09-02-20

In den nächsten Wochen werde ich an jedem Samstag einen der Songs unseres letzten Albums "stolen dreams in a nearby lost & found" bei facebook vorstellen. Ob wir die Songs auf CD  veröffentlichen, ist noch nicht klar; wenn dann in kleiner Stückzahl.

Den  Veröffentlichungstermin geben wir hier noch bekannt.

 

Korrektur der untenstehenden Pressnotiz  (SZ):

Rainer Wahlmann war 1975 Mitbegründer von green wave

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Geschrieben von Holger Härtel   

http://allover-ffm-rock.de/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5295&Itemid=91

 

12.02.2010




VÖ: bereits erschienen
(Eigenproduktion)

Homepage:
http://green-wave-live.jimdofree.com/

Dies sind 2 CD’ s, erstere mit dem Titel "…we used to cut the green grass…", die auch mit 11 Tracks und einem Bonus gut gefüllt ist. Die zweite CD mit dem Titel "…the war is over.." ist mit 6 Tracks (jedoch fast alle im 7 Minuten-Bereich) nicht so prall gefüllt. Die Spielzeiten sind mit 62:39 und 41:46 aber ausgewogen und nun werde ich mal schauen, ob man sich die 104 Minuten auch ‚antun’ kann.

Die Gruppe ist seit 1975 aktiv und hat diese Doppel-CD als Eigenproduktion aufgelegt, so dass ich nun noch gespannter bin, vor allem, weil das Intro mit einer unglaublichen Länge von fast 2 ½ Minuten mich auch vom Stil her irgendwie an Marillion erinnert. Die Gruppierung aus der CDDB ist jedoch "Alternative & Punk" und so geht es dann auch bei "Better call it a day" gleich mal in die Vollen. Die Stimme erinnert an eine Mischung aus Talking Heads und Fischer Z., passt somit nicht nur hervorragend zum Stil, sondern fügt sich in den akustischen Rahmen der vorherrschenden Instrumente (Drums & Gitarre) perfekt ein. Da die CDs wirklich umfangreich sind und mein Platz hier doch recht beschränkt, gehe ich ab jetzt nur noch auf die besten und schlechtesten Lieder der CDs ein. Mit "What the fuck" liefert die Band gleich als dritten Track einen Song ab, der seinem Namen alle Ehre macht und fällt gleich mal in den negativen Bereich der Wertung. "She wrote a letter" kann die Scharte danach aber wieder auswetzen und geht dann vom alternativen Punk schon etwas in die Richtung Rock. Dann mit "Mama" bringen die Jungs ein Lied, das wirklich einen umhaut. Die Stimme jetzt nicht mehr so schrill, mehr Keyboard dabei und eine hervorragende Gitarre. WOW – wenn ich mich anstrenge, höre ich hier viele Interpreten raus (Queen, Genesis, Scorpions, Gary Moore, Dire Straits, Queensryche – um nur einige zu nennen), wobei hier keiner der genannten Interpreten kopiert wird. "The Underground" ist mal wieder so ein Highlight, beginnend mit der Mundharmonika, etwas Blues ist hier drin, im Gegensatz zum Bonustrack "Too real" ein wirkliches Bonbon. "Too real" fällt hier leider (als zweites Lied) ein wenig nach unten raus, da es mir persönlich zu jazzig ist.

Nun die zweite CD eingelegt "…the war is over…"

"Let’s make up & be friendly" hat leider wieder ein wenig zuviel Jazz-Elemente, aber "The rising of the weekend" entschädigt dann zum Glück dafür. Ein sehr melancholisches Lied, zu dem die Gitarre richtig perfekt ‚weint’. Mit der Geige wirkt der letzte Track "The war is over" noch um einiges melancholischer und stimmungsvoller und ist wirklich ein gelungenes Finale für eine wirklich gelungene Produktion.

Fazit: Für eine Eigenproduktion ist es akustisch absolut gelungen und kann auch mit professionellen Produktionen mithalten. Auch wenn ich ein wenig voreingenommen an die Sache gegangen bin (saarländischer Alternative & Punk und noch selbst produziert), so musste ich das schnell revidieren. Mir persönlich gefällt die Doppel-CD sehr gut und ich kann sie weiterempfehlen. Ich sage mal so: Wer Fischer Z, Marillion (vor 1987) und Talking Heads mag, der kann sich hier sicher mit anfreunden, wobei ein Reinhören vorher empfehlenswert ist.

Kauftip: Also ich würde mir diese CD auf jeden Fall kaufen, auch wenn einige wenige Tracks mir persönlich nicht so gut gefallen. Aber zu mindestens 90% ist es absolut hörenswert.

 

 

 

 

Stefan Uhrmacher für Kultur regional (Saarbrücker Zeitung)

 

green wave am 11.06.09 in der Breite63, Saarbrücken

 

 

 

Saarbrücken. Selbst Stehplätze waren gefragt beim Andrang zum Konzert von Green Wave in der Breite 63. Besonders erfreulich: Generationen-übergreifend reichte das Altersspektrum zur Vorstellung des neuen Doppel-Albums „We used to cut the green grass/The war is over“ (Leico Records) vom Green-Wave-Fan der ersten Stunde anno 1975 bis hin zu ganz jungen Gesichtern. Geboten bekamen alle starken Artrock in der Tradition der 70er-Jahre - der hier mindestens eine Nummer rockiger tönte als auf der Studioaufnahme. Via Elektronik waren auch viele der von der CD her bekannten Geräusche präsent; massig füllte der Live-Sound den kleinen Saal. Im Bassregister meinte es der Mann am Mixer für empfindliche Ohrnerven gar zu gut. Unterm Strich brachten Green Wave ihr kniffliges Konzept-Opus spieltechnisch grundsolide und quicklebendig an den Hörer. Man merkte einfach, dass es den alten Hasen Riesenspaß machte. Zugpferd war selbstredend „Mister Green Wave“ Rainer Wahlmann am Sangesmikrofon, der allerlei Details der verwinkelten Story um die Folgen eines Atom-Supergaus geradezu mit den Händen ins Scheinwerferlicht zu malen schien. Wahlmanns Sonnenbrille, seine diabolische Stimme mit dem Cockney-Akzent, dazu schneidende Synthesizer-Wellen und Gitarrenakkorde wie Peitschenhiebe - da rieselten schon mal wohlige Gruselschauer den Rücken herunter. Vor allem weckte das Konzert aber durchaus wehmütige Erinnerungen an eine Ära, als Rock noch (Kunst-)Anspruch und Botschaft hatte – Green Wave halten sie jung.

