Yodels around the world with the Bonsai Garden Orchestra

A quick post this week with two songs from the Bonsai Garden Orchestra. Their album, Take One, is “a friendly encounter between Hawaii and Austria, initiated by Wolfgang Temmel, an artist who crosses frontiers. A lively meeting of vocal and string acrobatics, of sound worlds and sound cultures, nine musicians play – in the best sense of the world – across the bounds of a world (music) orchestra.” Wolfgang Temmel loves ukulele and decided to make a group around it, mixing the falsetto vocals of Hawaii with Alpine yodelling in some songs.

The yodels of two songs are performed by Klaus Trabitsch and Franz Schmuck. He’s an artist who learned jazz percussion and who is interested in the music instruments of the world, from Bali to Africa. Klaus Trabitsch is a guitarist and singer who has been involved in many world music projects. ‘Ahulili is an Hawaiian classic composed by Scott Ha’i and is about a mountain peak in Maui. Pauoa Liko Ka Lehua is also an Hawaiian classic composed by Emma Bush.

‘Ahulili

Pauoa Liko Ka Lehua

And have fun with the youtube clips where they play with yodels ! (Here, here and here)

Advertisement

Do they yodel in Austria ?: Minna Reverelli

A quick post while shopping for the ideal Christmas gift…

Minna Reverelli was born on the 9th of April 1892 as Hermina Gnapp in Vienna. She was a real acrobat with her voice and pushed the recording devices to their limits. She began to sing, and yodel in 1910 and was seen in theaters in Nürenberg, Vienna and Hamburg, and even in France.  From 1929 to 1932, she was singing in the Plaztl theater of Munich. She disappeared in 1941 in Vienna. She was Jewish.

That’s all the info I could find. If you have more, leave a comment. And have a nice time with these retro yodel songs !

Cuckoo in the wood (1930)

Mein liebster Jodler (Mei Leibjodler) (recorded in 1931 in Berlin)

Kirta is (recorded in 1931 in Berlin)

In Lauterbach (Parlophone R.1145)

Die Fischerhütt’n “A Fischerhütt’n ganz alloa” (Gloria G.O. 10255a)

The image comes from München-Bayern: Lieder & Couplets, rare Schellacks 1901-1939, as do some songs. The other ones come from Jodler du Tyrol au Texas and Les 50 plus belles tyroliennes.

Interlude: do they yodel on other blogs ?: Excavated shellac

There’s a nice Austrian yodel on Excavated shellac this week !

This great blog is devoted to old 78rpm recordings of music from around the world and for the first time, it goes into yodelland. If you’re interested like me in old world music records, it’s a very good place to go to every week: the songs are very different and with a precise commentary, it’s a good way to understand how the music was before and the influences it has on the expressions of today.

Do they yodel at the Eurovision ? (III): Austria 2005

The 2008 edition of the Eurovision is over, and the winner is Dima Bilan from Russia. Not really my favorite but what can you do against the power of Eastern Europe. And another deception: no yodels this year. Let’s hope next year it will be the next craze !

So let’s go back three years ago in Kiev, Ukraine with the entry of Austria, Y asi from Global Kryner. The yodeler of the group is Sebastian Fuchsberger. They played in the semi-final and ended up 21st of 25 countries. This failure caused the withdrawal of Austria from the contest for the next year. But it wasn’t a bad song, it was very popular amongst fans and the group is still making albums. The song mixes alpine brass, salsa and yodelling and is about a Cuban girl who falls in love with an Austrian boy.

This is a part of the lyrics:

” The girl from Cuba fell in love
The boy, she’d adore
Could dance and sing … and more
He was the master of the Yodel
His was unique
Oh he was so smart
She danced and won his heart”

Global Kryner – Y asi

Do they yodel in Austria ? Hotel Palindrone

Austria is in the Alps, there is yodel, but my first exemple won’t be the traditional yodel. Hotel Palindrone is an Austrian group that defines their music as “Alpine EuRoots fusion”. Using lots of different instrument like bagpipes, jew’s harps, bombarde (from Brittany), hurdy-gurdy, nyckelharpa, guitars, saxophones…, they combine the folk traditions of Europe with a predominance of Austrian sounds. At the same time, their music is full of lively and playful contemporary elements, with a bit of jazz and classic music.

On two songs of their last album, Dial 1702, they yodel, well Albin Paulus yodels. From the liner notes, it seems that his yodel is quite legendary. For other songs, you can go here.

Hotel Palindrone:

Landler 1702

Almschrei & Lydischer Schleuniger