Bohren und der Club of Gore play funeral jazz. Dark brooding deliverance from the turmoil of the day. Hulking great bass plods continuously along under overtly emotive saxophones, guitars and pianos that wail and sing harmony and tragedy. The slow dull mass of the earth realised as one through the opaque texture of night, the counterpoint to man’s emotive consciousness, so I find the bass as to the saxophone. Thus I am reminded of Schopenhauer: ‘I recognize in the deepest tones of harmony, in the ground-bass, the lowest grades of the will’s objectification, inorganic nature, the mass of the planet. For us the ground bass is in harmony what inorganic nature, the crudest mass on which everything rests and from which everything originates and develops, is in the world….In the melody, in the high, singing, principal voice, leading the whole and progressing with unrestrained freedom, in the uninterrupted significant connexion of one thought from beginning to end, I recognise the highest grade of the will’s objectification, the intellectual life and endeavour of man.’ (S52, World as Will and Representation Vol. 1).
Bohren has always had a tendency to hit home with an incredibly precise force. Regardless of whether this reflects something as simple as a juxtaposition between bass and melody (Schopenhaurian intuition included), the live recordings below do a great job at delivering this intangible sense of serenity and peace. Empyreal and tantalisingly dreamlike, the live recording captures a sensitivity and humanistic impression on the instruments that the studio efforts largely misconvey (not wanting in anyway to belittle the significance of Bohren’s magnificient back catalogue), and remains an experience any Bohren believer should not miss out on. Now, just to get them to the UK.
Live in Paris, France (18.10.2008) (FLAC)
Live in Hamburg, Germany (22.10.2008) Part 1 / Part 2 (FLAC)
Live in Moscow, Russian (31.03.2010) (Torrent) (FLAC)
(-Apologies for the indirect link to a torrent, this file being too large to make available through Mediafire. Features one long, 99 minute track including material from Dolores at a show played less than one month ago.)