, Labanda to Spain, Gryphon to England and The Charlie Daniels Band to America - i.e. groups that play electrified indigenous folkloric music. (Is this perhaps the first time in history that Labanda and The Charlie Daniels Band have been mentioned in the same sentence?). Definitely a different German breed than the cosmic folk Pilz groups like Broselmaschine and Emtidi or the more freaky/experimental Parzival. Ougenweide use a typical rock band base (electric guitar, electric bass, drums) and augment that with an array of melodic instruments including flute, mandolin, accordion, piano, etc… There are alternating female (soprano register) and male vocals, all in wonderful German, the former proving to be the more pleasing and enchanting... - Tom Hayes, Gnosis
From humble origins in 1969 as Hamburg-based 'hobby musicians,' Ougenweide established themselves within less than a decade as an important creative force on the West German music scene. As a band, they were renowned for championing the impossible. Just like Britain's era-defining rock group Traffic had sung in 'Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring,' it was plain that Ougenweide "were not like all the rest. " Ougenweide's calling-card was setting old poetry to music, as befitted a group that took its name from a text by the Middle High German poet Neidhart von Reuenthal. Some lyrics they sang needed accompanying translations to render them comprehensible even for contemporary mother-tongue German audiences. (If rock venues in the 1970s had had the technology to simulcast subtitles while Ougenweide sang, then sizeable sections of the audience would have been happier still.) Performing Old German texts was a leap of faith. (As was the occasional Latin.) In the process, they became West Germany's quintessential 'Mittelalter-Rock' or 'medieval rock' ensemble. With only a pinch of exaggeration, their name remains shorthand for - if not the dictionary definition of-'Mittelalter-Rock'... - Ken Hunt
OUGENWEIDE is a Teutonic musical collective formed at the beginning of the 70’s. Their music consists of “pastoral” folk rock compositions with Middle Ages influences. The band features Minne Graw (vocals, Harmonium...), Olaf Casalich (vocals, acoustic percussions), Stefen Wulff (bass guitar, accordion and keyboard), Wolgang von Henko (Mandoline, guitars and vocals), Jurgen Isenbarth (Marimbaphone, Vibraphone, vocals) and Frank Wulff (bombard, bouzouki, mandoline, sitar…). They recorded their first album in 1973. Since 1974 until the end of the 70’s they published several albums for Polydor label. They released their last album in 1981 before to split up in 1985. The band reformed in 1996 for a reunion album called “Sol”. Both released in 1976, “Orhrenschmausen” and “Eulenspiegel” represent their most notorious efforts. Two classics in the mood of authentic “Pagan” folk rock music with a great variety of acoustic instruments from medieval (with mandolin, flute, Krummhorn…) to “World” (sitar, bongos, marimba…). The result is unique and highly inspired, introducing the listener in an “enchanting” poetic, mythical world. Beautiful lyrics in German accompany tremendous prog folk instrumentations.
With a better capacity of innovation in popular music and with an exquisite sense of medieval music, OUGENWEIDE is the Teutonic version of prog folk bands as GRYPHON, MALICORNE… Their traditional folk music mixed with rock can also be compared to the Germans of PARZIVAL.
OUGENWEIDE’s discography is considered as a valuable document about profane, secular music. - Philippe Blache, ProgArchives.com
This group started from Hamburg and has roots in the mid-60’s in the City Preachers and the Fabs, but Ougenweide was really born in 69 with the break-up of the latter. Their folk rock music is a based on their discovery of Pentangle’s Basket Of Light and Fairport’s Liege & Lief crossed with ISB’s tendency to use eastern instruments, but not the acid vocals. They chose to not only sing in German, but also to use older Middle High German, which gave them an authentic feel, especially in their Northern regions, where Platte Deutsch ruled (Low German dialects), writing their own texts, with the arrival of literature student Olaf Casalich. Even their name comes from a 12th century poet Von Reuenthal, meaning ”feast for the eyes”. The group is built around the Wulff brothers (bassist and multi-instrumentalist), the afore-mentioned Casalich (vocals and percussions), the guitarist Von Henko and other percussionist Isenbart, but also boasts two female singers, Blunck and Kollmorgen. Ougenweide, unlike other German Folk Prog groups like Emtidi, W&W, Holderlin and Broselmachine did not try to rock up their sound, even if they used some electric instruments... Clearly the group resembling best Ougenweide was France’s Malicorne.
