1986: Faust: Return of a Legend: Munic and Elsewhere

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Baby

aaa baby
are you coming to the cinema with me?
aaa baby
And after that we'll go for a meal
And after that we'll go dancing
And after that we'll go screwing

We Are The Hollow Men

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Close to the ones .who cry (try... ?

to the grumbled mood moon
coming home moaning home

you can count to dry pet
you can lick to a wet pant
you can grade to the jet set


(compare TS Eliot, The Wasteland, 1925...)

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry glass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
...

Jean-Hervé Péron: Faust V

(After the Manor House recordings in 1972)... then chaos: Faust splits: some of us go home (Rudolf and Irmler) some of us continue touring (with Uli Trepte)... after years of wandering, we found ourselves in southern Germany (eating dogfood and drinking schnaps, both of them being cheap down there) and longing to go studio-recording again: that's the Münich story then and also the fifth album. You are right about Münich and Elsewhere... BUT... the stuff released on Münich and Elsewhere is not mixed the way Sosna and (even more so) Irmler would have mixed it. So I remember some talking (Irmler) of re-mixing the Münich tapes under the name of 5½ and, imvco (in my very confused opinion) the two tracks on 71 Minutes have been remixed by Irmler.

OK, your next question will be: Which two tracks? 1 and 4! Knochentanz, aka 'Devoted Bone Dance', and Münich / Yesterday aka 'Willie the Pimp'. So 5½ is (was) an 'ideal projection', a 'virtual entity'. I have not seen it, smelled it, did not chew it, did not feel it and did not hear it (not with my ears anyway) so it does not exist, does it ?

...

OK, now that you ask, I realize it's my personal interpretation of what Rudolf is 'mumbling'. I never questioned the rightness of my guessing up to now. So I put the headphones and must achknowledge: I may be right BUT I may be wrong... now i hear something like "it's out of the point" and later "it's really the point" so that would be phonetically close to "willie the pimp", but YOU are right in seeing a connection to Hot Rats, and Rudolf and me ... I liked this album very very much , never heard it again since back then... maybe something like self-suggestion...

...

I know for sure that Virgin refused flatly to release the Münich tapes we sent them.... they would not talk to us any more...and refused of course to pay the studio and hotel bill.

Biba Kopf: Munic Pop Thrill

Good news - Faust are back. Released from a devil's pact with silence, they're noisily celebrating the repossession of their souls. A new LP Return of a Legend: Munic & Elsewhere commemorates their comeback.

Featuring material recorded before and after their 10 year disappearance it proves to be as ageless as the Faust legend itself. Their music is as restless as it ever was. Nomadic in their defiance of borders on time and space, their mostly improvised pieces move like sandstorm drifts across the broad span of rock. They occasionally settle on a familiar landmark, only to distort or blanket its shape completely under wave upon wave of crackling electronics and treated guitar.

Their ever shifting moods confirm their nomadic character. Single-mindedly devoted to ruthiess rhythm one moment, spacier than the spaciest of their Krautrock contemporaries the next, they cross from serious to light, aggressive to sweet, noise to melody with the nonchalance of non-aligned travellers passing between two hostile states.

So Faust are back and they're on the other end of the phone line to say why they left in the first place. Five Germans from that exemplary generation of '68, they formed Faust in '71 in response to seeing the spirit of freedom's first flush. "That was a very good feeling, that sense of freedom you had after '68," recalls Jean-Hervé Péron, speaking from Hamburg. "But in a way freedom can be exhausting. It can be very hard to be left alone, making your own decisions. After a while people (in Germany) got tired of this feeling. No one wanted to create their own values any more. After '73 it was easier to be guided thar to think for yourself."

"Something I heard Foreign Minister Genscher say on TV summed it up," adds Joachim Irmler. "He said, 'we have everything in the hand now'. Evrything's under control."

Resisting the accelerating middleground spread, Faust pitched tents at the outskirts of rock. Somewhere near Münich they set up a commune, began doing things their way. Their way was difference. A first record came out in a transparent sleeve, starkly adorned with an X Ray fist. Contracts with Virgin and Polydor followed. Inevitably they were frozen out by rock's merger with big business.

