First, the slow wheezing of an accordion, piano chords pounded into the keys, the guitar flies in, the prepared grand piano plays xylophone, and then this deep timbre: "Come on, let's go on the paternoster, it's such a beautiful day in May, its blue ribbon and you by my side, almost too good to be true." Thus begins "Papperlapp," the third album by Berlin rock chansonnier Karl Neukauf.
And eleven songs later, we have a new musical hero. King Karl, who tells wonderfully charming stories with a subterranean, deep voice, all written, written, and—with a few exceptions—performed by himself. Karl Neukauf—who already caught the attention of perceptive contemporaries in 2010 with his self-titled debut "Karl Neukauf" and its follow-up "Blaue Erbsen" (2012)—is from Kassel and lives in Berlin.
He sounds idiosyncratically awkward, as in “Your World Through My Eyes” or with a power plant-like sound he describes the nightmares of an apartment seeker in “Stuck & Hohe Decken”.
In his musical forays, Neukauf moves between the early Rolling Stones, Hildegard Knef chanson, and rumble rock à la Nick Cave and Tom Waits. No matter how sophisticated the arrangements may be, it sounds like a charming understatement. But this musical all-rounder is no rookie. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he does it brilliantly. Deep, dark, sonorous, seductive, baritone, 80 percent cocoa.
01 Paternoster
02 Catherine
03 Message in a Bottle
04 At the end of the day
05 Everything is possible
06 One & Only
07 Your world through my eyes
08 Before the last trains leave
09 Stucco & high ceilings
10 moments from the jam jar
11 Autumn lies over the rooftops
