Niels Frevert on the cover of his album You Can Let Me Out On The Corner
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Yes, I still make music,” whispers Niels Frevert very laconically and casually in “Niendorfer Gehege”. There were quite a few who had already written him off after “Strange Open Me”, his second album from 2003, and a subsequent creative break.
The ex-singer of the band Nationalgalerie, which rocked “Evelin” on the sixth edition of “BRAVO Hits” in 1993, was planning to molt. Niels Frevert no longer wanted to sing against a band, but was looking for another way to musically underline his everyday banalities, which were draped with esthete. Eventually he took the bold step towards a modern version of songwriting and chamber music.
A (very) early late work
For the 2008 release “You can let me out at the corner”, the man with the crumpled jacket and the crooked thoughts put his electric guitar in the corner and hired a certain Werner Becker for the string arrangements – something like Anthony Ventura in the 70s the German easy listening king. A coup: The result can certainly be described as Frevert’s very early late work. That he covers Hildegard Knef here (and later Herman van Veen) – no coincidence!
“Niendorfer Gehege” is the showpiece of this melancholic, but never gloomy dance. In his nonchalant manner, Frevert uses a meeting with a friend from the old days to describe the vacillation between rapprochement and alienation when dealing with one’s own past. Only real with the mischievous memory dangling to Kiss and “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”!
Read more: The best German songs of all time
The strings sigh in agreement, in the text the Hamburgensia smile. Only the Hamburg school, which the “boy who never practices” has left far behind. Maybe Frevert is actually the German Nick Drake.
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