Brannten Schnüre - Sommer Im Pfirsichhain

Brannten Schnüre
Sommer Im Pfirsichhain
Aguirre
Germany/Belgium, 2015/2026
LP

Summer can get heavy—prolonged, perseverating, distending, until it finally drops like fruit that can’t hold on. Translating to Summer in the Peach Orchard, Brannten Schnüre’s second full-length—the first to include vocalist Katie Rich—explores the ripe torpor of the season.

First released by Belgium’s Aguirre Records in 2015, it’s back in print from the same label. With the duo’s career now in retrospect, Sommer sounds both raw and fully formed. An uncanny blend of altered vinyl loops; acoustic instrumentation; folkloric vocals; and a dazed, enchanted sense of melody, the sound will be immediately recognizable to anyone familiar with their later records. But there’s an unvarnished quality to this early work that points up its industrial influences. A nice occasion to revisit.

FROM THE LABEL:

Brannten Schnüre is an experimental dark folk group out of Würzburg, Germany. Christian Schoppik composed and played all the music, Katie Rich whispers, recites and sings. Together they make astoundingly beautiful folk with a rich instrumentation leaning towards the atonal spectrum. Instrumental wanderings stand alongside Nico-esque poetry tales. Christian plays the accordeon and in some songs guitar and flute. Inspired by hierophants like Nový Svět and David Jackman, solemn song fragments (a lot of old greek rembetiko-recordings) are modified and looped, with additional instruments and voices being integrated later on. His music has been described as “surreal folkcollage” and “german hauntology”.

With the emergence of Schoppik’s second project, a dada cabaret called Agnes Beil in 2010, Brannten Schnüre moved closer to the song structures of its frivolous sibling. The songs of Schoppik’s latest creation Sommer im Pfirsichhain are further accompanied by a female singing voice, lending the pieces the voluptuous quality of a stickily tense midsummer. Sommer Im Pfirschhain (Summer In The Peachgrove) is the second part of a quartet of releases. The first being Aprilnacht which got released on Sic Sic Tapes last year. Part three Geträumt hab' ich vom Martinszug and part four will follow later.

Reference points are bands like Winter Family and Twinsistermoon. Music etched on folkloric, ritual elements transferred into the 21th century. Also worth mentioning is the hand-drawn artwork which is made by artist Gwénola Carrère.