 

uhr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...und er träumt ...van Nederland...

 

 

 

Ein Gespräch mit Rainer Wahlmann, Frontmann und Sänger von

 

Green Wave, der letzten Rockband vor der Grenze

Von NewcomerSzeneSaarland – Redakteur Ferdinand Martinelli

 

Er schrieb saarländische Rockgeschichte. Und Geschichten über grüne Tage auf blauen Planeten...seit über 40 Jahren ist Rainer Wahlmann als Musiker und kreativer Texter aktiv.

 

Wir treffen uns in Saarbrücker Chinesenviertel an einem der letzten schönen Herbsttage. Die Newcomer Szene Saarland wollte für euch die neuesten Infos von der saarländischen Rockband Green Wave – aber wenn man einen Menschen wie Rainer trifft wird aus solch einem Vorhaben unweigerlich eine Zeitreise in Sachen Musik, die mehr als 40 Jahre umspannt.

 

Seine musikalischen Anfänge liegen in der Gründung der Band „Dies Irae“ im Jahre 1968, die 1971 ihr erstes Album „First“ veröffentlichte und somit unweigerlich der „Kraut-Rock“ Epoche zugeordnet wurde. Mit Bands wie Moody, Blues, Edgar Broughton Band, Uriah Heep oder The Pretty Things traten sie auf – und auch auf einem erst vor ein paar Jahren veröffentlichten exotischen Krautrock- Sampler sind sie mit ihrem auf youtube tausendfach angeklickten „trip“ zu hören.,.

 

Möglicherweise war Wahlmann der erste deutsche Rockmusiker, der es schaffte, aus dem damaligen Radioprogramm wegen aufrührerischen und provokanten Texten verbannt zu werden.

 

Im Jahre 1975 gründete er, zusammen mit Marc Fournelle, Deddé Schäfer, Hans-Gerd Schäfer, Bernard Ayling und Helmut Scheid Green Wave und beschritt wieder Neuland – die Musik der Band war stark geprägt von amerikanischer Musik, Rhythm`n`Blues sowie Rock. Für die damalige Zeit für eine deutsche Band sehr außergewöhnlich und weitsichtig.

 

Im Eilverfahren handelt Rainer seine Musik-Karriere ab. „Ja, wir hatten einige Erfolge, Drogen,Beziehungen zu Frauen, Geld meist weniger...und auch alles was man nicht haben will – Abstürze, Trennungen, Manager die einen verklagen, Schulden und Hoffnungslosigkeit. Heute ist für mich Musik reine Expression und Meditation, ich bin immer noch leidenschaftlich, ...ehrgeizig leider seltener... – aber dennoch: wenn ich dann etwas mache, soll es so gut wie möglich sein.“

 

Meinen nächsten Song würde ich gerne auf niederländisch singen...“

Rainer sprüht vor Energie und Lebensfreude, als er nach flotter Abhandlung seiner musikalischen Laufbahn über Dinge redet, die ihn begeistern und die er liebt.

 

London 1978 , Punk....und Rainer mittendrin

Ja, ich liebe Punk, und ich fühle mich auf eine gewisse Art und Weise immer noch als Punker. Aber ich verstehe darunter Punk in seinem eigentlichen Sinne: Anders sein wollen, nicht in ein Schema passen wollen. Das in Worten und Musik auszudrücken, dafür brenne ich immer noch. Und wenn es Menschen wie Bob Geldof gelingt, tatsächlich auch politisch was zu bewegen, weiß ich, welche Kraft Musik hat“

 

Voller Phantasie und Poesie, aber auch kalter Realität und Brutalität ist die Trilogie „...green days on a planet blue...“ von Green Wave. Auf dem Doppelalbum „we used to cut the green grass/the war is over“ und dem Album „The inner Garden“ erzählt Wahlmann eine spannende Geschichte, die in England und Spanien spielt...nachlesen lohnt sich! (http://www.green-wave48.blogspot.de/)

 

Was träumt, was plant ein Mann, der solche Geschichten schrieb und der selbst ein Stück Rockgeschichte schrieb?

 

Ich war (und bin) schon seit den frühen Sechziger Jahre immer wieder in den Niederlanden und beherrsche auch die Sprache mittlerweile ziemlich gut. Auf unserer kommenden CD wird mit Amsterdam ´65(de groene slang) auch ein Song mit niederländischem Text sein.“

 

Das würde Sinn machen, sang er doch schon auf deutsch, englisch und saarländisch (mit einer Band, die wir hier nicht unterschlagen wollen: „d´hemm“) – auf zu neuen Ufern!

 

Ich erfinde mich immer wieder neu und bin auch immer wieder ein New Comer“, so Rainer in Anlehnung an den Namen unseres Lieblingsmusiklabels.

 

Rainers Stimmung passt sich plötzlich der Jahreszeit an, trotz der herbstlichen Sonne, die wir draußen sitzend im Nauwieser genießen dürfen.

