This
legendary german folkrock-duo more or less invented the cosmic-folk genre.
They started busking in the streets together in the mid-sixties. In 1967
Bernd
Witthuser became the manager of the 'Podium'
folk club in Essen. His greatest achievement as a manager was the manager of the 'Internationale Essener
Songtage' in Autumn
1968. Walter Westrupp
was from 1965 to 1968 the leader of Night Reveller Skiffle
Group. He
learnt to play bassoon and trumpet in a bassoon ensemble, did his first
recordings with a choir and played in a baroque ensemble. Lieder
von Vampiren, Nonnen und Toten (1970) was
in fact issued as a Witthuser solo- album, although Westrupp participated
on all the recordings. It was the third release on Ohr,
one of those that had a balloon attached to a cut-in on the front
cover. Trips und Traume
(1971) was their second album, an enormous development on the first one
musically. To describe music of the German equivalent to the Incredible
String Band one often used the phrase 'cosmic-folk'. The album had
outstanding tracks like "Orienta" and the all-time 'weed' anthem
"Nimm Einen Joint, Mein Freund". Der
Jesuspilz (1972) was a strange concept
album, tending toward a more progressive-folk direction, with more
instrumental work. Bauer Plath
(1972) featured guests from Wallenstein and was more varied in nature,
perhaps the Witthuser & Westrupp album that was closest to
conventional progressive rock. Something seemed to
break the cosmic due's relationship and in 1973 they went their separate
ways.
A retrospective double
live set from different concerts in 1973
appeared on Kosmische Musik as their last offering.
Westrupp later went on
to record with
Baier-Westrupp
and his Skiffle&Jug-Band Walter h.c.
Meier Pumpe ,
meanwhile Witthuser started a career as street-musician in Italy within
the duo Otto & Bärnelli.
In 2003 he started a solo career playing the old W&W-songs.
In 2004-2005 Walter
Westrupp produced the
DVD Als wäre es
gestern erst gewesen.
90 minutes movies and pictures - old material out
of the w&w-archive.
It includes movies from TV-Shows and documentations, showing
the way of W&W 1968-1973,
also - after this time - Bernd with Otto&Bärnelli
and Walter with his Walter h.c.Meier Pumpe. Special highlights on the DVD
are films shot in 1968:
1. the story of a W&W-invention: the sensationel " tea
bag heaving mashine"
(enlightenment, creation and examples of use) and
2. Walters solo-concert
for electric coffee mill
with rockband and orchestra. Since
2000 Walter Westrupp is writing in an never finished multimedia
online-book "68er
nach Noten" in
which he tells the story of W&W and about the time between 1967-1973.
He recalls Hippies, Slobs, Krautrock, the International Essen Songdays 68,
the Fehmarn-festival 1970 on hand from stories, photos, films, soundfiles,
lyrics - and a lot
more: if your are interested look here (but sorry: it´s only on german) |