Iknow what longtime readers were thinking:The only reason I wrote about medievalGerman folk-rock in issue #123

(April/May 2006) was to get nerd beaks on thecover. Not so, I tell you! In addition to menwith beaks, this scene features wolves, foxes,ravens, swans, owls, and other beasties, as wellas songs about love, drink, and (of course)death. It really is a vital genre, with its ownconventions, its own scene, and as rich ahistory as other areas under the folk-rockumbrella. Hence, another such column,discussing both the beauties and the beasts ofmedieval folk-rock!

The importance of this genre’s historyreally became apparent to me when BearFamily, the German label known above all forits loving devotion to the history of popularmusic, reissued four albums by a foundationalgroup for medieval rock, on two shiny newCDs. The band in question is Ougenweide(pictured above), undoubtedly the godparentsof German medieval folk-rock. Ougenweideformed in 1971, toured Europe, released a spateof albums between 1973 and 1981, andmanaged to transform the West German folkscene before it disbanded in 1985. Each of theseCDs, Ougenweide/All Die Weil Ich Mag [BearFamily BCD 16775 AH (2006)] and Ohren-schmaus/Eulenspiegel [Bear Family BCD16779 (2006)], presents two of the group’searly LP releases, providing a prehistory of

today’s scene as well a romp through 1970sHamburg. Your English-speaking tour guidefor this journey is Ken Hunt, who lived inHamburg at the time and has penned historicalliner notes setting Ougenweide’s music inproper context.

As Hunt explains, the idea for Germanmedieval rock was born when Olaf Casalich, aformer student of Middle High German, as wellas a musician, attended a rehearsal of FrankWulff’s as-yet-unnamed band, which wasinspired by U.K. folk-rock groups FairportConvention and Pentangle. The concept of“folksong” had developed political connota-tions on the German scene, from 19th-centuryRomantic nationalism to Nazism and beyond.Sidestepping that whole can of worms, Casalichinstead took a Middle High German lyric andadded music. The result of this launched notonly Ougenweide, but the whole genre of“Mittelalter-Rock,” which has developed (withinput from many others) into today’s thrivingscene. Both CDs by Ougenweide feature excel-lent singing and playing on a wide variety ofinstruments, and both are highly recommendedintroductions to the genre.

Ougenweide’s first two albums soundmore or less as you’d expect given its influ-ences: 70s rock, folk, and jazz mixed withmedieval flourishes. “Nieman kan mit Gerten,”its self-titled debut album’s first cut, openswith jazzy acoustic guitar, clear female vocal,

and glockenspiel; it could be on a Pentanglealbum, except for the words by 13th-centuryMinnesinger Walther von Vogelweide. The CDcontinues in a similar vein, venturing intopsychedelic territory in the trippy break from“Es stount ein frouwe alleine,” sweet earlymusic in the recorder-and-harmonium textureson “Ouwe,” Jethro Tull’s early prog-rock fluteon “Swa gouter hande wurzen sint,” and loosebut energetic folk dance music in the arrange-ment of “Der Fuchs,” a German translation ofthe English folksong about Ol’ Daddy Fox.The material from its second album, 1974’s AllDie Weil Ich Mag (also on this CD), suggeststhe group continued listening to the Englishfolk scene for some of its inspiration. I detecthints of the sweetly naive pastoralism ofAmazing Blondel on “Der Rattenfanger,”bouncy Angel Delight-era Fairport in some ofthe mandolin parts, and a healthy dose ofSteeleye Span in its vocal arrangements,rhythms, and guitar playing. On this album,though, the members begin to define their ownsound as well, bringing an eclectic array ofacoustic and electric instruments to bear ontraditional folksongs, medieval songs, a set ofwords by Goethe, and original lyrics andinstrumentals. The CD is thus both a debut ofgreat promise and a sophomore effort showingthat promise well fulfilled.

