Folk, Song & World Music In Germany 1999

Compiled by: Holger Janssen, Mike Kamp, Manfred Wagenbreth and Heidi Zink
Booklet by: Michael Kleff
English translation by: Delf Maria Hohmann.
Produced by: Ulrich Doberenz for PROFOLK .e.V.
Co-produced by: Michael Kleff, Heidi Zink

Special thanks to: Mike Kamp, Jo Meyer, Alison Moffat, Nora, Petra Rottschalk
Very special thanks to: Steffen Lieberwirth

Note: The group membership listings are all based on the current formations, however, there are guest musicians on many of the tracks.

!Test The Best" - Real music from all over Germany

Germany is not that big. But music-wise it offers the whole world within its borders. PROFOLK continues to bring you the diverse sounds of this country. "Test The Best - Folk, Song & World Music in Germany 1999" is the third PROFOLK sampler following "It´s Only Kraut ... But I Like It" (1997) and "Prime Cuts" (1998).
This year´s collection features once again the bewildering diversity of a new music scene, ranging from "brass klezmer", "punk´n´roll folk" and "blues from the German coal mining district" to "creative luting of European treasures of song", "folk rock à la Bartók", "Swabian dialect artistry" and "Alpine transglobal ethnojazz".
The delegates of the 1998 Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Tennessee, got a first hand look at this vibrant gumbo from Germany when PROFOLK presented an all German showcase night featuring Csókolom (Gypsy music from Transylvania), Holger Hoffmann (troubadour music), Hora Colora (jazz improvisation and Balkan music), JAMS (German polkas and quadrilles fused with rock, jazz, western and eastern roots music), Thomas Loefke (Germany´s leading exponent of the Celtic harp) and Wacholder (good ol´ Deutschfolk music).

Folk Alliance board member Susan Martinez remembered her impressions in the Folk Alliance newsletter: "Chris Strachwitz got so excited about the group Csókolom in the German showcase that he rented the legendary Sun Studios and made a record of them on Saturday night!" Look for "May I Kiss Your Hand - Balkan Gypsy Fiddle Music" on Arhoolie records.
Tower Records "Pulse!" magazine comments on Wacholder´s recent record "unterwegs" (On The Road): "The album confirms the trio´s vocalist Scarlett Seeboldt as the German folk scene´s most consistently seductive female voice, whether singing unison vocals with the other two members of the trio or solo on material ranging from German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine to Berlin dialect."
So sit down and savour it ... "Test The Best"!