As of: February 8, 2024, 8:59 p.m
By: Magnus Reitinger
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The picture on the cover of the album “The Orchestra In The Sky” by “Hochzeitskapelle & Japanese Friends” is by photographer Rinko Kawauchi.
© Alien Transistor
Maybe it's exactly the music that our world needs right now: The new album by the "Hochzeitskapelle" around the brothers Markus and Micha Acher from Weilheim speaks of encounter and respect.
It was created with friends in Japan.
Listeners and critics are enchanted by the sounds.
Weilheim
- It's not easy to keep track of the musical activities of the brothers Markus and Micha Acher, who grew up in Weilheim.
With “The Notwist” they made the name of their hometown known worldwide – as a synonym for artistic indie pop music.
But “Notwist” is just the tip of the iceberg, the most famous of the many bands in which the Achers play.
There was and still is the “Tied & Tickled Trio” and “Village of Savoonga”, “Ms.
John Soda”, “Lali Puna” and “3 Shades of Blues”, “Ogonjok”, the “Alien Ensemble” and “Rayon”.
They also perform again and again with their father Julius Acher's “New Orleans Dixie Stompers”.
The “Wedding Chapel” also received the German Film Prize
In contrast, their “wedding band”, founded privately in 2012 for Markus Acher’s wedding celebration, was actually supposed to be a flash in the pan.
But the brothers' cheerful interaction with violist Evi Keglmaier, trombonist Mathias Götz and banjo virtuoso Alex Haas, their finely woven versions of favorite pieces from all over the world, from Francoise Hardy to "Moondog", infected many.
More and more appearances followed - and three highly praised albums.
At the moment, the “Wedding Band”, which also received the German Film Prize (2019 for the soundtrack to “Wackersdorf”), is the top topic from the Acher cosmos for music journalists.
The “Musikexpress” raves about an “intoxicating” sound “that we have never heard before”.
The TV magazine “Druckfrisch” on Erste praises their “outrageously direct music” and states: “Their goal is nothing less than to wrest the spirit of music from the mindless arenas, digital perfection and download platforms.
Heroic.”
Group picture at one of the recording sessions in November 2022 in Japan: The “Wedding Band” (front, from left: Alex Haas, Markus Acher, Micha Acher, Evi Keglmaier and Mathias Götz) with musician friends from the Japanese independent pop scene.
© Koji Saito
“This is just unbelievably great music”
The reason for the celebration is the latest album that the “Wedding Band” recorded together with friends from Japan – in Japan.
Two recording sessions in November 2022 in Tokyo and Kobe resulted in the just released double CD “The Orchestra In The Sky”.
For the 24 pieces in total, the quintet teamed up with important voices from Japanese independent and underground pop music, such as the “Tenniscoats”, the singer-songwriter Yuko Ikema and the brass combo “Zayaendo”.
Their compositions and arrangements created a “spirited collection of heavenly pop songs, intimate folk melodies, cheerful brass, deep weeping strings and powerless sighs,” as the record company aptly summarizes.
Micha Acher, who plays the sousaphone (a form of the tuba) here, is still ecstatic 15 months later about the encounters and playing music together with his 30 or so colleagues in Japan: “It's just incredibly great music and there are such incredibly nice people “, says the 52-year-old in an interview with the local newspaper.
The five from the “wedding band” felt “totally comfortable” in Tokyo and Kobe, even if communication was sometimes difficult.
The human warmth that carried the sessions can be heard and felt on the two records - in sometimes melancholy, sometimes quietly drifting away, sometimes freaky pieces.
Markus Acher is a sought-after expert on Japanese indie music
The Achers' love and knowledge of Japan has developed over the years.
Markus Acher (56) is, as his younger brother puts it, “a total specialist in Japanese indie music”;
He has already put together several samplers of alternative pop from Japan in this country.
They also always bring bands from the Far East to the Munich “Alien Disko Festival”, which the Acher brothers curate (formerly in the Kammerspiele, now in the Volkstheater).
By the way, the two of them are currently preparing an “Alien Disco” in St. Pölten, Austria.
“Pop and avant-garde from the most remote corners of the music world,” is how the local cultural festival “Tangente” advertises this premiere.
And adds: “Of course, a performance by 'The Notwist' shouldn't be missed!”.
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Back to the “Wedding Band” and their Japanese friends: The “Zündfunk” of the radio station Bayern 2 recently made “The Orchestra In The Sky” “Album of the Week” – because it is “great art and at the same time the documentation of a special cultural project”.
“We feel the magic of the sessions,” writes the “Zündfunk” team and is touched by the “mutual listening and engaging with each other.”
It really is exactly what the world needs right now.
The album
“The Orchestra In The Sky” by “Hochzeitskapelle & Japanese Friends” has been released as a double CD and LP by Alien Transistor/Morr Music.
More information: hochzeitskapelle.bandcamp.com