Mein langjähriges musikalisches Alter Ego, Stefan Richter, ist beruflich mittlerweile so eingespannt, dass er weniger Zeit für Musik findet – er ist erfolgreicher Psychologe und Berater in Frankfurt.“

Zusammen mit Stefan Richter schrieb er den Großteil der Musik für die Alben, aber es ist mehr als nur eine musikalische Partnerschaft. Sie kennen sich schon ewig und teilen viele Interessen und Einstellungen, politisch, musikalisch und über das Leben allgemein.

 

Die anfängliche Frage, was es Neues bei Green Wave gibt, können wir euch schlussendlich doch noch beantworten:

 

Auch wenn Rainers anfängliches Studioequipment aus der Zeit des green wave Studios in Riegelsberg Svens Hightech-Equipment (PCs, Digitalpult u.ä.) weichen musste und in einer Ecke von Verwendung träumt, laufen seit Anfang September im Hüttersdorfer Studio bereits wieder die ersten Aufnahmen zur nächsten green wave CD.

 

Sven Gross ist seit ein paar Monaten Besitzer und Produzent der ursprünglich von green wave angemieteten Studioräume.

 

Er und Daniel Minnerath hatten schon bei der Doppel-CD2009 Stefan Richter und Rainer Wahlmann als Produzenten abgelöst und produzieren auch jetzt die neuen Songs von green wave

 

Rainer hofft, dass er sich vielleicht noch soweit in Cubase einarbeiten kann, dass er vielleicht mit Stefan Richter über Internet noch weiter musikalisch zusammenarbeiten kann.

 

derzeitiges green wave Line-up: Sven Gross – keys, vocals, programming, recording; Daniel Minnerath – guitars, banjo, programming, recording; Deddé Schäfer – bass, vocals; Manuel Schwierczek – drums, percussion; Rainer Wahlmann – vox, harps, noises; Christoph Waltner- guitars;

 

Gastmusiker bei den neuen Aufnahmen wird auf jeden Fall auch wieder Stefan Richter- keys sein.

 

 

 

Also stehen die Chancen gut, dass wir bald den ersten Greenie-Song auf holländisch hören dürfen!

 

 

 

Danke für dieses ausführliche Gespräch, lieber Rainer Wahlmann!

 

Weitere Infos zu der Band findet ihr hier :

 

https://green-wave-live.jimdofree.com

 

Natürlich ließ sich Rainer nicht lumpen und brachte ´nen Sack voller CDs mit, die ihr gewinnen könnt!

Beantwortet folgende Frage und schickt eure Antwort an https://www.facebook.com/szenesaarland

 

Wie hieß die Band, mit der Rainer Wahlmann auf saarländisch gesungen hat?

  1. Preis: Die komplette Trilogie „...green days on a planet blue...“ auf 2 CDs

  2. Preis: Original Backstage und Artist Pässe aus den 90ern

 

Ian Gledhill(Canada), www.progarchives.com

 

cd review auf seiner homepage www.thedayoftimestops.webs.com

 

(unter nofreakouts!, downscrollen bis dies irae) 

 

 

 

The first striking feature of this double disc from German psychedelic mushroom rock band Green Wave is the spectacular panoramic artwork by Marc Friese that adorns the cover. Simultaneously real and surreal, it perfectly describes what the listener is about to share with the characters in this epic story as they endure conflict, love, confusion, isolation and separation with a certain togetherness in a dangerous time.

 

It would be best to begin with the one minor drawback of this work. Unfortunately the complete story is not included on the two discs which might cause some initial confusion. However, this is compensated for by the excellent descriptive liner notes provided ( in both German and English) that also guide the listener towards the superb Green Wave website where they can find all the lyrics to the three part story or trilogy as it is referred to by the band. The general concept is nonetheless maintained so the missing part of the story is just a minor detail. And if one just wants to enjoy an hour and a half of some wonderful music without worrying about the story then one will find an excellent selection of songs that can be considered individually that paint, sequel and blend with on another beautifully.

 

But for those interested in both the story and the music this is where the treat lies on "...we used to cut the green grass... the war is over...." So without spoiling the story ( I'll leave that up to the band) it can be best summarized as a post-apocalyptic tale. While most stories of this sort are of a science fiction nature this one centres around the spirit and emotions of human beings within a threatened and fragile environment. In other words, it could really have happened or could happen. The story centres around a toxic event that occurs over Great Britain. The main characters are exiled to the Spanish coast where they hope to find a better life and happiness. I said that I would not give away the story so that's all I'm divulging.

 

While musically, this very electric (I didn't hear an acoustic instrument anywhere) orchestral rock epic doesn't reach virtuosic proportions, the musicians on the work are superb players. At times they play with the fire and fury of heavy metal and punk but become solemn and sullen like a classical master in order to reflect the moods of the individual songs .There are no less than 7 of them. They are Daniel Minnerath, guitars Dedde Schafer, bass/vocals, Stephan Richter, keyboards/vocals, Klaus Kliebenstein, drums, Christoph Waltner, guitars, Sven Gross, keyboards/vocals/production with Rainer Wahlmann on lead vocals, mouth harp and making noises. While the writing is an all out group effort the lyrical concept is the brainchild of Wahlmann the poet laureate of the group. It is worth commenting a bit about his uniquely wonderful voice that could mistakenly be compared to that of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame.

 

During the early seventies Wahlmann was busy being a full blown hippie in a rather obscure German band called Dies Irae. Even though this band only produced one record some of the attitude that was present in Dies Irae carried over to Green Wave through Wahlmann. Wahlmann himself readily admits that he might sound a bit like Waters but this is not intentional. So, this work might take a bit getting used to as result of Wahlmann's unique voice which just happens to sound like Roger Waters. Unfortunately it is too easy to make comparisons. I might add that Wahlmann is a 60 something and sounds no different than he sounded in 1971 when singing with Dies Irae. I might add as well for those who might be familiar with Dies Irae that this is an entirely different band.

