Abi Wallenstein Abi Wallenstein's Spirit Of The Blues (2-LP)

New album by Abi Wallenstein with Georg Schroeter, Marc Breitfelder and Martin Röttger The blues musicians Abi Wallenstein, Georg Schroeter, Marc Breitfelder and Martin Röttger have known each other for over 30 years and have played countless concerts together as "Abi Wallenstein's Spirit of the Blues" in Germany and abroad, in addition to their many other formations. After so many years there is now finally a joint CD. The CD was recorded in the Kiel studio of Yonatan Pandelaki during the lockdown in May 2020 under difficult recording conditions "Corona" Konform. Originally intended only as a "livestream", the band around Abi Wallenstein played a live concert in the studio for over 1 hour without interruptions, but not on a stage in the same room, but each separately in different rooms of the studio. "This was a completely unfamiliar situation for us" describes Georg Schroeter. "We are used to throwing the "balls" to each other on call, or better, with eye contact since this music is improvised for the most part. 

Since we couldn't see each other while playing, this wasn't possible, so we had to concentrate on listening. Normally, when recording in the studio, you play the pieces several times in a row and then pick out the best ones, but this time it was a net without a bottom and nothing could be repeated - just like at a live concert. After all, the whole world was watching on the Internet." But the joy of playing was so intense, magical moments were created that were thankfully recorded in studio quality, and it was immediately clear to everyone involved that the new album had just been created. 

When the well-known music editor Christian Pfarr from SWR1 heard the recordings for the first time, he spontaneously said: "If you had to explain to aliens what blues is, you would play them this album. This is blues in all its facets." You can hear 11 tracks, three of which are Abi Wallenstein's own compositions, as well as new interpretations such as "Long As I Can See The Light" by John Fogerty or "Kiss" by Prince. The crowning finale is the wonderful title by Leadbelly "Goodnight Irene". 

 By the way, the production costs were financed by the many fans through a "Startnext" crowdfunding campaign.