The second Ougenweide CD demonstratesthat the group members kept listening to folk-

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rock from the continent as well as fromEngland, and kept experimenting on their own.It’s on the album Ohrenschmaus that you hearnot only their influences from England andelsewhere, but also their own foundationalplace on the German and European folkscenes. So, “Kommt, ihr Jungfern, helft mirklagen,” with its double lead guitars, keyboardriffs, and extended solos and breaks, puts onein mind of the epic folk-rock of Trees, while“Al Fol” features thick harmony vocals givingway to a fragile female voice, just like manyof Malicorne’s arrangements of the era. Mean-while, “Bombarde-ment” sounds like themissing link between Alan Stivell’s 1970sbagpipe rock and today’s leading bagpipebands like Corvus Corax, and the guitar rifffrom “Der Schlemiel” turns up later in thework of English folk-rockers the HomeService. Ougenweide’s fourth release, Eulen-spiegel, (also on this CD) shows the memberscoming fully into their own as a creative unit,planning and executing that most 1970s of artforms, the concept album. As the Who hadalready done with Tommy and FairportConvention with Babbacombe Lee, Ougen-weide decided to tell a loosely biographical taleabout Till Eulenspiegel, a legendary jester andtrickster of the German Middle Ages. (To giveyou a sense of the tenor of Eulenspiegel tales,while his name in High German means “owl-mirror,” it is probably derived from a LowGerman expression meaning “bum-wipe.”)This album mixes traditional lyrics withMedieval Latin songs and many originals,retelling Till’s tale for a new generation. Itbrings the hard work of the first three albumsbeautifully to fruition.

To discern the influence Ougenweide hadon this scene, consider that it was the firstGerman rock band to arrange “Palastinalied,”a song from the Crusades by Walther vonVogelweide. Since then, most of the importantgroups in German medieval rock, includingAdaro, Corvus Corax, Qntal, and others, havefollowed suit, recording their own arrange-ments of the song. The song’s popularity, andthe fact that most recordings include onlyselected stanzas of the long text, gaveMarkus Van Langen an idea for a CD: Geta number of these bands together, have eachof them arrange a portion of “Palastinalied”or an instrumental section, and release thewhole as a single, quasi-symphonic work.The result is skillfully assembled into oneunbroken 30-minute rendition of the songwith verses and instrumental interludes bymore than 20 different groups including Faun,Tanzwut, Corvus Corax, and England’sMediæval Bæbes. Some parts of the songhave an early music feel, others an electronicedge; some are sung gently, others withguttural gusto. Bagpipes and hurdy-gurdiesoffer sharp contrast to sweet harps and flutes.An unusual idea, this CD, titled simply

Palastinalied [Heckenreiter Records (2002)],works very well as an extended-form piece ofmedieval folk-rock.

Van Langen not only dreamed up the“Palastinalied” project, he’s also the leader oftwo different medieval rock bands, Des TeufelsLockvoegel and Van Langen, each of whichhas a recent release worth hearing. Des TeufelsLockvoegel is a trio composed of Van Langen,who sings and plays guitars, lutes, and otherstrings, and Sabine Stelzer and Achim Eberle,both of whom sing and play a variety of wood-winds and percussion. Their 2005 CD,Carmina Mystica [Heckenreiter Records TOT23032 (2005)], exists on the borders of earlymusic and folk, opening with a salterelloplayed on bagpipes and drums, setting a prece-dent for most of the album: Woodwinds tendto lead, with chording on citterns and guitars,and snappy rhythms on a variety of drums.The medieval songs are a highlight, especiallywhen Stelzer (who also goes by the stage nameMandragora) is singing. She has the sharp,liquid vocal associated with Sephardic andHispano-Moorish styles, and it suits many of

these songs handsomely. Indeed, two areSpanish pieces from the 13th-century collec-tion Cantigas de Santa Maria, including aparticularly nice rendition of “A virgin muigroriosa.” It’s less appealing to the fan ofmedieval music when the men sing; they’retrying to evoke the toughness of medievalwarriors in a dramatic way, but end up with acroaky vocal style more like hardcore thanfolk. Still, the band does a good job on mate-rial as diverse as songs from the 15th-centuryGerman poet Oswald von Volkenstein, tunesfrom the English Playford collections, andeven the folksong “Ai vist lo lop,” an Occitanversion of the widespread French folksongabout the original party animals: a wolf, a fox,and a hare dancing together in a field. A nicemix of material, then, from this predominantlyacoustic band.

