One may Erwin Rehling certainly call someone who is close to their homeland. Having grown up in Soyen near Wasserburg, the 68-year-old later studied Bavarian history in Regensburg and never denied his origins, even in his language. At the same time, however, he is one of those whose love of home has not made a traditionalist, but an open-minded avant-gardist. It all began in the 1970s with theater experiments with Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik and Nelia Veksel. Especially when Rehling finally found his role as a drummer and percussionist.
In 1983 he co-founded the trio The performers, who were acclaimed by the press as “folk music anarchists” and quickly became pioneers of the then not yet so-called new folk music with the Trikont label. In 1993 he received the music promotion prize of the city of Munich. The duo, founded in 2002 with the Austrian alphorn player and multi-instrumentalist Fritz Moßhammer, who unfortunately died last year, was even more open to all musical styles hammerling This is already shown by the collaborations with Michaela Dietl, Marianne Sägebrecht and Bodo Hell.
All kinds of literary settings, film and theater music, even three of his own documentaries were added over the years. All of this came together in his elaborate solo project “Ois ned glong – Eine Landjugend” – to a certain extent a continuation of “News from the past. Village stories and stubborn music” in the duo Holzapfel and Rehling, which was also published by Mandelbaum Verlag in 2019 appeared a few months ago, but is timeless and worthy of catching up anyway.
Sometimes funny, sometimes weird, sometimes subtle, often nostalgic, always very Bavarian
The autobiographical mosaic of a village youth in the 1960s unfolds in this lush sound book in enlarged CD format. Told in 53 lyrical, prosaic and musical highlights. Often just a few sentences or seconds long, rarely over a minute and a half. Sometimes funny, sometimes weird, sometimes subtle, often nostalgic, always very Bavarian and in dialect. When he talks about grandpa and grandma, about the “Fahnaweih”, the “Youth Center in Hennastoi”, about the “Miracle of Lengede” watched on black-and-white television or even just “Fuaßboigschichtn”, then a bygone time unfolds, the but still reaches into the present.
With Rehling, the deep Bavarian language develops its own tone and rhythm, to which the musical passages on the extended drums, the marimba, the steinspiel, the Schellenbaum and the glockenspiel nestle so well that one can hardly believe that everything without exception arose from improvisations is. What makes the whole thing particularly attractive live – Rehling will also be touring with it next year, on January 12th he will be at home in Soyen, in February in Trostberg and Landsberg. Nevertheless, the album has a greater added value than others. Already because of the fine illustrations by Linda Wolfsgruber, but also because of the additional memories of Rehling, from the “instrument stories” to formative concert experiences. It’s all exciting, exhilarating and touching, and it would still be, even if it were “ois glong”.
Erwin Rehling: “Ois ned glong – a country youth”, Mandelbaum sound book, with download code, www.mandelbaum.at