 

As this is a German band ( who sing in English ), those who are familiar with some of the zany and bizarre effects employed by such bands from the early seventies Krautrock movement such as Guru Guru, Grobschnitt and others will be delighted just as I was to hear some of that here. If you're a fan of air raid sirens, fear not, there are even some air raid sirens. But these sound devices are used very effectively within the contexts of the songs and not indiscriminately. Also on a personal note, and speaking of the 1970s, I am a big fan of the longer concept albums of that period (Yes, Focus etc.), I was very surprised to find a concept album of this length appearing in the year 2009! So this is another treat for those who relish those precious years.

 

Green Wave's opus "...we used to cut the green grass...the war is over" will definitely take a few listens to fully appreciate. But once you get it will give you a great feeling. Maybe take it out to the park on a sunny afternoon where there are children playing, dogs chasing sticks and people strolling. That would be the perfect backdrop over which to enjoy this forward looking album that does not forget the terrible lessons of the past but above all gives hope in this world that can change without notice and will never be the same regardless of how much we might long for it.

 

Catch the Green Wave 5/5 for this jewel.  

 

 

 

 

 

  Early Krautrock, Dies Irae and the Green Wave Concept Albums

 

vibrationbaby (Ian Gledhill, reviewer of the Canadian www.progarchives.com )

 


Rainer Wahlmann was a founder member of the German psych/prog band Dies Irae. Formed in 1968 they released a single LP in 1971 simply entitled "First " which met with some controversy as result of Wahlmann's lyrics .He ultimately left the band in 1972 and by 1973 the band was no more; although there was a brief reunion and an attempt to reform the band in 1992. In 1975 Wahlmann along with guitarist/vocalist Marc Fournelle formed another band called Green Wave that was initially heavily influenced by American R&B, rather unusual for a German band at the time. They were exclusively atouring band playing on concert bills with the likes of Guru Guru, KRAAN and Embryo and only released  their first English language album, “the inner garden” in 2000, which by this time contained a mixture of styles. Another double album followed in 2009 that sounded even more progressive. They are currently working on another project that will be sung in the German language.

Both Dies Irae and Green Wave are represented here on PA. Since I wrote both of the bios with the assistance of Wahlmann I decided to ask him if he wouldn't mind doing an interview for us. He graciously did not hesitate to say certainly. So..............

VB :
 
Hi Rainer
RW
:
It's really funny, how the stories of yesterday return, when somebody asks for them.

VB :
 First off, how did you get into music in Germany back in the 60s? How did your musical trip blast off?
RW :
 It's been a strange post-war scene that I grew up in a village near Saarbrucken. The adults always used to  keep discussing the shame of having lost another world war, at family parties, in drunken moments, they started singing their German folksongs again, that they used to sing while marching throughout Poland, Russia, The Netherlands or France and they tried to tell us kids stories about all our ( still ) enemies in the world : the French, the Russians, the English, the Americans and all the others .We kids playing in the corners of our attic or basement, found the old  nazi--propaganda books and papers our parents had forgotten to burn and we played our own war games in the back yard. Like after the First World War, our home region Saarland was occupied by the French and had to pay back war reparation debts in coal and steel. I had two older cousins, living in the same house. If I remember well, they started messing and upsetting the whole house in the late 50s/early 60s with, what my father called American negro music : music of our "enemies". They played Elvis, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Bill Haley and others. One of my cousins saved all his money to buy an old Adler motorbike and with that bike he caused some trouble as one of the first teddy-boys in our region. I was honestly impressed : this kind of weird music really disturbed the adult world so much and was able to make them really angry! My father played the guitar and he always tried to teach me the songs he used to sing. I hated those songs and as a result I never really learned to play the guitar. Later, about 1963/64, I started to listen to early British beat bands like The Searchers, The Kinks, The Animals, The Who etc. My first records were of the ( then really weird looking ) Rolling Stones and my record player got thrown out the window by my father. The war had begun : I decided to fight with music for freedom of thought and against intolerance. With some schoolmates we began practicing. I couldn't play anything, but I thought I had something to say. I pretended to be the singer.

VB :
 Legend has it that the early Krautrock or kosmishe bands were spaced out on LSD and other mind altering drugs. The music certainly reflected that. They were pretty "out there" when compared to American or British bands that appeared during the summer of love of 1967-69. Bands like Guru Guru, Amon Düül and your own band were much darker and not as happy. In Germany it was more like the summer of "freakout", Could you offer some thoughts & comments.
RW :
Yes indeed, we were pretty " out there ". Different from Great Britain or American rock 'n roll and beat music had no real roots in Germany. Since the 19th century Germany has always been an authoritarian country we had no democratic tradition like other countries. We even had to be forced to democracy by wars. Many of them Krautrock bands such as we were involved in a political process too. We tried to escape from the system of boredom people in grey, of adaptation to the modern capitalist way of life with a barely hidden fascist background, that' s why they called us communists ( It was so easy ). We had been born as the children of the world's biggest murderers. No, of course we were not guilty - but we felt like it. Beautiful losers (I really love that Leonard Cohen expression  ), that's what we were and, at least I think so, we still are. We were no winners, like some of them happy Californian acid freaks. We made music with a dark cloud hanging over our heads and hoped to build a better new world. I got influenced by the summer of love very much, but inside if me there was a lot of anger still.

