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Home :: Music :: CHADIMA MIKOLÁŠ / JÜRGEN FUCHS / MCH BAND: Tagesnotizen

CHADIMA MIKOLÁŠ / JÜRGEN FUCHS / MCH BAND:
Tagesnotizen

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$8.50
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Model: BP-0135
Artist: CHADIMA MIKOLÁŠ/ JÜRGEN FUCH
Music Genre: alternativa

www.mchband.cz

1.	Nein ich werde nicht aufgeben	7:21
2.	Treue	3:04
3.	Anna Achmatowa	3:52
4.	Auf dem Weg zum Briefkasten	3:36
5.	Leicht	7:15
6.	Ich weiß	5:26
7.	Jetzt bin ich raus	3:21
8.	Gorleben	20:33

Fuchs, Jürgen/Chadima, Mikolás: Tagesnotizen

Tagesnotizen is a cycle of songs written by Czech musician Mikolás Chadima (ex-Extempore) over words by East-German poet Jürgen Fuchs. Both men share similar biographies in their subversive activities (as judged by the Communist authorities) in their respective countries. Back in the mid-'80s, the saxophonist/guitarist had set a couple of Fuchs' poems to music and met him in the flesh following the Czech revolution of 1989. The death of the poet a decade later provided the impetus to work on more poems, mostly excerpts from the collections {-Daily Notes} (1979) and {-Bonny Companion} (1981). The music is performed by Chadima's MCH Band, thus making Tagesnotizen the official follow-up to the group's 1999 CD Karneval. Chadima excels in oppressive atmospheres. Of the pre-1989 era he has retained a taste for bleak songs, inflated vocals, and disquieting moments when you don't know if things are stopping or just taking a rest to better leap at your face. Fuchs' words fit the mood perfectly (yes, it should be the other way around but it really feels like the words adapted to the music). Chadima sings them in the original German -- Czech and English translations and notes are provided in the booklet. The music stands among the composer's best pieces post-Extempore. Treue and Ich weiß have that heavy avant-prog rock stylings that provided the best moments of his previous albums. Recommended, although this album can seriously endanger a sunny day.

François Couture, All-Music Guide

Kinship by choice

The album “Tagesnotizen” embodies an intriguing encounter that crosses the boundaries of past and present and of two countries that no longer exist. One could describe this encounter as a kind of fusion of personalities and fates, a fellow pilgrimage. Jürgen Fuchs and Mikoláš Chadima, poet and musician, German and Czech, two people who, each in his own way, although actually in the same way, tried to live freely in an age when this was far from being easy or straightforward.

Jürgen Fuchs, German poet, prose-writer and, so the phrase goes, human rights campaigner, was born in communist East Germany (GDR) in 1950. Not that this is enough to make someone a poet, but the reality of life in the “people’s democratic” state was a decisive factor in the case of Jürgen. He began writing verses as a student. However, these verses no mere romantic outpourings. Influenced in particular by another east German poet named Reiner Kunz, Fuchs wrote short, informal verses that reflected everything he saw around him. He was a poet, so these observations were far from being just another form of propaganda.

The secret police soon began to take notice of his critically oriented writings, and Fuchs was subsequently thrown out of university. When, in 1976, he defended the expatriated poet and song-writer Wolf Biermann, he was arrested and accused of a whole range of crimes against the state. But above all Jürgen was a citizen, and a free citizen at that, even under the totalitarian conditions of the GDR. And he continued to be so even during the time he spent in prison. He was faced with 11 years of imprisonment, but after international protests he was deprived of his citizenship in 1977, together with his family, and transferred to West Berlin. There he divided his time between his profession as a psychologist and, above all, the continuation of his struggle against the colossus of totalitarianism –not only in East Germany, but in the other communist countries as well. However, the StaSi were determined not to let him slip from their claws, and Fuchs and his whole family were subjected to constant spying and harassment by east German agents; there were attempts to physically eliminate not only Fuchs himself but his two daughters as well, and all of his relatives still living in East Germany were exposed to constant bullying. Even this failed to put Fuchs off, and he continued with his activities. He established close contacts with dissidents in GDR, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other Eastern Block countries, and provided them with assistance. It is worth mentioning the reception his works enjoyed in Czechoslovakia: visitors to semi-legal concerts here were able to listen to his verses as interpreted by Chadima’s MCH Band, and after the revolution in 1989 these came out on CD and Fuchs’ texts were published by Revolver Revue. Readers in Czechoslovakia at the time must have understood his verses very well – they were familiar enough themselves with what he was writing about, and it was not necessary to have served time in the Czechoslovak prison system: it was sufficient just to be living under the conditions of real socialism.

