We all have our palette cleansers. For me, musically, it’s “acoustic” music. I know I have a large readership that appreciates the more electronic, out there, musical selections…but truth be told, when I’m listening to music for relaxation I prefer far more “simple” music. That’s not to say that we should think of simply-sounding music as simple, I’d argue the opposite. On the work of German guitarist Andreas von Wangenheim we get this idea proven. A simple title — Orlando: 12 Poems For Guitar & Ensemble — obscures some deeply complex ideas, feeling, and musicianship. As background music it works wonder to set a mood. As a soundtrack for deep listening, you can see there is far more under its surface.
Andreas von Wangenheim, much like F/S favorite, Juan Martin, began his artistic career by focusing his creative studies on classical guitar technique. First he moved from his native Hannover to Hamburg’s Musikhochschule. Then in Basel he went deeper with master guitarist Oscar Ghilglia. For him, though, it would be the work of one J.S. Bach that would be his guiding light.
Honing his classical guitar repertoire by focusing on transposing music of early composers into the modern vernacular allowed him to discover some of the wonderful timeless minimalism and melodicism, current, instrumental music audiences would appreciate. As a student in Basel he was awarded in 1987 the Bach Prize of the International Guitar Competition due to his impressive solo performances, two years later he’d repeat the task for Radio France in their own European guitar competition.
One would think that upon signing his first record contract, Andreas would have reverted to making music precisely in the vein of what got him there. Under big tobacco’s record label, the aptly titled Marlboro Music, you’d expect him to rein it in, to fit in with the sort of demo they’d be after. But then again, who knows what Marlboro Music was after — surely, pure New Age, this wasn’t. Orlando – 12 Poems For Guitar & Ensemble showed that Andreas had far more to say than people expected.
Made up entirely of originals, Orlando – 12 Poems For Guitar & Ensemble was exactly that: 12 tone poems showing everything he was into. Here, you hear slices of jazz take hold. Unlikely, creative influences from world music and of latin america also appear. Impressionistic minimalism, obviously, rears its head, as well. Far from being mannered music, that he is now sometimes known for Andreas actually sounds quite loose and personal here. On his earliest releases it was obvious Andreas was not merely aiming to be a classical classicist. Enlisting members of W. German electro-pop groups Lake and Tao, Andreas worked closely to introduce tasteful touches of electronic ambiances around his ideas.
Without a doubt this is a very “grown-folks” album. All the complex compositions are couched in relatable arrangements. All the emotional moments, those profound ones, are measured in tact. In 1989, Andreas could have drowned his music in Weather Channel-esque melodrama or in schlocky DDD studio touch, songs like “The Diary”, “Orlando” and “Aeolian Harp” sound like they were conceived for performance. This was not mere background music. Barring a few dated, dodgy tracks, Andreas took liberties to let his guitar do the talking and never enter into domineering mode.
What it reminds me of is the more esoteric work of similar-minded “New Age” guitarists like Hiroki Miyano, Michael Bierylo, or the ghosts of Baden Powell, musicians who knew when to let the guitar breathe and hold back. There’s a stretch from “Orlando” to “Miro Miro” that paints these choices quite perfectly. Played at home tracks like “Calypso” sound strange for what they don’t attempt to be.
Yes, you hear vague ambient overtones. Yes, there are unplaceable meanderings forming a sonic bed to the gorgeous melancholic melodies played by Andreas. Yet, never does this sound like it should go further “out there”. This is music that works because it’s deeply “in here”. Wisdom doesn’t just come with age, it comes with self-realization that sometimes there can be more with less. G. B. Beckers had to paint a few pictures to make this point come across. Andreas, chose to create poems (of a different stripe) to utter this unmistakable truth.