VB :
With some exceptions why did most German bands sing in English? I've heard various explanations for this. Some say it was for commercial reasons while others day their music sounded better in English than German. In 1980 one of the members of Grobschnitt joked that it was nice to understand what he was singing about when they wrote a few songs in German. Could you give your take on this ?
RW :
I myself never wanted to be German out of the reasons mentioned previously. I wanted to be part of a tolerant global English speaking community (sounds rather naive when I'm looking at the crimes of globalization nowadays) In the early sixties I really considered emigrating to Holland. The German music on the radio sounded mostly like the songs my father used to sing. Childish songs with silly lyrics supposed to put everyone to sleep, so they would not notice that there are wars and riots in the streets. Even when we played the Amsterdam Melkweg I didn't agree that they wanted to announce us as a German band. I insisted that the band came from Saarland which is, I sadly have to admit, meanwhile part of Germany and no autonomous country like Luxemburg or Liechtenstein. Sometime in the late 90s Stefan (VB, Green Wave's keyboard player ) suggested maybe to get a bit more commercial to sing in German. We compromised in starting a German dialect project called d'hemm in the language of our home region "Saarländisch one of the most disliked dialects in Germany.

VB :
I'd like to talk a bit about Dies Irae, because there would not have been a Green Wave had there not been a Dies Irae. You were banned from German radio (with a few exceptions) because of your anti-establishment lyrics and this contributed to the end of the band. You actually wanted the lyrics printed of the one and only Dies Irae album "First" that was released in 1971. Could you be specific on what it was that really ticked people off about your lyrics because personally I thought they were pretty cool when I first got a hold of the album in 1977.
RW:
A part of the answer already lies in your question. You are Canadian, with a long liberal tradition behind you, since the early days of rock, the English speaking world got used step by step to lyrics dealing with sex & drugs by hearing songs they understood immediately what was meant. On German radios you could hear songs with sex & drugs lyrics as well, but not too many understood the lyrics and the songs came as chart hits from the US or Great Britain. The late 60s/early 70s in Germany were determined by a yellow-press caused McCarthy-like persecution complex for sex addicted drug-taking-long haired communist (in fact, sometimes we were ) street fighting musicians. I guess, if I had not insisted on printing the lyrics on the cover no one would have taken any notice of the lyrics at all. But I desperately believed in what I said then and I wanted to be understood, so it happened that way. I found it somewhat ridiculous to imagine that some people thought that we were a threat to society even if I hoped we were! Georg Kreisler, a very famous Austrian singer once sang "but the world even shoots sparrows with cannonballs" I felt a bit like a sparrow then.

VB :

You're a big fan of British punk and new wave bands. Would you consider Dies Irae an early incarnation of punk?
RW:
Yes, I felt like a punk ( and I still do), even if it started years later. I tried to be different in many a way. I had been listening to many groups then that had that kind of a punk spirit. So I liked The Pretty Things, Downliner' s Sect, MC5, The Electric Prunes, Iggy & The Stooges and many others. Even The Rolling Stones were rather punky in the beginning and I adored the work of Bob Geldof in the late 70s and what he politically achieved with music worldwide.

VB :

We have to talk about the "Trip" video. It gets thousands of hits on You Tube. What made you go out to an excavation site and go crazy. Were you "tripped" out on something and decided, let's go out to the sand pit and film ourselves going crazy or was it though out ? It blew my mind when I first saw it and everybody I show it to freaks right out. Could you tell us how and why it was made and where it was shown back in 1971 and what the heck is it supposed to mean??
RW :
The location where we filmed it has a WWII military background. It had been a drilling area for soldiers, SS and police during the war. Nearby, about 1km away, there had been a concentration camp. At that time they had just started to remove the remnants to build up an industrial area. The only "plan" for the movie was: the war is over, and crazy long haired hippies desecrate "this holy ground". The television crew had no idea, what they should do with us, so Bonny our "natural high" drummer suggested, that the camera man should bind his camera to his hand and shake it all around to make it more psychedelic. To make it even more freaky we entered the bus. I had found a plant that had got removed by one of those caterpillars ( VB' excavation machines ) and we planted it back into the sand and watered it to let it grow again ( maybe this was the beginning of the Green Wave idea ). I had smoked a joint before filming but it was stronger than I thought. Unfortunately the guitar player was only a substitute for Harald Thoma and, like I told you before, for that reason and for Jo Schiff's grimacing, I didn't like the video too much.

VB :
Now Green Wave. Why the name Green Wave and how did the band get started?
RW :
In !975 our California guitar player Bernard Ayling suggested to give us the German name Grüne Welle, which means, that all the streetlights should turn green when you're in a hurry. My then girlfriend didn't like this German name,so she suggested "Green Wave", and I ,as a real friend of nature, preferred the idea, that a green wave is necessary to prevent this world from drowning into a sea of grey So we had the ”green“ in our name, I believe, 3 years before the German environmental party "The Greens" started. With the somewhat arrogant slogan "the last rockband before the border " we entered the scene and played  a lot of late hippie festivals and left wing parties.

VB :
Green Wave was a live band for almost 15 years before you even recorded your first album in 1999. This is rather unusual and I never heard of it before. I started researching Dies Irae for Progarchives in 2006. Could you briefly tell us why it took so long to produce an album. 
RW :
When I left Dies Irae in 1972 I felt deeply frustrated, as well by music industry as by my former fellow musicians. Most of the people who I thought they were my real friends turned out to be real fans instead and followed the without me still performing group for one more year. With Green Wave my only wish was to build up a band of friends, not caring about the commercial thing. So we did. We played live gigs all the time and loved it. Fact was also and till today is, same like in the Dies Irae days, in our home region of Saarland there is no kind of music business at all. To be noticed, you had to leave for the big towns like Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg. We made some efforts to interest some major companies and played some big towns, but musicians came and went and so we finally decided to save all our money, to build up our own independent recording studio and do whatever we wanted to do. !999 I finally thought, we were ready to record a CD; so we started our independant recording and producing. Looking back I must admit, I was never quite aware how fast the years had been passing by.