His output is characterised by the constant endeavour to come to terms with, on the one hand, his subjective experience of imprisonment and life under the inexorable watchful eye of the ubiquitous StaSi and, on the other hand, with the objective impact of the totalitarian regime on each individual. “I live, but some other life / The name remains / Hair / Fingerprints / After all it was in prison /the afternoon when I wanted to die / and now I knew / how...” As far as his works were concerned, they were not always received with enthusiasm – not everyone wanted to stand right in front of the mirror. Two collections of verses, Tagesnotizen (Daily Notes) and Pappkameraden, encapsulating in highly informal and concise verse Fuchs’ memories of the GDR, also reflect the reality of West Germany, encumbered as it was by the east German burden. (“I’m gone / He says / There’s no return / But I’m no longer in prison / I say / Yes / He says / That fits “). Fuchs also writes, without self-pity, about the year he spent in jail.

After working in Extempore, a group that shifted from folk-rock compositions to punk in the late 1970s and subsequently turned towards open experiments with in new wave music, Mikoláš Chadima (1952) founded his own MCH Band, in which he continued to develop the projects he had been working on before. Typical for him was his collaboration with poets (especially Ivan Wernisch, also Jürgen Fuchs), whose texts he set to music. In more than 20 years of music-making he produced a number of acclaimed albums, of which the punk album Zabijaèka, the raw Velkomìsto, the lugubrious Pseudemokritos, and the searching Prùhlední lidé are worth special mention. It is also worth mentioning his incidental music and a range of other musical projects in which he was involved, such as the improvisation ensemble Kilhets. Nowadays Chadima is a classic figure on the Czech independent rock scene.

So much for his musical biography. So far, parallels with Fuchs’ life would be hard to find. In their civic lives, however, parallels are all the more easy to find.

The first confrontation with the regime came in 1969, when Chadima “brought upon himself” a criminal accusation for his protests against the Russian occupation. Further problems came later, when he began to appear with Extempore and the MCH Band. Every concert was a risky business, and a Damoclean sword of prohibition and persecution hovered constantly over the group. The situation was further aggravated after Chadima’s signing of Charta 77. As a persona non grata, he was offered the option of emigration, and was frequently urged to collaborate with the regime. “And you know / What it means, to collaborate with them,” writes Fuchs, and Chadima certainly knows it too. Refusal led to further harshening – “But we’ll show you, little man! And the others / They showed it,” as you can read in Chadima’s memoirs, entitled Alternativa.

Further prosecution awaited Chadima in 1979: this time it was supposed to be a show trial as part of a campaign against the “underground”. Fortunately, the provocation organised in the North Bohemian town of Libouchec didn’t work out, but still the pressure did not relent. Chadima had the StB permanently on his back. Of course, he wasn’t the only one... but throughout these trials and tribulations, like Fuchs, he continued to create. Paradoxically, one can say that the oppression evoked in him an even stronger reaction. The result was a decision never to give in to “them”. In this respect, too, he is in synch with Jürgen Fuchs. “No / I shall not surrender,” sounds the opening of one of Fuchs’ poems. And everyone who refused to bend knows what lay behind these two simple lines...

Chadima met Fuchs through “samizdat”, and set some of his poems (Gorleben, Lie and Nein) to music, subsequently recording them. After November 1989, a personal meeting took place, and Chadima made plans to set further works of Fuchs to music. This project took on a new dimension after Fuchs’ tragic death in 1999 – as a consequence of the strong radiation to which he was exposed by the StaSi while in prison and after a long struggle with the resultant leukaemia, Jürgen Fuchs finally succumbed to the disease on 9 May 1999.