Herr Irmler: "It's a big problem making money and music. Virgin were interested in making money. On the other side we did not like to be directed. So we decided to quit that job, let things go for a while." Upon giving notice they threatened to return 10 years hence and they've made good their promise. They re-enter a world further shrunken by small-minded business thinking. Escape it with Faust's nomadic solution. "Music has to open you, stimulate you. Most modern music likes to bottle or box you. We never like to see people in a box," concludes Herr Imler.

Audion: Faust: Breaking all the Rules

After further tours with a rapidly changing line-up, Faust eventually disappeared. Rumour's are that Nettelbeck lost interest in the band after Virgin (due to a change in policy) refused to release their fifth album. Other rumours abound that they are still together in Germany doing small shows where they invite audiences to join in. Whatever, if this was the end of Faust historically it wasn't the end as far as releases and public interest went.

In 1979, due to the growing rarity value of Faust albums, the newly formed label Recommended Records reissued the first 2 albums with their original packaging, and later a repackaged version of The Faust Tapes. Also material from sessions known as "Faust Party #3" was issued on two 7" records as well as a track on the Recommended Records Sampler. These limited editions were later to form the aptly titled The Last Album.

Prior to this however, a collection of unreleased live and studio recordings, nicknamed "The Faust Tapes #2", was issued as Münich and Elsewhere. The title seemed to confuse some people, believing that Faust had in fact reformed, but not so! The recordings help fill in a few more gaps of the Faust puzzle, giving a glimpse at the intensity of their live work as well as some more extreme facets like the crazed Sixties parody Baby. The Last Album appeared early this year, strictly a limited numbered edition of 1,988 copies, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Recommended Records. it's another excellent collection of tracks that show the extreme diversity of talent that existed in Faust. A few tracks are alternative takes of older recordings, some of the new compositions display hitherto unheard Faust styles.

As far as releases go that's the end of the Faust story, except that rumour has it that the "Faust 5" tapes still exist, and there's also an excellent John Peel session recorded in 1973.

So, even though Faust never made it big in their homeland, as was part of Polydor's original intention, their international reputation and popularity no doubt exceeded expectations for at least a short while. Today, Faust are a highly revered legend, a landmark in German rock history, worthy of everyone's attention.

Mark Paytress: Return Of A Legend

Unfortunately, improvised music is still very much a minority interest, even though much os what is done on the fringes is assimilated intot he mainstream, giving new colour and originality to popular music.

Like their contemporaries, Can, Faust have long been regarded as influential by scores of bands and individuals in the late-Seventies, but have received even less credit. In fact, I'm certain that many remember them only for The Faust Tapes, an assortment of snippets and experiments that Virgin issued for a mere 49p back in the early Seventies.

Return of a Legend: Munic and Elsewhere is the band's first album in over twelve years and is a collection of music from various periods of hte band's existence, including some allegedly from the period after their mysterious disappearance from the music scene. For those who believe experimental music always consissts of pianos being assaulted by an assortment of bearded people, then think again. Turn this record up and let your ears enjoy some of the most hypnotic spells conjured up since PiL's "Metal Box", or the best of This Heat, or even the father of them all, Can's "Mother Sky". I refer particularly to the opening tracks on either side, Munic / Yesterday and Munic / Other, which together, take up a sizeable proportion of the album

In a sleeve as eyeball-damaging as The Faust Tapes, the first 1,000 copies of the album are on white vinyl and come with a black inner sleeve. Like many of Faust's earlier releases, Return of a Legend: Munic and Elsewhere is sure to become a collector's item, so get it while you can!

Münich and Elsewhere

Listening to Faust is like finding an unlabelled but much re-used cassette in your attic. These German non-musicians and non-technicians, with no particular debt to Anglo-American pop, were given artistic freedom and a studio and turned in truly aberrant music. It's underproduced and resembles rehearsals or demos sliced haphazardly together, with everyday sounds included too. A pulsing, mesmeric piece, like early Tangarine Dream or Floyd's "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun" suddenly segues into a mutant, simplistic 60's r'n'b, which returns briefly after an interlude of frantic percussion. But it all coheres, creates the illusion that it could have been edited into an end product