VB :

When you finally did record the Inner Garden which was the second part of a trilogy entitled "green days on a planet blue ", that began with the rock opera "we used to cut the green grass ", I was a bit confused because I heard the double CD " we used to cut the green grass/ the war is over" first. Why didn't you just record the three parts in order?
RW :
At the time we decided to record our first CD we had been playing " We Used To Cut The Green Grass " live with changing musicians for about 9 years and the songs did not excite us very much anymore. We had raw material and fresh songs ready for "The Inner Garden " (Part II )and thought it would be much more exciting to start with the songs, we never played live before and so it went. With the death of our drummer Hans-Gerd Schäfer it took us 10 years more till we finally recorded parts I & III. First time in my life I had realized that" time waits for noone".

VB :

How did the whole concept evolve? Did it take form in your head or was it based on something in real life? Why did you choose Great Britain and Spain as the settings for the trilogy? While listening to the last part "The War Is Over" I found that some of it could have been interpreted as the state of Germany after the second world war. Were you thinking about this or is the trilogy a completely fictional story?
RW :
In the early 90s I read an article about how they set free genetic mutated bacteria into the Californian atmosphere in order to change the climate for their strawberry harvest in the environmental magazine Nature. The bacteria delayed the forming of ice crystals in the clouds, what meant a lot of money could be saved. I swear, I'm not joking: this was and still is the true story. This was the basic idea in my head, the rest took time to develop. I chose Great Britain's Sellafield as one of the greatest senseless symbols for nuclear power in the world. Still I strongly believe we'd be better off without such an indomitable energy. I was so glad to see the Sellafield cooling towers fall some years ago on You Tube ( I saw the movie ) because I had been hitchin' through that part of Great Britain in my youth and been walking through the lake district for one week following the paths of some great British poets. By the way I love that Shelley poem you chose for the biography. I've also been travelling through the Spanish part of the story, the Costa Verde, and the landscape of the Picos de Europa, a beautiful place to start anew. The war is over impression you get sure is not limited to Germany after the war, it is the same all over the world. Too many people have died, life goes on, the soldiers are forgotten and pretty soon there are new soldiers marching through the streets and people shout hooray! f**k it!

VB :
How would you categorize the music of Green Wave today? Alternative? Progressive? There's a lot of influences that can be heard from The Talking Heads to Pink Floyd,
RW :
I declare every musician who's not satisfied with the way the human race behaved towards this planet in the last decades is my friend, even if he doesn't know me or likes me at all. If you've been listening to rock music for about nearly 50 years there's a lot of fantastic bands, musicians, melodies and lyrics floating through your head. I guess we got influenced by all the bands and musicians we liked. I don't know exactly how to categorize our music. I like the true sense of alternative, but in the end I like to say, it's simply music, you have to hear it and to feel it to see, if you really like it.

VB :
Stefan Richter, the keyboard player, writes all the music and you write all the lyrics. You interact very well. The music is very descriptive of the lyrics. Could you reflect on this close knit creative process.
RW :
Stefan and me, that's a real long time companionship, every time we meet in the rehearsal room or in the studio something new gets on the way, we share a similar point of view on music, politics and life in general. But to put it right, on "The War Is Over" there are also a lot of ideas from Sven Gross and all the others of the team. Sven and the others had not yet been members of GEMA, the German royalties´ society, so we had our separate way to deal with that. Some of the brand new material that we are working on at the moment is written by one of the guitar players Daniel Minnerath.

VB :
Where did you find that hot lady, Andrea Bettinger, who does female vocals on a couple of tracks on both albums and appears in the Hope video from The Inner Garden? She's got a very unusual voice that complements your own unique voice.
RW :
I always went crazy about Andrea's voice every time I heard her. So when we started writing songs for  "We Used To Cut The Green Grass" I asked her the first time to take over some vocal parts in a our songs, but she was too busy with other projects. Second time I asked her was with "The Inner Garden ". You can hear her on Hope and Morvan. Since then she is with us on every project as guest singer . She's really great and you're right, we fit together pretty well.

VB :
Any last words. What does the future hold for Green Wave and what's the best way to obtain your music which has been independently released on the Leico label ?
RW :
We hope to get our new video " Let's Make Up & Be Friendly" finished until autumn. Marc Fournelle, guitarist from our first line-up in 1975, who's living now in France,  is probably bound to return as gig manager, so we hope to play some gigs over there in France pretty soon. New song material is already on the way. We plan to get the new CD ready in 2011. We really are independent! Sometimes that's a problem and no solution at all, because it means, it's not so easy to get our music or CDs .Independant means, you can be sure, that we sent it ourselves. At the moment you can order the CDs via our German label
www.leico.de and you can hear our music on  https://www.facebook.comgreenwavesaar or on https://www.soundcloud.com/green_wave

 


Last word?

 

If you're not ready to fight for peace, then forget it.

 


 

