Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Kein schöner Land '2011

Tracks list

Manfred Leuchter and Ian Melrose who -in their critically acclaimed debut album
“Vis à Vis”- showed how wonderfully accordion and guitar can
interact and complement each other. This new album “Kein Schöner
Land” is a musical journey, it is about travelling, experiencing the world
and thereby learning more about oneself and one’s own homeland. Goethe
once said: Travelling is like a game: you win and you lose, mostly in an
unexpected way.
Leuchter and Melrose have “played the game” and present their
experiences musically in a further fascinating selection of stunning
instrumentals. The cinematic expansiveness of “Mekong”, a languid
hypnotic piece inspired by Manfred’s journey through Laos, Cambodia and
Vietnam, contrasts with the mischievous virtuosity of Ian’s playful
“Lille Skurken Min”, about a Norwegian dog; the powerfully
disturbing dramatic tension of “Ramallah” - about the astonishingly
positive Weltanschaung of the Palestinian people despite their often hopeless
everyday situation - is juxtaposed against the uniquely impressionistic
interpretation of the Scottish traditional “Skye Boat Song”; the
sublime and breathtaking beauty of the joined pieces - Ian’s composition
“Lament” and Manfred’s rendition of the “Aria”
from the Goldberg Variations- span an ethereal bridge from the West of Scotland
to the 17th century Leipzig of J.S. Bach. The title piece “Kein schöner
Land”, two different versions of which open and close this CD, is a
well-known German folk song, basically stating that “no land is more
beautiful” than one’s own homeland. Meanwhile I know.

Sit back and enjoy this journey, this intoxicating mix of creativity, sounds and
moods presented by these two master musicians, whose playing together has become
an almost telepathic communication - a sublime synthesis of pure music. Two
strong characters from different genres, a meeting of equals.

Manfred Leuchter, Accordion
Ian Melrose, Fingerstyle Guitar

01. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Kein schöner Land, Prologue (0:52)
02. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Mekong (4:35)
03. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Caro Mia (6:25)
04. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Der Grimmige Tod (3:10)
05. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Gut Gesell (2:27)
06. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Lille Skurken Min (4:17)
07. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Ramallah (5:37)
08. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Skye Boat Song (4:55)
09. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Caduceus (5:01)
10. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Lament (2:42)
11. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Goldberg Aria (2:35)
12. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Goldberg Var. Nr. 1 (2:08)
13. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - The Last Fallen Leaf (3:28)
14. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Winter (5:22)
15. Manfred Leuchter & Ian Melrose - Kein schöner Land, Epilogue (1:03)

Related artists