“He’s a nice young man who can remember everything, there’s so much worth knowing about Erlangen.” These lines are tattooed deep into my cerebral cortex. They are part of the only commercially successful single by the Berlin band Foyer des Arts. Luckily this hit existed, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gotten to know Foyer des Arts so early and would never have bought their album VON BULLERBÜ NACH BABYLON with the pocket money I had painstakingly saved.
The album (from 1982) is incredibly diverse. “Worth knowing about Erlangen” is paired with other humorous songs. For example with the one I really appreciate “Wolfram Siebeck hatsrecht” (there are far too few songs that deal with culinary art anyway). Of course, the titles “Helicopter Mission” and “Family and Beat Music” (the first part of the comprehensive family song cycle by Max Goldt and Foyer des Arts) also remain unforgettable.
Not at all antiquated milestones of poetic pop music
However, there is also a lot of different music on the album. The pop songs “Steps Into The Ministry”, “Toulouse – Lautrec” and “Olympia”. When listening to the album again I noticed the great string sounds. In the song “A Queen with Wheels Down Below” they create a mood that makes the grotesque image of the queen rolling through the country appear completely coherent. I’ve long believed that there were also a lot of drum machines and synthesizers used on the album. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! Only much later did I realize that FROM BULLERBÜ TO BABYLON got by without any electronic sound generation. This consistent concept ensured that the album didn’t sound antiquated at all.
It’s a bit tragic that WEA, Foyer des Arts’ record label, failed to recognize what was special and unique about the group. The attempt to fit them into the templates of the Neue Deutsche Welle failed. However, the company refused to terminate the contract. In 1986, Foyer des Arts (consisting of Gerd Pasemann and Max Goldt) finally managed to release another album on another label. THE INABILITY TO BREAKFAST is their most beautiful album. Songs like “An Elvis impersonator on the way to himself”, “Caesarean section” or “The dead eyes of Germany” are milestones in poetic pop music.
Loving, opulent and as far away as possible from German rock and Schlager Humptata
Two more albums followed (EIN KISS IN DER ERRTUMSTAVERNE, 1988 and DIE PENSCHEN, 1995). Both albums contain other classics such as “A song from incredibly difficult times”, “Women in peace and freedom” or “Your kiss was local history”. The music is pop, which we rarely hear in Germany. Loving, opulent and as far away as possible from German rock and Schlager Humptata.
The lyrics are a chapter in their own right: bizarreness is paired with a casual weariness that rarely ends in melancholy. This is how unique lines like these came about: “If hearts could beat, they beat out of sheer love. But they just rustle nervously like juvenile thieves” (from “Could Bees Fly”). On Foyer des Arts’ latest album we find forgiving lines that can be understood as the essence of Foyer des Arts’ attitude: “Because unfortunately the best thing in life is still the people” (from “Advice of a reformed gentleman”).
The Brits have Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe and their smart, subtle, humorous and pompous pop music. If we lived in a country where the music business, radio stations and TV editors trusted the audience a little more, maybe the duo Foyer des Arts would still be making music and the children and adults would have their songs on their lips, just like before every Brit is always humming a Pet Shop Boys song. However, Max Goldt would not have had the time to write his wonderful books and comics (the latter together with Stephan Katz). I recommend: MAX GOLDT – THE MAGNIFICENT SUN OUT – MUSIK 1980-2000 (6-CD box) and the John Peel Session by Foyer des Arts, which will be released as an EP in June and was thought to have been lost for a long time.
Regarding Jan Müller’s “Reflector” podcast: www.viertausendhertz.de/reflektor
This column first appeared in the Musikexpress issue 05/2022.