It´s psychedelic,baby magazine
(Interview m. Rainer Wahlmann)
Dies Irae was a short-lived band from Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany. Started as a blues inspired band, soon to become a heavy psych band that was driven by progressive guitar and lots of crazy effects. Their political sharpened lyrics and criticism of the times brought a lot of trouble to the band. Their only release was First. In the following interview we discuss the recording process with Conny Plank, LSD-inspired lyrics, making of “Trip” footage and many more.
Were you involved with music before forming Dies Irae?
Joachim Schiff, the later bass-player of Dies Irae, who played guitar in the early days and me sat in the same class at high school. He had some little song ideas to impress his girlfriend, and since he had no idea for lyrics, I started writing lyrics during the boring school lessons. A bit later another schoolmate who played guitar joined us and we began jamming with different bass-players and drummers.
The first band we called The MMB369, but that day we were about to play our first gig (1965), the guitar-player, who owned ¾ of the equipment, didn’t show up, neither did the drummer: so we had to look for new musicians. Pretty soon Harald Thoma, the later Dies Irae guitar player came along with a bass player, different drummers came and went; we had some gigs as The Orchid, then things started getting better when we called ourselves The Flash (1966/67). First we covered The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Small Faces. But as soon as we discovered all the fantastic British Blues Bands like John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac, The Yardbirds, Cream, Taste and started listening to the American Blues Legends like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Elmore James, B.B King, we knew we wanted to play a kind of  progressive music
How did Dies Irae come to life? Where did members meet?
After having tried out about 12 different drummers in the first three or four years, we found Manni von Bohr (until today still one of the finest German professional drummers) and changed our name into Dies Irae; still cover music, but progressive. Jo changed from rhythm to bass guitar, and Harald – already in those early days one of the finest guitar players here around grew better and better day by day!
But Manni failed at school with his examinations and his father locked him away from music (for one year – he failed a second time and decided to become a professional drummer). We had gigs, but our drummer couldn’t come, because he was locked at home! It was a sad goodbye, but we had to look for a new one, because in the meantime we had gathered lots of gigs.
After some rehearsals Andreas “Bonny” Cornelius came along, a really spaced-out high-class free jazz drummer. He said: “I’m gonna join your band, but only if you start writing your own material!” – All of our friends disagreed: “Do you guys think, you can write songs like John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Taste, Jimi Hendrix and all the other progressive musicians? You megalomaniacs?” Two real good friends that had managed us left us with these words.
Jürgen Schmeisser of Pilz Records signed you up and you released single “Lucifer” / “Tired” and an LP entitled First. How did the label got ahold of you?
After Bonnie had joined the group we build up a new program with own songs and found a manager, who did a good job in getting gigs for us, but he was a real strange person (to put it mildly) 4 blue-eyed musicians signed an exclusive management contract without reading it. (The bill we had to pay later).
But now we played gigs outside of our home country Saarland. One of them was in Lila Eule/Bremen where a goup of people were having a party. We didn’t know them, but after the show Jürgen Schmeisser came up and told us, that they, PILZ-record label people, really enjoyed the show and he asked for our address. Some months later, he asked us to hire a stage and to show him, why PILZ should produce an LP with us. We hired a small location and played the show for one person, him. He liked it.
Where did you record the songs?
It took some months more till we were invited to record an LP in Hamburg. In the mean time, PILZ –records had changed a lot.
BASF (the owner of PILZ) didn’t want to invest too much more money into progressive music, more and more they changed their program to German “Schlager”.
We were quite surprised, as we heard we got only about 20 hours to record an LP plus 2 songs for a X-mas sampler. Can’t remember the name of the studio, only remember it was a small one in a sub-urbian terraced house area; good thing: they had hired Conny Plank to do the recording; bad thing: after some hours of recording he left for a mixing job with Kraftwerk at the Hamburg Markthalle. After a 5 hours break he returned into the studio at about midnight, along with him some Kraftwerk and some The Rattles folks.
We got stoned, forget to record the lyrics to a pretty complicated jazzy “shepherd’s song” for the X-mas sampler Heavy Christmas and returned back home. They dropped the instrumental, all that’s been left is a 20 secs long stoned  la-la-la singalong of everybody in the studio at the end of the song.
What kind of audio equipment did you use for the recording?
I can’t remember anymore; maybe because, to say it with Shel Silversteins words: “I was stoned, and I missed it.” (part of the time)
Was there a certain concept behind the album?
Yeah, I was the one with the words; nobody else in the band cared too much about the lyrics.
At that time I was convinced, that left wing movements combined with drug inspired hippies could start a world-wide revolution to build up a world without wars & religions. In my childhood days I had believed in religion and the bible until I started to understand how churches, governments and the big business always work hand in hand together to oppress the people.
I read a lot of philosophy, like Sartre, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and many others. I studied education and wrote my dissertation about the entitlement and the questionability of the antiauthoritarian  education.
… and I believed in drugs…(then), which opened more and more strange doors to me, most of them, regarded from my nowadays point of view, better should have stayed closed. I had flirted with black magic and begun slowly to lose control.
Would  you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?    
“Lucifer”
I chose Lucifer, the fallen angel, to be my alter ego. He had revolted against God, got thrown out of paradise for bringing the enlightment to mankind. This world is not holy, holy; it’s death, hatred and war, but nevertheless, let’s search for live, love and peace, not to forget – satisfaction, let’s find our real selves without any restrictions!
Looking back, many of my beliefs haven’t changed that much until today.
“Salve Oimel”
If my memory serves me well, Conny Plank brought up this silly little Latin sentence. Like Joe and I, he had run through an humanistic education and what the result this was! We had a good time with Conny.
Joe spoke the words and Harald showed the world how it feels like.
“Another Room”
I had suffered from a authoritarian education. When my fascist father threw out my girlfriend out my room, I left home and started my new life in the city.
“Trip”
Need to explain acid?
This song live never had a fixed structure. We always let it flow. Main direction was chaos-beauty-chaos. Only Harald’s guitar riff always stayed the same. On our 1991 revival-live version in Le Garage (CD-R Make Ends MeetDies Irae) you can hardly recognize the song “Trip” until Harald’s beautiful riff sets in.
