The Avalanche Quartet

[jarkko]

This info comes from The Files,
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/avquartet.html


"Leonard Cohen Songs" CD by the Avalanche Quartet has been released in Switzerland. Fourteen tracks:
1. Who by fire
2. Take this waltz
3. Bird on a wire
4. Here it is
5. Famous blue raincoat
6. Dance me to the end of love
7. Seems so long ago, Nancy
8. I'm your man
9. Avalanche
10. The guests
11. Sisters of mercy
12. Hey, that's no way to say goodbye
13. Nightowl
14. Lover, lover (live)

Musicians: Henk Hofstede - vocals, guitar
Marjolein van der Klauw - vocals, guitar
Pim Kops - various instruments
Arwen Linnemann - double bass

This album includes all 10 songs of the earlier Yesterday's Tomorrow CD, three new studio tracks (#3, 8 and 11), and one live track (#14). Swiss Faze Records, cat. # MUVE 905092.

Read more about this album and order it on the website of The Avalanche Quartet, http://www.avalanchequartet.nl -- Also sound and video samples!

[lizzytysh]

Solid playlist.

With her bare feet and casual skirt, I see a woman after Perla's heart . I look forward to hearing this.


~ Lizzy

[Dieter]

I enjoyed their concert last night very much. After listening to their record I was a bit doubtful at first - I'm 50 and as great a fan of Leonard's as Henk. But on stage they get very close to the audience (who took a while to thaw). Their interpretations are faithful yet never too close, and I sometimes felt a hint of irony. And Arwen is the most sensuous double bass player I've ever heard and seen between Montreal and Hydra.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Dieter ~

Welcome to the Forum ~ and thanks for giving us your reaction to their concert. Why do you think the audience was so chilly to them in the beginning? Maybe, the same as you, they were a bit doubtful on how it might go, given their record, but since it was Leonard's music, they felt compelled to go? Is there any way you might describe what they did that made their renderings slightly different ["never too close"] from Leonard's? What kinds of things did they do to get very close to the audience? Thanks if you can say more on it, and if you can't that's okay, too. I'm glad it went well... they look like they'd put out good music.


~ Lizzy

[Dieter]

Hi Lizzy

Thanks for your warm welcome to the forum.

I think the audience were quiet at first for three reasons: there were only about 50 of them; some had come for Henk because they knew The Nits (others, including me, went because they had grown up with Leonard); there were chairs for most of the audience - that keeps people's feet motionless. And of course they didn't know the record so they didn't know what Leonard's music would sound like.

Some songs are quite faithful to the original: 'Who by fire', 'Seems so long ago, Nancy' or 'The guests'. Others, e.g. 'That's no way to say goodbye', have a country flavour about them due to Marjolein's work with Powderblue. The songs with earworm-like choruses, such as 'Lover lover lover' or 'So long Marianne', were rendered slightly faster and with more rhythm; Henk said, 'The tempo is the crucial thing about Leonard's songs.' I also noticed some irony: Pim's accordoen would occasionally remind us of a bandoneon. And most noticeably: 'I'm your man' is sung by Marjolein rather than Henk - a genious idea.

What they did to win the audience? Henk played with marked joy, and Arwen accompanied every tone, every emotion with her eyes, her lips, her face. The quartet presented us with careful arrangements but did not put up a show at all, they never bluffed. The guitar playing was never very intricate (the fifth, Swiss Oli Hartung on e-guitar, added no essence) - they looked and sounded often like we did years ago when we sang Leonard's music (and Henk definitely didn't get every tone right). It was a very genuine concert with genuine feelings expressed.

Dieter

[lizzytysh]

Oh, gosh, Dieter ~ I am so glad I asked ! Thank you for elaborating. Everything you were saying previously in this description was reiterated and summed up in your final line:

It was a very genuine concert with genuine feelings expressed.

Thank you so much for your details. You've made it real for us.


~ Lizzy

[Dieter]

Hello Lizzy and Jarkko

Finland and Florida and Frauenfeld - what a coincidence I am glad you (Lizzy) liked my genuine feelings about the concert...

If anyone out there is able to read German, here's the review I wrote for the local newspaper: http://www.thurgauerzeitung.ch/default2 ... startrow=1

That's where I work: a one man-one-page-per-day show, being responsible for the culture page. That was the reason why I received a promotional copy of the CD, which I wrote a short review about as a teaser for the concert. And then I was genuinely surprised about the freshness of the performance.

I wonder what Loreena McKennitt will sound like in a couple of months. She's another favourite singer of mine, though her new CD 'The Ancient Muse' recycles a lot of her old stuff. Why am I mentioning her? Because you won't notice a difference whether Loreena sings from your stereo or from stage - her live performances are 99 per cent identical to her records. This on the topic of genuine concerts...

