We know multi-instrumentalist Ernst Horn as one half of Deine Lakaien and former member of the ingenious Qntal.
You do not have to say much to Deine Lakaien. They are the showpiece of their label Chrom Records as they frequently enter the charts and they are accustomed to success. Qntal, with their mix of modern electronics, medieval instruments and the wonderful voice of Sigrid Hausen are similarly well-known. Their albums with the dry titles Qntal 1 and Qntal 2 belong to the absolute must-have program of the Wave audience with a penchant for medieval times.
And then there are Ernst’s programmatic solo projects The Skies Over Baghdad and Johnny Bumm’s Wake, which I believe to be his strongest works.
Ernst Horn’s new project is called Helium Vola, and here is the CD single Omnis Mundi Creatura, the first harbinger of the upcoming album scheduled for fall. The lyrics sung by the renowned singer (especially for medieval music) Sabine Lutzenberger, with the support of Gerlinde Sämann, Susan Weiland, Andreas Hirtreiter and Tobias Schlierf, are based on medieval lyric in Provençal, Latin, Old and Middle High German. Settings of poems by the much-discussed French writer Michel Houellebecq (elementary particles, expansion of the combat zone) will serve as background story and recurrent motive for the album alongside with references to our time. In addition to Sabine and Ernst, we will hear on the album various soloists on fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, harp and guitar, as well as DJs on the turntables, all pointing to an exciting upcoming work.
The CD single Omnis Mundi Creatura comes with four tracks the title song being presented in a long and in a short version. In addition, Minne und Treue and Fama Tuba are pieces that make you curious to listen to the album. We hear the catching chorus alongside with the playful-electronic experiment. Minne und Treue is rather calm, melancholic and solemn (who listens to Sabine forgets Qntal by the way), Fama Tuba then is more hectic, restless and the combination of the antiphonal lyrics in Latin and the experimental-venturous electronics sounds downright sensational.
Once more, we find confirmed what we have been preaching for years and days again and again: Ernst Horn, this classically-trained musician, is one of the driving forces in the local music scene, he is full of ideas, inventions, and spirit for adventure. It is still a phenomenon for me that he does not get inaccurate, erratic and / or unfocused, but instead creates first-class compositions and productions. More about this man and his music after the release of the Helium Vola album.
Wk
(English translation by Carola Meyer)