“Harmagedon Dragonlove”
A strange disturbing flashback to my childhood bible-poisoned days ringing in dies irae, the day of doom, the last days, mixed with Romanticisms blue flowers and a touch of Wordsworths mellow meadows descriptions.
“Witches’ Meeting”
For me, my most uninspired lyrics on this record! Sorry for that, really!
“Red Lebanese” 
Might sound strange today, but I always was in search of the mind-expanding effect of drugs then, the heightening of my awareness; I liked the softness of red lebanese.
“Tired”
Here I tried to express the right to live your own dreams, as long as you do not hurt anybody by purpose. As I see it now I waved my freak flag a bit too high in this one, and I understand by now some critics I unleashed at that times, even if I’m still convinced, that smokin’ a joint really is much more harmless than carrying a gun.
“Run Off ”
Harald and me liked Elmore James. This was our bow to him.
How did critics receive the album? Did it break in any markets?
Our local TV station SR produced this “Trip” video (that gathered that much youtube-clicks since ROCKPALAST emissed it again in 2006); for a short time we were treated like local heroes. Manfred Sexauer from our local radio station SR and Frank Laufenberg from radio SWR presented the record in two of the best radio shows of that time.
But all the other German radio stations boycotted the record because of the lyrics. I had insisted on the lyrics being printed on the record sleeve.
Nobody had read them before the release, neither the people from PILZ, nor my bandmates. I was sentenced GUILTY! The German market was closed for us. I became the persona non grata – the fallen angel.
Did you do any promotional touring with the band?
We toured from Zürich/Switzerland throughout many German towns up to Hamburg, together with other PILZ artists like Ardo Dombec, Virus and McChurch Soundroom and did many solo gigs (Dies Irae), best of all in Fabrik, Hamburg.
First is among my favourite albums from Germany. Was there ever a plan to record second LP? Is there any unreleased material?
In our contract with PILZ there was an option for a second LP. But PILZ informed us pretty soon after the radio stations had refused to play our songs that First was definitely our last record with PILZ. 1992 after our revival concerts, we recorded 5 new songs “rough mix” in the Green Wave studios. (on CD-R Make Ends Meet)
Were you inspired by psychoactive substances like LSD at the time of writing the album? What’s your opinion about it?
Like I told before, I was. Having been the drug apostle, I was then, I persuaded Bonnie and Harald to check it out later, but they didn’t like it.
I stopped taking LSD in 1973. No more need to be crazy by purpose.
Today my only drugs left are Spanish red wine (Navarra) and, Belgian beers, even though I still support the movement for a legislation of drugs.
What happened to the band after the album was released? Were members involved with any other bands?
No, we all only played with Dies Irae.
What would you say were some of the major influences for making First
Sure all of them British progressive bands like The Yardbirds, (early) Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After, Taste, John Mayall and funny but true: my all time favorites were The Kinks (because of Ray Davies  fantastic lyrics) as well as Bob Dylan (lyrics) and Frank Zappa.
Were you in contact with other “underground” bands from Germany?
Not really. Living in a part of Germany, most of the German people thought: “Belongs to France, or…?”, without any music business, we didn’t get the entrance tickets to the underground in-crowd that easy. When we first got invited to a kind of underground party in Hamburg I really was shocked by the political unawareness of some of them “underground-stars” – they just partied with the Big Biz, I really felt pissed off.
You’re still very active and have a band called Green Wave which is kind of a continuation of Dies Irae. Would you like to talk about it?
Active –  right; very- no; by the time it’s getting less!
After the exitus praemortalis, name it the sudden death of dies irae, I first thought of turning my back on music. But 1975, with a bunch of friends, we formed Green Wave, who now, after 41 years slowly seem to face the final curtain. To celebrate this kind of good-bye-for-long in a suitable way, we just finished recording a fantastic CD in our own studio, that we’re gonna release at the end of the year or maybe in springtime 2017.
It will be the finest record I’ve ever took part in.
I could write books about those 41 Green Wave years, but it would take too much time to read them. The coming new CD Stolen Dreams In a Nearby Lost & Found is part of my concept story  “… green days on a planet blue…”, which includes our former CD’s The Inner Garden (2000) and double CD …we used to cut the green grass…/…the war is over… (2009)
If you read the story behind all of our CDs at http://green-wave48.blogspot.de maybe you will understand the philosophies behind my 51 years of music.
What are some of the favourite memories from Dies Irae?
Anyway we had a rather good time. In the sixties and the seventies young people had the chance to check out many different ways before they finally chose one. All those ways had memories worth being preserved. I still preserve them all.
1991 Dies Irae revival concert in Le Garage, Saarbrücken on CD Make Ends Meet, includes 5 new songs (rough mixes 1992). Order it from http://green-wave-live.jimdo.com/shop/ 
What’s the story behind making footage for song “Trip”?
The location where we filmed had a WWII military background. It had been a drilling area for soldiers, SS and police during the war. Nearby, about 1 km away, there had been a concentration camp. At that time they had just started to remove the remnants to build up an industrial area for Mercedes and others. The only “plan” for the movie was: the war is over, and crazy long haired hippies desecrate “this holy ground”. The television crew had no idea, what they should do with us, so Bonny our “natural high” drummer suggested, that the camera man should bind his camera to his hand and shake it all around to make it more psychedelic. To make it even more freaky we entered the bus. I had found a plant that had got removed by one of those caterpillars (excavation machines) and we planted it back into the sand and watered it to let it grow again (maybe this was the beginning of the “green wave” idea). I had smoked a joint before filming but it was stronger than I thought. Unfortunately a few weeks before, Harald Thoma, our guitar player had just received his notification of recruiting and was replaced by our manager. The one in this movie was only a substitute for Harald, who rejoined the band months later, after he luckily failed the second examination for military: he appeared there pretty stoned.
After that episode we sacked our manager, but paid a lot to have him go.
Why the name Dies Irae?
I happened to hear some medieval church song, called dies, irae – dies illa.
Very angry young man that I was – politics, education the Vietnam war – I suggested the name – the day of anger, the last revenge for all the evil.
Concluding out of the lyrics, you must have been reading a lot of esoteric literature at the time?
I was pretty much into reading all kinds of books, and I still am.
– Klemen Breznikar
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Rainer Wahlmann

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