Jardin Au Fou

In which one ex-Krautrocker tiptoes out of the closet with a romantic opus.
 
"Jardin au Fou woke me up to the fact that music doesn't have to have boundaries," says Mojo journalist Johnny Black. The title of this chamber music suite translates as 'Garden of the Insane' and perhaps Roedelius had to be slightly mad to swim against the tide in 1979 just as the punk/disco-inspired Neue Deutsch Welle was covering Germany in electro beats. 13 tracks of Haiku electronics and piano borrow from classical and folk idioms to unfurl his own charming faux naif outsider music. Drifting in off a neo-Kluster drone "Etoiles" is by turns jazzy, new age and softly rocks too. By fleshing out Roedelius' classical arpeggios with bitter sweet cellos, flute and neo-Celtic motifs, Peter Baumann's superb production combines the adrenaline rush of the Neue Welle's relentless chords with the elegance of Debussy and the grace of Satie. Resistance is futile.

Source: Stephen Iliffe