Dieter

[lizzytysh]

Thanks for all the additional, also interesting, information, Dieter. I can see you stay busy... a deadline a day , but in what a pleasurable arena for you ~ the culture page . Do what you love and it ceases to be work . I would love to see and hear Loreena's haunting beauty onstage. Lightning [on the Forum] recently did in New York and sent me a copy [a signed copy ] of "The Ancient Muse" ~ exquisite. She's apparently every bit as lovely in person as you would imagine her to be.


~ Lizzy

[faconer]

Re. Avalanche in the Thurgauer Zeitung and in the Forum.
I have some things to add:
* the band themselves remarked on the relative slowness of the
audience, this after playing a sell-out in Berne before, where
300 people were seated and very very enthusiastic! (The gig
was filmed, btw.)
* To Dieter: what I didn't understand in your review of the CD
is the remark that Henk sings badder than we did 20 years
ago around a campfire. Who do you invite around campfires
in Frauenfeld? Scuse me, we're talking of one of the greatest
singers in pop in Europe....
* Also: Oli added a lot of colour to the proceedings, else he
wouldn't have needed to be there. Maybe you could have asked
the Dutch part of the band about that?
And again: here's one of the best guitar players in Europe -
and that is precisely because he always plays in function of the
song.
And last of all: I do not understand your problem with the CD.
Sincerely, I do not.
PS: Yes I am the guy who put out the CD, but am still quite able
to judge rather objectively.
(And PS, Dieter: my name is not EricH)
greets

[Dieter]

Thanks very much, Faconer, for coming in here.

I totally agree with the slowness of the audience in Frauenfeld. But then 300 people certainly (and automatically) create more enthusiasm than a mere fifty.

I remember having written in my CD review that *we* sang worse than Henk. In my opinion Henk definitely does not hit a few notes, most noteably in 'Take this Waltz', 'Famous Blue Raincoat' and 'Seems so long ago, Nancy'. (There's even people who would claim that Leonard could not sing at that time, but that's another issue.) Henk does have a characteristic and pleasant (but not sexy) voice, and his accent adds a warm touch - but to call him one of the greatest pop singers in Europe would exaggerate things a bit, wouldn't it.

I stick to my impression that Oli's guitar added little to the band's arrangements that night, or to the character of Leonard's songs, which don't need sprucing up with e-guitar chords (and could have done without Phil Spector's sound and Sharon Robinson's pop interventions for that matter). So some of the songs had four guitars being strummed simultaneously - and in a similar fashion: then I would have liked some more finger picking. Oli seemed to like playing along with the Avalanche Quartet, though, and I like his guitar when he plays with Stop the Shoppers. I'm glad you don't call Henk one of the greatest guitar players in Europe - the guitar accompaniment is perhaps the weak point in the Avalanche arrangements.

Did I create the impression that I had a problem with the CD? The problem lies within the sheer impossibility to cover Leonard Cohen. And besides: I've copied the Avalanche Quartet onto my iPod.

Warm regards
Dieter

[faconer]

Hullo Dieter

sorry to come back again.
Two things: no, I do not think calling Henk one of the top singers in pop around Europe an exaggeration. And whether he can sound sexy or not is a matter of interpretation - in mine he can. And there are many recordings that prove it.
The other is Oli: 'sprucing up' things with an electric guitar. Well, if there is one thing that Oli never does it is exactly this: sprucing up. For a guitar player of his quality, he is the exact contrary. I have rarely witnessed a player who is this capable of being in service of a song - whether it be with Hank Shizzoe, Shirley Grimes, Simon Ho, the Avalanche Quartet or as a guest of the Nits. Always tasteful, never overbearing.
As I said before, it might have been helpful to talk to Arwen or Marjolein or Pim about Oli's role.
And no: noone I know understood the part of the campfire, btw. I think it is highly misunderstandable.
As for the impossibility of covering Cohen - yeah, like most great songs are difficult, sure. But claiming that it is impossible is a bit much, isn't it? What about "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley, "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Jennifer Warnes, and, dare I say it, the Avalanche itself on a couple of tracks. Plus many more.... Even the Beatles and Dylan covered other people, right? And didn't do too bad.....
Greets
Eric
PS: facon@wohrt.ch is my private mail so we can continue our conversation in private.

[Dieter]

Hello Eric

We could go on and on about whether Henk is Europe's best or second best pop singer, but this would lead us - and the other forum members - nowhere. This is leonardcohenforum.com, not henkhofstede.com. Let's leave it at that. It's all, as you put it rightly, a matter of interpretation. The same holds true for Oli's playing. I wrote about what I heard and felt that evening - as a critic. And critics are never objective, are they? But this is true: if a critic mentions negative details in their review, they get more weight than they should.

Asking the Avalanche Quartet about Oli's role would hardly have yielded more than "yes, we invited him to play along, and we think he did well, don't you too?".

And after all: it *is* a fine record (I wrote this), and it *was* a fine concert (I wrote that too).

When the second Avalanche album comes out, will you send me a copy to review?

All the best,
Dieter


A final word about campfires: it was *you* who mentioned campfires in the first place. I've never sung Leonard Cohen songs, or any other songs, around a campfire.