Fine Art is the third album released under the band name Neuschwanstein in 2016. In 1979, Neuschwanstein had released their debut album Battlement, to which Fine Art can be considered a successor - in some regards. Not only does the style differ, but also the line-up, with Thomas Neuroth being the only original founding member of Neuschwanstein having worked on the project. All other contributors are family members and associated musicians.
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Fine Art | ||||
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Studio album by Neuschwanstein | ||||
Released | 01.07.2016 | |||
Recorded | ca. 2007 - 2016 | |||
Studio | Principal Studios, Senden (Germany) | |||
Genre | Symphonic Rock | |||
Length | 41:56 | |||
Label | LongBow Records (DE) | |||
Producer | Thomas Neuroth | |||
Neuschwanstein chronology | ||||
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In 2005, Thomas Neuroth received a call from his former Neuschwanstein co-musician Klaus Mayer (flutes), informing him of the tragic passing of their erstwhile manager, Ulli Reichert. As a result of this and many following conversations, the idea was born to reunite after all these years and make music again as a band; the chapter ″Neuschwanstein″ was somehow not over, after all.
″There was lots of noise. [...], I had to get it out. Not having composed anything in a long time, there were tons of ideas in my head, noted on slips of paper; dozens of drafts and studies lying on and around the piano. It needed to be done.″
— Thomas Neuroth, Empire Music Magazine, Nr. 119, p. 18-19, 2017[1]
Around 2007, Neuroth began sorting his diverse compositions and drafts from the past years and putting them on paper. About which he says in December 2021:
It took me a good year to figure out a concept for the new album, a line-up, style and sound. A process of growth with many yeas and nays, continuously evolving, expanding, entirely discarded only to be picked up from scratch again.
At first and for a long while, music was made in Neuroth's home studio and via the internet, which, at the time, did not come without some technical complications. Despite the troubles of long-distance collaboration, the recordings were finally as good as finished, yet not fully completed due to the two musicians parting ways again for various reasons.[2]
However, Neuroth could not get the idea for this new Neuschwanstein album out of his head, prompting him to start anew, this time not via the internet but mostly on site with guest musicians. Recording in Neuroth's neat little home studio took two years; another two years were spent mixing the audio for this opulent, synthesizer-free soundscape with flutes, strings and a thunderous rock instrumentation. For one more year, he worked on the cover design.[3] In total, it took eight years to get from the initial idea to the eventual release.[4]
The selection of musicians is by no means random. When Neuschwanstein broke up in 1980, he kept playing with Michael Kiessling (d. 2019) in the Michael Kiessling Band. Their drummer was Rainer Kind, who played and functioned as musical director for Matthias Reim, among others. This group recorded a CD in 1989, Kiessling Band, for which Robby Musenbichler, a famous Austrian session guitarist, provided the guitar parts. Both Kind and Musenbichler agreed to contribute to the production of Fine Art. Neuroth's son Valentin complemented Musenbichler's guitar as a second guitarist.
For financial reasons, Neuschwanstein's new compositions could not be recorded with an actual orchestra, so Thomas Neuroth largely made use of an orchestra library. To minimize any artificial sound, he engaged Sabine Fröhlich, violinist from Münster, who would record both violin and viola tracks multiple times, using the overdubbing (layering) technique. She “almost died”, jokes Neuroth, when he revealed his plans for an especially rich sound: she was to play the first violin 14 times, twelve times the second one, ten times the viola part - and not to forget about the solo violin.[3]
Originally, publishing was supposed to be achieved with support from the French Musea label which had already released the two previous Neuschwanstein albums and was principally interested in Fine Art. However, an agreement could not be reached over insurmountable differences regarding conditions. For this reason, Neuroth decided to found his own label, LongBow Records.
Neo-Romantic symphonic orchestral sounds meet rock band. United and opposed in harmony and confrontation. Intermeshed in fugal complexity and utterly, spaciously free. Emotional and authentic. Instrumental, like the early years. Music that tells stories. Programme music.[2]
This is how the composer describes his own music, and with this it becomes clear that this indeed cannot be a pure successor in the style of Battlement. It is an album full of contrasts. Progressive rock can be heard at times, sometimes even some heavy or hard rock in the best Deep Purple manner, then back to neo-romantic symphonic orchestra. The combination of rock band and orchestra dominates, whereby the two act not as antagonists, instead the band functions as a firmly integrated part of the orchestra.
″I wanted to do something that no one is doing or has done like this before. Orchestra and rock band. To see that once as a whole. An orchestra with additional instruments, a greatly expanded band. Not just have one be the accompaniment to the other. ′Electric guitar into the orchestra! Add the Hammond!′ That's what you should chant loud and all the time.″
— Thomas Neuroth, Empire Music Magazine, Nr. 119, p. 18-19, 2017[1]
Similarly, Jon Lord already dared this difficult balancing act with his Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Unlike Jon Lord's Concerto, where the rock instruments are treated as solo instruments for long stretches, in Fine Art they are integral parts of the whole sound structure. Even when, for example, Musenbichler's electric guitar acts as a soloist, it does not impose itself on the listener, but is surprisingly restrained in terms of volume, so that all instruments can be heard on an equal footing next to and with each other.
Seen in this light, Fine Art undoubtedly stands as an example of symphonic rock and joins the ranks of works by The Nice, Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Ekseption.
So it is not surprising that the album has become 99% instrumental. Of the 10 tracks (9 on the LP), three are adaptations of classical compositions, namely by Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns and J. A. P. Schulz.
