Robert Coyne Out Of Your Tree (CD)

(Meyer Records) 11 tracks, digipack

Everything floats and smolders here, from the first note. On the eleven songs of "Out Of Your Tree", which according to their producer are not subject to any apparent concept, at least in terms of content, a very unique atmosphere is immediately created - sometimes relaxed, sometimes brooding, sometimes mysterious. The listener is immediately drawn into a maelstrom of repetition as simple as it is demanding and mystical, driving and somehow not of this world. "Out Of Your Tree" is after "Woodland Conspiracy" (2010) the second solo album by Robert Coyne on MEYER RECORDS, the music label that had recorded with him and the drum legend Jaki Liebezeit between 2013 and 2016 three excitingly intense works, which were equally strongly characterized by a magnetic-magical rhythm, without the melody with recognition value had completely given its place.


When Liebezeit, who played with Chet Baker or the Manfred Schoof Quintet before he earned cult status as a founding member and drummer of the avant-garde band CAN, but was also a welcome guest behind the shooting gallery with Jan Wobble, the Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Brian Eno and many others, died in January 2017 at the age of 78, his client Coyne, who was three decades younger, first had to reorient himself creatively to a large extent.

"First of all, it remains to be said," explains the Londoner, "that my new work is a bow to Jaki. His passing may not have come as a huge surprise to me. But it was a shock because of its finality. Liebezeit and I were not friends in the classical sense; he was not very talkative. Instead, communication with this lovely old gentleman took place on a different, soul-mate level."

While the three Coyne/Liebezeit collaborations were more committed to the avant-garde, this time the Brit sticks more to the meditative-hypnotic. The whole thing sometimes reminds of the folk-mystic John Martyn, sometimes of the currently popular jazz-folk musician Ryley Walker, sometimes of the Out Of This World rocker Jeff Buckley. "And please don't forget Suicide in the references, they've been my big heroes for a long time," laughs Coyne.

In fact, on "Out Of Your Tree" you can hear quite a lot of affinity to the sound of the revolutionary New York bizarre duos founded in 1971. Vocals meet gloriously monotonous drums, guitar meets electronics. Coyne recorded his new production equally as a two-piece, along with renowned drummer Werner Steinhauser (Kevin Coyne Band). "Although I again preferred to play acoustic guitar this time, at the same time I worked a lot with tape echo effects," the lanky Brit tells us. "With this machine I can create a very emotional sound. Purely because it's not too easy to control. It's precisely in its unpredictability that the thing is deeply human."
Musically as well as in terms of content, Robert Coyne "liked to be guided by melancholy, I'm quite familiar with that," he sighs audibly. "Lyrically, isolation is a weighty theme on Out Of Your Tree. I'm a thoroughly sentimental contemporary. Fortunately, I'm not lonely - instead, my beloved wife is the "partner in isolation." And has been for a good ten years."
Robert Coyne is the filius of the English blues rock icon Kevin. The senior moved to Nuremberg in 1985 for the love of a Franconian woman, where he died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2004 at just 60. The junior discovers few parallels between his own music and that of his producer: "We did have an intimate relationship, but I am more connected to the quieter sounds, he could love to get louder with his raspy voice. And yet, subconsciously, my sound is probably inspired by Daddy's work. Because he implanted in me the love of creativity, but above all of individuality. Would be nice if his unsteady, daring spirit lived on in my songs."

In general, the young Coyne sees in the estate of his highly revered in the music scene "in the best sense of the word shirt-sleeved, sweaty, feverish blues rock of the old school," he says. "I, on the other hand, am an artist who is constantly trying to change creatively. An artist who shies away from visionary approaches shouldn't be tackling new projects. Being creative and taking your job seriously has always meant a willingness to change. Sometimes radically, if you like."

And beyond that, what is Robert Coyne's main concern with his work? "I want to transfer energy. Create a special atmosphere. Take the listener on what I hope will be a special journey. Would be nice if I give him with "Out Of Your Tree" an experience that he will not forget so quickly."