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THE MOTHER THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST |
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Robin van Velzen: Guitar, Vocals |
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Hans-Christian Fuss: Drums |
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Bettina Mugler: Vocals, Keyboards, Accordion |
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Tobias Helmlinger: Bass |
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Chris Koch: Guitar |
The art of Songwriting has survived many trends in popular music and also the sound of a guitar is still timeless and open to be explored, despite of the vast flood of technological tools that musicians nowadays can pick from. In the 90ies bands like Wilco or Pavement prooved that the classical setup guitar/bass/drums can still be modern or simply timeless. THE MOTHER THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST is a band project that is also devoted to the purest form of Rock And Roll.
Songwriter/guitarist Robin van Velzen and drummer Hans-Christian Fuss used to be the Nuremberg-based duo Bambi Davidson, founded in the 90s. After years of exploring the boundaries of musical experiment, they decided to focus again more on the core of straight, simple songwriting and recorded a few pieces. Befriended musicians Betty Mugler (Hidalgo), Tobi Helmlinger (Robocop Kraus) and Chris Koch (Unmono) joined to form an open band collective. The musical direction had changed and so did the name: THE MOTHER THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST was born.
Still van Velzen and Fuss form the heart of the band and therefore their sound is pretty much stripped down to van Velzen´s vocals and guitar, varying from acoustic folk picking to a more rocky and crunchy style, and Fuss´sensitive, loose drumming. Some songs, the more folky, balladesque ones are only played by van Velzen himself, others are extended by bass, an organ melody here and a slide guitar there. The overall policy of the sound comes closest to Neil Young´s approach to create a recording situation that is as natural as possible. Only a few takes and sparse use of overdubs contribute to a sound which radiates warmth and intimacy. At the same time dense and relaxed the music of TMTSATHG demands the listener´s ear and full attention.
Van Velzen´s lyrics are a patchwork of personal experiences, relationships, ups and downs of daily life and are brought into a form that is both poetic and catchy. "Strip away the layers of your soul, and what remains is the essence, is all we need to know" van Velzen sings in "Onion", which could be a philosophical statement about both life and the band´s approach in the recording studio. Therefore you could say TMTSATHG`s music is very close to the essence of songwriting that needs no further interpretation. All we need to do is listen and let ourselves be carried away.
Albumrelease SW33 THE MOTHER THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST CD: 26/10/2007
> Review ZEIT-online (German)
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