This album could be taken merely as a collection of standard rock recordings. But if we view it in the light of Chadima’s words (“In fact, I regard the whole of this work as a service to a man who was very kind to me – socially speaking, we were like members of one family.”), we can also interpret it as a handshake with the past, as a greeting to a friend no longer alive.

Josef Rauvolf

MCH Band "Let the light burn down, Katherine" Jürgen Fuchs/Mikoláš Chadima/MCH Band "Tagesnotizen" (Blackpoint Music 2007)

MCH Band steht für Mikoláš Chadima Band. Dieser Name ist ein "ganz Alter" in der tschechischen Rockmusik. In vielen Bands war Chadima aktiv, viele musikalische Felder hat er beackert. Seine Hauptbands waren die Extempore Band, die in der zweiten Hälfte der 70er Jahre Rock, Folkrock, später Punk und New Wave spielten, sowie die MCH Band, die zwischen Avantrock, zappaeskem Progressive Rock und punkiger Attitüde ausdruckstarke Werke schuf. Mikoláš Chadima hat einige der wichtigsten Punk-inspirierten Alben der Tschechei komponiert und mit diversen Musikern eingespielt.
Auch als politische Person ist Mikoláš Chadima über die Tschechische Republik hinaus ein bekannter Name. Zu Zeiten des Sozialismus, wo Rockmusik, und besonders freie, abstrakte, ehrliche und grenzenlose Rockmusik unterdrückt wurde und der Geheimdienst, in der DDR die Stasi, in der tschechischen Republik die StB, Musiker und ihre Fans massiv unter Druck setzte, ihre Arbeit verbot oder sie gar einsperrte - diese perverse, geisteskranke Zeit, diese beschissene Idiotenherrschaft ist gottlob überwunden - der "Ostblock" hat sich seiner Seuche entledigt. Heute können tschechische, polnische, slowakische, deutsche, egal woher, europäische - alle Rockmusiker, die nicht in sie unterdrückenden, undemokratischen politischen Verhältnissen leben, ihren kreativen, freien Ausdruck uneingeschränkt finden - wenn sie ein Label zur Seite haben, das sie unterstützt, oder schlicht selbst veröffentlichen. Vielleicht ist es heute aus anderen Gründen, kommerziellen, nicht leichter, unangepasste Musik so zu veröffentlichen, dass sie bei den Fans auch ankommt, aber die Verbotsgefahr und die politische Feindschaft des eigenen Staates, und damit die böseste Hürde, sind weggefallen. Wer das erlebt hat, versteht das.
Blackpoint Music hat kürzlich eine 6-CD-Box der MCH Band veröffentlicht. Enthalten sind die originalen Alben sowie etliches Bonusmaterial. Zudem gibt es ein brandneues Album, gerade erst im September 2007 eingespielt. Die Texte der tschechisch gesungenen Songs sind auch in englischer Sprache im Booklet abgedruckt.
Die MCH Band und ihre Gäste spielen melancholischen, dezent von Frank Zappa inspirierten Rock, der in seiner Eigenwilligkeit Jazz und Progressive Rock nahe kommt, aber eigene Werte hat, die eher aus dem Jazzrock leben, typisch europäischer Natur sind und in ihrer intensiven Virtuosität spannend und erregend klingen. Die instrumentalen Ideen sind grandios, der Gesang ist zumeist gedoppelt gesungen. Die tschechische Sprache mag im ersten Moment hart klingen, in diesem instrumentalen Kleid geht sie perfekt auf. Die Texte sind poetisch, abstrakt, melancholisch, märchenhaft, und sicher politisch. Vor allem aber haben sie eindrücklich balladeskes Flair.
Musikalisch ähnlich, aber doch ganz anders klingt "Tagesnotizen". Mikoláš Chadima und die MCH Band spielen leise, tief melancholische, partiell elektronisch geprägte, avantgardistische Songs, die nicht nur druckvoll, sondern in ihrer Spannung gefährlich klingen. Die Stille ist wie zum Bersten gespannt; kraftvolle, wilde, aggressive Töne schälen sich aus den Minuten. Ungemein beeindruckend und in den Bann ziehend, was so ungemein düster und dramatisch aus den Boxen quillt.
Die Texte zur Musik hat ein Geistesverwandter von Mikoláš Chadima geschaffen. Jürgen Fuchs war einer der unterdrückten, progressiven Poeten in der heute längst beendeten DDR. Er begann als Student, Gedichte zu schreiben, kurze Gedichte, wie Schnipsel nur. Er musste die Universität verlassen, und nachdem er 1976 für Wolf Biermann eingetreten war, wie viele andere Intellektuelle und Künstler in der DDR (wovon die Meisten später unter massiven Druck widerrufen), wurde er verhaftet. 1977 wurde er nach seiner Haftzeit nach "West-Berlin abgeschoben. Doch selbst dort hörte der Druck der Stasi nicht auf. Es gab gar Versuche, ihn und seine zwei Töchter zu vergiften. Seine Verwandten in der DDR wurden schikaniert. Doch er schränkte seine Aktivitäten neben seinem Beruf, Jürgen Fuchs arbeitete als Psychologe, nicht ein. (Heute, fast 19 Jahre nach der politischen Wende in der DDR und den anderen ehemals sozialistischen Staaten, geht viel von der grauenhaften Wirklichkeit des politischen Alltages und der Unterdrückung der Zeit verloren - und Spielfilme helfen nur marginal, sich dem Vergessen entgegenzusetzen, weil ihre Stories zu schlicht, billig und öde sind). Im Mai 1999 starb Jürgen Fuchs an Leukämie. Es gibt Indizien, aber keine Beweise, dass er in der Stasihaft starken Bestrahlungen ausgesetzt war und das perverse System seinen Tod zu verantworten hat.
Die Songs auf "Tagesnotizen" haben deutsche Namen und deutschsprachige Texte. Die kurzen, wie angerissenen Themen sind düster, klingen aber nicht depressiv, sondern sehr poetisch. Sie haben die spröde Kraft des inneren Widerstandes, der eigenen Poesie. In einem Song heißt es schlicht:

"Jetzt bin ich raus, jetzt
Kann ich erzählen
Wie es war"

Die Kraft und Wut dieser wenigen Worte können in ihrer ganzen Tiefe vielleicht nur Menschen verstehen, die Unterdrückung erfahren und als solche verstanden haben.
Der Text ist länger, aussagekräftiger. Aber diese drei Zeilen reichen bereits aus. Die instrumentale Begleitung ist schmaler und zurückhaltender als auf allen anderen Alben der MCH Band - und es gab bereits deutschsprachige Musik der Band, etwa die Avantrock-CD "Es reut mich f…". Mal klingt die Musik wie moderne Theatermusik, mal wie Psychedelic Rock, dann wie düsterer Jazzrock oder von Zappa inspiriert, stets sehr eigen und unvergleichlich.
Das 20-minütige "Gorleben" zum Ende der CD klingt wie der Untergang der Menschheit, abstrakt, brachial und dunkel wie Univers Zero, stilistisch jedoch ganz anders. Wie ein Mix aus Avantrock, Punk und Jazzrock. Minimalistisch, aggressiv, hart und einem freien melodischen Aufbau, der abschrecken kann, wenn man derlei finstere Töne, in denen gar Walgesänge zu hören sind, nicht gewohnt ist. Ein grandioser Song, wie die CD, wie beide Alben, wahrhaft starke Kunstwerke, die ich unbedingt empfehlen möchte.
Das Label Black Point Music veröffentlicht eine Fülle progressiver und avantgardistischer Musik, stilistisch ist zwischen Punk, Hardcore, Jazz, Progressive Rock, Folk und Rock alles dabei.

www.ragazzi-music.de/mchband.html

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This product was added to our catalog on Monday 06 September, 2004.