Although historically speaking Ougenweide was not really groundbreaking, they were one of the more authentic when it came to medieval folk (along with Gryphon, Malicorne and their countrymen Parzival) and certainly never tried to become commercial. While this debut is more trad UK folk, it is not the group’s most representative, but certainly an essential album, for anyone into this genre of music. - Hugues Chantraine
Probably the most commercially successful of German folk-rock bands, Ougenweide originated in Hamburg circa 1970 (going through various incarnations and styles) and becoming Ougenweide proper in 1971. Their name came from the pet name of medieval lyricist Walther von der Vogelweide, whose texts were sometimes used in their music.
From the start through to the 1985 split, Ougenweide had a stable nucleus of four: Olaf Casalich, Jurgen Isenbart, Frank Wulff and Stefan Wulff. Also there in the early days were one Michael Steinbeck and female singer Brigitte Blunck. Ougenweide were fortunate to have a big helping hand from Achim Reichel, who produced them, and also signed them up to his Zebra label. Not that Ougenweide didn't deserve success, their blend of German folk musics, the medieval and the modern, was always innovative and cutting edge. Despite an obvious nod to Pentangle (ignore comparisons to Fairport Convention, the similarity is non-existent), the concoction that Ougenweide came up with was really most original.
After their debut Minne Graw joined as vocalist, her richly intoned German lyric added even more spice to their sound. Ougenweide lasted for several years, issuing numerous albums and built a large repertoire of original and traditional pieces, which are best experienced on their live double UNGEZWUNGEN, with its extended versions and improvisations. Every Ougenweide album we've encountered (all up to FRYHEIT) is generically representative of this creative band, in that they are always pushing on with new ideas, and invention in arrangement, both in song and instrumental.
Ougenweide are also key figures in German progressive music, with members featuring elsewhere. Most interesting to us are Olaf Casalich: Tomorrow's Gift, Frankie Dymon Jr., Achim Reichel, Dennis, etc., and the Hamburger Jazzband "Tuten und Blasen" and work with the Fundus Theater Hamburg; and Frank Wulff: A.R. & Machines, Es, he also worked with Pentangle in 1991, and has many theatre and drama scores to his credit.
In 1996 a new version of Ougenweide got together recording SOL presenting a much more trendy new-pop meets ancient folk and world music, kind of Enigma meets Clannad with an air of Alan Stivell, thus nothing like their former incarnation. - THE CRACK IN THE COSMIC EGG
1 Bald Anders (07:01)
2 Wol mich der Stunde (07:01)
3 Ouwe wie jaemerliche (04:39)
4 Der Rivale (06:25)
5 Ougenweide (11:55)
6 Der Schlemihl (03:59)
7 Ihr Herren wollt Ihr schweigen still (03:42)
8 Swa gouter Hande wurzen sint (06:15)
9 Wintertanz (03:22)
10 Till und die Gelehrten (05:11)
11 Ronde (04:09)
12 Der Fuchs (08:57)
Minne Graw: Gesang, Harmonium, Klavier
Stefan Wulff: E-Baß, Klavier, Zither, Akkordeon
Wolfgang von Henko: Konzert-, Western- und E-Gitarre, Mandoline, Gesang
Olaf Casalich: Gesang, Schlagzeug, Percussion, Röhrenglocken
Jürgen Isenbart:Marimbaphon, Vibraphon, Röhrenglocken, Glockenspiel, Schlagzeug, Gesang
Frank Wulff: Querflöte, Blockflöten, Bombarde, Bouzouki, Mandoline, akustische Gitarre, indisches Harmonium, Gesang
Michael Schrader: Congas
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