“Ai vist lo lop” also shows up on the latestCD from the more electric band Van Langen,which features the eponymous string playerand his singer/wind player Mandragora, alongwith three other musicians who provide elec-tric guitar, bass, and percussion. This versionis a harder-rocking take on the song, less subtlebut a lot of fun. The album, Zeychen der Zeyt[Heckenreiter Records TOT 23031 (2005)],features equally good material, from apowerful version of the Sephardic night-visiting ballad “Avrix mi Galanica,” to thefatalistic and beautiful Middle English lyric“Myri it is while somer ilast.” On theBulgarian song “Yana,” backed up by beatingdrums and willow-flute, Mandragora soundsmore Nordic than Balkan, putting me in mindof Gjallarhorn or even Mari Boine. A 9th-century Old High German magical spell formsthe basis of one song, and their version of“Palastinalied” is here, too. The samecomment on the vocals pertains here:Mandragora’s are by far the best. Luckily, it’sMandragora who closes the album with a slow,atmospheric rendition of another Sephardicballad, perfect for the crossover fans comingto medieval music from the Goth scene.

Speaking of those fans, there’s a U.S. labelcatering to them now: Philadelphia’s Noirrecords, which has put out another couple ofdomestic releases. One of my favorites is V:The Silver Swan [Noir Records DFD-20946(2006)], by the techno-medieval trio Qntal.This is one of my favorite groups in the genrebecause of its instrumental skill, its superiorproduction, and its top-flight vocals by Syrah,one of the best early-music vocalists inGermany. The sound achieved with world-music instruments like the saz, early-musicaxes like the hurdy-gurdy, and a bank ofprograms and loops, is clear, layered, dimen-sional — a fully-realized environment. Syrah’svoice always keeps the melody to the fore, andthe band is high on atmosphere. On this latestrelease, the members arrange medievalGerman, Latin, Spanish, Provençal, and

Markus Van Langen

Van Langen

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English lyrics. They also venture into theRenaissance with songs by Elizabeth I ofEngland and John Donne. Obscure romanceslike the 12th-century “Belle Erembor” andwell-known pieces like Heinrich vonMorungen’s elf-themed song, “Von denElben,” become the basis of Qntal songs, andthe Middle English lyric “The Whyle” isdressed up with an appropriate, driving dancerhythm and an appealing naïveté. WhetherQntal’s greater use of English on this releaseis related to its signing with a U.S. label issomething I don’t know, but Syrah does asgood a job with MiddleEnglish as anyone I’ve heard.The CD exists as a regularrelease and a special limitededition. The limited editioncontains a special booklet ofart by Brian Froud, and asecond disc with song remixes,a Froud art gallery, and somevideoclips. For Froud fans andQntal fans the limited edition isa must, but for the musicallycurious, the best thing is themain CD, which comes withboth versions.

Passing from the majestyof the swan to the raucous cryof the raven is a good metaphorfor our segue to the rowdymusic of Corvus Corax, whose name is Latinfor “raven.” The title of its latest CD, Venus,Vina, Musica [Noir Records 20726 (2006)],can translate roughly as “Wine, Women andSong.” This album has a good smattering of themuscular bagpipe-and-drum sound the groupis famous for; the rhythms range from a quick-march to a frenetic gallop, and the massedmedieval pipes sound rich and sharp, if simple.The title track, with the cry of the pipes, therumble of drums, and the simple singing andshouting of the whole band, will be a journeyinto familiar territory for the band’s many fans.But Venus, Vina, Musica also visits some areasof greater subtlety. The instrumental “Tuska”finds it tackling Balkan rhythms, and “AntiDolores Capitis,” with its creaking strings anddeep demonic voices, sounds like the back-ground music that plays at the gates of hell.Meanwhile, on the medieval French song “QuiNous Demaine,” my favorite on this outing,guest musician Olivier Sa Tyr (of the bandFaun) adds Celtic harp, and the Corvus Coraxmembers contribute something very rare inthis genre: sensitive male vocals. It’s a gentlelove song of the “I made my love a garland”variety, set in the beautiful month of May. Andjust in case it makes you think the boys aregetting soft, the next tune sounds like orcsmarching off to war!