As a classical composition alone I think that piece is just brilliant.... should be played in symphony halls all over the world... I love how it changes halfway through and proceeds to become very symphonically dramatic or OST by the end. How can humans write music so brilliant?[6]
Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
— Book of Genesis, chapter 19, verse 24-25.[8]
While listening, a little chicken immediately appeared in my mind's eye, which I then drew immediately. From that point on, the drawing was the source of inspiration for the text.
When I was in Amsterdam in the summer of 2015 and saw all those sweaty hands touching the shiny gold hand of the Nachtwache's 'frontman', about one every second, the title 'Distributor' came to mind. Instead, the term 'Spreader' might have been better suited. But I wasn't aware of it at the time.
Gudula Rosa's sub-bass flute represents, in a way, the birth of something terrible. At 1:06 we have the still intact world, at 1:51 this world is met with terror, and at 3:29 the apocalypse runs its course, ending everything - and the halls remain empty.
The cover, a caricature, stems from the hands of Honoré Daumier, a 19th-century artist who was truly multi-talented. He was active as a painter, sculptor, graphic artist and caricaturist. Thomas Neuroth coloured the original artwork.[14]
On the album there are coordinates that play a particular role in the music of the album: 48°50'20.2 "N 2°19'39.9"E.[15]
Also, both a Harley-Davidson and a horse can be heard in certain parts of the album. Thomas Neuroth has offered a free LP each to the first person who can match these coordinates or pick out the locations of the two sounds on the album.[4]
If you listen to the album on headphones, you will get a special listening experience. Neuroth did not settle for regular stereo, but constantly changed the positions of the instruments during mixing, as if they were wandering around on stage. The listening position also constantly adapts to the music: Sometimes it starts from the conductor's desk, sometimes it is directly in front of the guitar amplifier, or another time in the middle of the string instruments.[7]
The Banyuls mentioned in the last title is a very aromatic French red wine with an alcohol content between 15 and 22%.
Thoralf Koß, chief editor of the website Musikreviews.de, summarizes:
Kann man dieses Album von Neuschwanstein wirklich 38 Jahre nach „Battlement“ als eine Art Comeback bezeichnen? Nein, kann man nicht, denn „Fine Art“ ist ein erneutes Meisterwerk von Neuschwanstein, das sich grundlegend vom Vorgänger unterscheidet und statt nach frühen GENESIS oder CAMEL zu klingen, klassische Musik und progressiven Rock in sich vereint und miteinander verschmelzen lässt. Art Rock allererster Güteklasse – ein Lehrstück aus „symphonisch-neoromantischem Orchesterklang und rockiger Kapelle“!
Can you really call this album by Neuschwanstein a comeback of sorts 38 years after "Battlement"? No, you can't, because "Fine Art" is another masterpiece by Neuschwanstein, which is fundamentally different from its predecessor and instead of sounding like early GENESIS or CAMEL, combines and fuses classical music and progressive rock. Art rock of the very first order - a lesson in "symphonic-neoromantic orchestral sound and rocking band"!"[16]
On “Babyblaue Seiten”, Günter Schote comes to the following conclusion:
Wer also dem klassischen Progressive Rock zugeneigt ist und die Perlen der späten 70er/frühen 80er kennt und zu schätzen weiß, wird in „Fine Art“ die gelungene Wiedergeburt einer alten Szene-Größe erleben. Ich spinne jetzt mal und hoffe, dass dieses Album nur der Startschuss zu einer Renaissance der Band ist und der nächste Schritt mit dem einen oder anderen alten Weggefährten stattfindet, allen voran Frederic Joos.
So if you are inclined to classic progressive rock and know and appreciate the pearls of the late 70s/ early 80s, you will experience in "Fine Art" the successful rebirth of an old scene giant. Call me crazy but I hope that this album is only the starting signal for a renaissance of the band, and the next step will take place with one or the other old companions, first of all Frederic Joos.[17]
In his review on ″exposé - Exploring the Boundaries of Rock″ Peter Thelen writes:
It's been a long time, and there are a lot of new faces in the band, but I think most would agree that Neuschwanstein has evolved well, with Fine Art representing a forward-looking and ambitious new approach that makes no attempts to recreate the past.[18]
From Argentina comes a review by blogger Moebius8, who sums it up this way:
Este es un álbum de opuestos, que combina el rock progresivo sinfónico instrumental siguiendo el derrotero de las mejores bandas que probaron magistralmente algo similar. Nada se deja al azar en "Fine Art". Pulcro, preciso, virtuoso, potente.... ufff... y romántico también, una combinación realmente lograda.
This is an album of contrasts, combining instrumental symphonic progressive rock along the lines of the best bands that have masterfully attempted something similar. Nothing is left to chance in "Fine Art". Neat, precise, virtuosic, powerful...ufff.... and also romantic, a really successful combination.[19]
All tracks are written by Thomas Neuroth.
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Fêtes" | 10:25 |
2. | "Per Omnem Vitam" | 4:51 |
3. | "God's Little Plan" | 1:36 |
4. | "Florence Coleman Part One" | 3:56 |
5. | "Florence Coleman Part Two" | 3:11 |
6. | "The Angels of Sodom" | 3:06 |
7. | "Die Geschichte vom kleinen Hähnchen" | 2:32 |
8. | "The Distributor" | 5:23 |
9. | "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" | 2:59 |
10. | "Wehmut, stark wie Banyuls" | 3:57 |
Total length: | 41:56 |
The album was released both on LP and CD. Due to lack of space, "The Distributor" is not included on the LP version.