Reissue of Nikolaus Utermöhlen’s Karlsbad LP, originally released in 1989 via the much fabled Die Tödliche Doris imprint, named for the parent band of which Utermöhlen was a member. Karlsbad was to be his only solo release, though it's quite the endeavour, 23 off-kilter and probing recordings that defy easy classification. 'European art music' is about the best way i can describe what's ventured forth here, a splattering of folk tradition into avant composition, where clarinet, accordion, organ, guitar and percussion are arranged in a series of seemingly nonsensical though instinctively interesting ways, as if Utermöhlen is purposefully unlearning his practice and the orthodoxy, reassembling it in his own sporadic Dadaist vision. And yet it's the kind of rejection of correlation and coherence that seems to make perfect sense within the context of the European avant garde, where absurdity and digression are the logical pursuits. Apparently these songs were originally made for a Tania Stöcklin and Cyrille Rey-Coquais film, one of which i have of course never heard, but if i'm to discover it has anything like a conventional narrative i'll be hugely disappointed. An addictively maddening oddball classic.
Issued from the original master tapes and includes the 8 page booklet with engravings from the Karlsbad spa era.
