Comments for Schoenherz, What A Night

This time Schoenherz (or Schönherz) is in control of his own project, right down to painting the cover art himself, and the results are good. It is a successful mixture of keyboard-based progressive (Schoenherz was formerly in C-Department, then Gipsy Love, which became Flame Dream, and most notably on "Victor," his excellent collaboration with Rigoni) and disco (he was subsequently in Supermax). Overall, this album has a moody, instrospective style. The influence of prime period Pink Floyd (DSotM, WYWH and "Animals") is evident (ie: in the female vocals and piano ninth chords, warbling moogs, guitar arpeggios and persistent bass, respectively), but also sometimes the music reminds me of the Beatles, 10CC and Camel (though no major lead guitar is featured). Schoenherz distills these elements into a cohesive vision of loneliness, intelligently using a variety of rock instrumentation and even a female guest lead vocalist, Caro, on one song. There are long instrumental passages and breathy vocals lending a dreamy atmosphere, but also some very defined elements such as the acoustic guitars on "Sultry Nights" and the relentlessly ticking clock on "How Does It Feel There." Phrases also recur, giving the whole thing a rounded feel. This should be released on CD.

Richard Schoenherz: Vocals & keyboards. Christian Kolonovits: Additional keyboards. Georg Liszt: Bass & backing vocals. Rainer Marz: Guitars & backing vocals. Johan Daansen: Guitars & backing vocals. Jürgen Zöller: Drums, percussion & backing vocals. HartmutPfannmüller: Percussion & drums. Caro: Lead vocals on "Rosa." Sonja Volantschnig: Lyrics for "Rosa." Produced by Peter Hauke for Company Productions.