Von Westernhagen Part IV: Ellen Homilius and Thilo's Sonnengesang from 1986

Another gorgeous cover painting! (credited to Franziska Stubenrauch).

I guess in this last mid-eighties installment from Thilo he tried to craft a Terry Riley-like minimalist new wave opus with his singer Ellen Homilius.  Was it successful?  Not to my ears.  In compensation, or perhaps rather as punishment, the record is almost 60 minutes long-- !

This sort of thing was perhaps fashionable back in the day, but today, due to the paucity of musical content, seems a bit scarce in terms of comfortable listening.  For the tired ear, there is so little emotional progression to track.  However, the return to acoustics at the conclusion does provide a level of comfort similar to that of finding a Starbucks with a clean washroom after walking through downtown Kowloon in Hong Kong all afternoon, or perhaps even more appropriately, after walking through central Paris in need of same relief...

I should mention, with regards to the subject of this record, the description just above Thilo reads:

"Composed by T. von Westernhagen.  Words based on the 'Cantico del sole' by Francesco d'Assisi and excerpts from the 'Message' of Chief Seattle."

So it's very much an ecological treatise set to music.  It's not a little ironic to me that synthesizers and electronic instruments are used to appreciate the natural world of mother earth.

When she starts talking about how the 'sight of your cities pains the eyes' one can't help but reflect on how the sound of his percussion pains one's ears...

I include the last Cantico and Message from the end of side one as pretty representative of the whole:





Some of course I know will love this opus.

Ardent Desire of Thilo Von Westernhagen from 1980

More from Thilo now.  Amazingly this record features the incomparable Joachim Kühn (on tracks A2 and B4, which he composed) and Jan Akkerman (on track B4 as well).  The influence of Kühn, who I described earlier on solo piano as like a cascade of random notes, is apparent on A2, almost unrecognizable compared to the genius who did "Cinemascope," my favourite fusion record.

Overall, this is a very meandering record, lacking the punch and variety of "Sunbeam" from the previous year.

Thilo von Westerhagen's Theatre from 1982

As promised or perhaps warned, here is more from Thilo, a dutch pianist who recorded in Germany.  Notice straightaway that Charlie Mariano plays saxes on this release, mostly on side 2.  Here the music is a little more towards the new age direction.  The classical side really comes to the fore here and there.  One waits often in vain from a change in direction from the customary chord changes that afflict the majority of music, whether it be jazz, pop, or this kind of accessibly adult-oriented jazz with the Keith Jarrett-like mix of gospel chords and classical.  Based on the promise of the first, 1979 album, one would have expected more...

All compositions by Thilo.

Thilo von Westernhagen's gorgeous first album, Sunbeam, from 1979

First look at that gorgeous cover, which absolutely looks like an 18th century dutch painting.  I could look at that image all day.

A marvelous share from my friend, hugely enjoyable.  This Dutch pianist made quite a few records in this wonderful period in the late seventies-early eighties when fusion and ECM-style beauty were not yet dead and interred and full of worms, and we will be exploring some of his very little-known releases this October...  perfectly suitable for the mood of lowering temperatures in the temperate zones, colder winds a la Marx, Rootschilt, Tillermann, and falling leaves and hair and bank accounts.

From rateyourmusic:

"Thilo von Westernhagen was a composer and pianist. He worked as a jazz pianist (e.g. with Charlie Mariano, Joachim Kühn, and Jan Akkerman), but his main focus was on contemporary classical music. He was married to soprano vocalist Monika Borchfeldt."


This first album according to the discogs database is incredible with that typically european mix of classical with jazz.  It's not ECM though it definitely sounds like it.  Note that he composed all his music.  Just listen to that darkly beautiful opening to the first song, "Yamina" which also interestingly transitions from an initial Pink Floyd-like full-sounding organ E minor to E flat:





That dreamy, melancholy, Eberhard-Weber-ECMy mood pervades throughout.  A good close comparison would be the Gallery album I ripped earlier that I love so much.  The addition of vibes (played by Ellen Homilius) adds lightness to most songs.  Here you can check out the remainder of the artists on this record.

The other huge standout song for me is the title track with its space synthesizer, it recalls to me the best European fusion in its softer moments such as on Muck Grobian's album from 1979 or the early Toto Blanke Electric Circus, or occasional Goblin pieces:





Yes, floating in space, weightless, free of gravity and time, a galaxy on your right hand... a faraway green earth at your toes...  the reflection of the moonrise in your dark eyes...  trillions of stars have waited billions of years to come through your visor...  where are they now?  there is no time or space anymore for you, just infinity...  it's October now, soon it's going to be as cold as that floating black, so let Thilo warm your heart...