In case you thought only Germans weremaking medieval rock, let me mention twoyoung American bands cast in a similar mold.

Unto Ashes is not medieval rock so much as anatmospheric gothic medieval folk trio. When Icontacted them for CDs, they were about toleave the country to tour Germany with Qntal,which is quite a coup on this rarified scene. Allthree members of Unto Ashes sing, and ifthey’re not as sublime as Syrah, they still do avery creditable job in English, Latin, French,German, and Italian. Natalia Lincoln playskeyboards, and most of the other instruments,including guitar, Appalachian dulcimer, cello,hammered dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, and percus-sion are played by Michael Laird. On their

2005, release Grave Blessings [Projekt 172(2005)], they tackle two medieval songs, onefrom France and the other from Germany. Bothare given compelling acoustic arrangements,including such unusual combinations asplucked dulcimer, organ, and French horn. Theyplay many songs they’ve written themselves,with haunting lyrics invoking astrology,alchemy, and ancient pagan archetypes. And forfolkies, they even cover “Four Loom Weaver,”crediting the arrangement to Silly Sisters. Theirlatest CD, Songs for a Widow [Projekt 187(2006)], makes the Pagan orientation moreexplicit in songs like “My Lord is Born,” andcontains a similar mix of originals, medievalmaterial (in this case a wonderfully downbeatMiddle English lyric and a passage fromDante), and covers. There are very impressivemusical ideas here; the screeching electricguitar and crunchy power chords on “You WillNever Know” contrast with the gentle acousticplucking, mirrored by the wildly different vocalstyles of the two singers; I haven’t heard abetter sonic metaphor for conflicted emotions.In “Drei Todesarten” they even manage toproduce an original that sounds just like (whatelse?) German medieval rock!

The Soil Bleeds Black, another youngAmerican trio, has several medieval-themeddiscs available. Its latest, Alchemie [FossilDungeon FD027-TW1.20 (2005)], is actuallya reissue of a 1999 CD with some bonus tracksadded. As the title suggests, it takes as its

theme alchemy, the medieval discipline thathad elements we’ve since remixed into philos-ophy, psychology, and chemistry. The songsare original, but the themes and the instru-ments are medieval. There are some sweetmoments with instruments I don’t even recog-nize… which makes me long for some linernotes telling me who’s playing what! Still inall, it’s an impressive effort from a band thatmust have been quite young at the time. Thegroup begins its previous album, Mirror ofthe Middle Ages [Fossil Dungeon FD013(2003)], with a reference to a pet peeve of

many folklorists: the idea that“Ring around the Rosy” is amedieval song about theBlack Death. There’s neverbeen the slightest evidence forthis fanciful claim, but it turnsup in everything from seriousmedieval history books totourist brochures. The bandplays the song with creepyquartile harmonies andbreathy vocals that are bothappropriate and slightlygrating. In general, it’s a braveand interesting band, playinga variety of unusual instru-ments to good effect, andexcelling on guitars in manyplaces. It seems to have at

least one out-of-tune recorder that flattensnotes here and there throughout the album;it sounds quite like a homemade medievaltabor-pipe might sound, but is also distracting.As for vocals, they aren’t this trio’s strongestpoint, and I think they’d do well to look for amore accomplished singer (since recordingthese albums they have in fact added vocalistDawn Desiree to the group). The threemembers on the records are high on talent andpotential, and also show excellent taste in old-time party-songs; they include the Henry VIIIcomposition “Pastime with Good Company,”exhorting us to “hunt, sing and dance,” and theLatin drinking song “In Taberna QuandoSumus,” describing the debauchery of amedieval drinking-house. They have alsochosen several songs central to the origins ofthe “Mittelalter-Rock” genre, including“Palastinalied” (of which they provide a nice,dance-style remix as well) and “Tempus EstIocandum,” both of which were brought intothe pop world by none other than Ougenweide.

And so, readers, we’ve come full circle,from the 20-somethings of the 1970s to theircounterparts 35 years later, rediscoveringmedieval music and blending it with folk androck. That’s the glorious thing about both folkmusic and medieval music: It’s so dated andyet so resilient that it can be remade for eachgeneration. Here’s hoping there aremany more regenerations to come!

Corvus Corax