Is it a one-man band, an orchestra, a traveling circus or a sextet? It is difficult to say. Hildegard Lernt Fliegen’s performance is not only about the music; it’s experimenting with theatrical elements, interacting with the audience, balancing between operetta and beat boxing and spicing it all up with humour.
By Ana Pervan
On Thursday at 6pm, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen stepped on the stage and started to spread the positive vibes across Marina Pavilion.
These six Swiss guys with unique sound have won over the audience by showing some advanced Estonian language skills. After the greeting, Andreas Schaerer, Andreas Tschopp, Benedikt Reising, Christoph Steiner, Marco Müller and Matthias Wenger got the full attention of (unfortunately) not so big auditorium. Never the less, the half empty concert hall of Marina Pavilion didn’t stop the guys to give the best they could. Everything happened spontaneously; unexpected beat boxing solos, mixture between playing on everyday items and music instruments, coughing into the microphone, vocalist’s funny dance moves, etc.
One is sure, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen’s good stage chemistry has very quickly spread to the audience, who has at one point started to sing and clap along. People were infected by their positive energy.
Somehow 90 minutes of pure entertainment flew by faster than a blink. The audience left the concert hall positively shocked and not quite sure what had happened on the stage. It was like a movie about the traveling circus that makes everyone in the auditorium part of their performance.
Except the well undercover improvisation, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen has performed some of their own compositions, such as “Suite for murders and drinkers”, “The angry man”, “Knock code 3” and “Seldom was covered with snow and an old oak”. This long entitled song was inspired by the Godfather’s movie character Peter Clemenza and except the interesting background story; it was performed in quite unusual way. The drummer Christoph Steiner used typewriter as the beat machine. At one point he was typing his solo on the machine!
Everything Hildegard Lernt Fliegen did on the stage looked like a storytelling process; each and every song was somehow connected to the previous one. Do you remember the typewriter which was used as an instrument? Well, the words typed on the sheet of paper were used as lyrics for the next improvisation. I am sure it would have put a smile on the saddest person’s face.
Not only that the concert has finished with a huge applause and an encore, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen applauded back to the audience and gave a special thanks to organizing committee and the Jazzkaar for inviting them to Estonia. Something is telling me that this won’t be their last performance in Tallinn.
Hildegard Lernt Fliegen performed in Marina Pavilion on 25th of April 2013.
Hildegard Lernt Fliegen is:
Andreas Schaerer, vocals
Andreas Tschopp, trombone, tuba
Benedikt Reising, baritone and alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Christoph Steiner, drums, percussion, marimba
Marco Müller, upright bass
Matthias Wenger, alto and soprano saxophone