1982 Martin Kolbe & Ralf Illenberger: Flieger
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HomeMusicDiscobiography1982: Flieger
Although our collaboration with Mood Records was very successful we wanted to know how we were doing on the so-called “normal“ marketplace, outside of the safe but somewhat elitist frame of the exclusive distribution via mail order. So we founded our own label together with some other musicians and bands which was called “Wundertüte” (surprise bag). This step obviously caused some discord with the people of Mood and during the long discussions, negotiations, and fights we experienced for the first time the unpleasant sides of the music business. It is not without reason that one of the tracks of the “Flieger” album is called “Blackmail”.
This collection of in part relatively short and sketchy compositions is a step further into discovering new and uncharted musical territory. A broader bandwidth is explored – the palette contains jazzy tunes like Weather Report's “Birdland”, acoustic rock music (“Röckchen”), classical influences (“Rondo”) as well as sensual playing with the studio technique (“Flieger”, “Rondo”). New elements like electric guitars or percussion are introduced. This is the first record we produced almost entirely on our own. Sound engineer Gibbs Platen from the Zuckerfabrik studio had taught us over the years how to use the mixing console and the effects.