Dieter Meier likes the uncertainy of live performance

Great Googly Moogly! Close, personal friend Ron Kane [“solving your musical problems since 1958…”], just alerted me to this as it was nowhere near my radar at all. Ron had become a Yello fan in recent years. I was a fan/collector since 1980, but admittedly, have lapsed in my ardor in the last two decades. The last contiguous album I have is 1991’s “Baby.” It was buying the “Jungle Bill” CD single from that opus and hearing faceless dance music, that cooled my enthusiasm. When I bought their “Do It” single from the following “Zebra” album, the writing was clearly on the wall.

Yello were now consciously aiming their material for the vagaries of the contemporary dance market, and lost me along the way. Dance music and I had little in common during that lost decade. Concurrent with this development was the simultaneous occurrence that it became pretty hard to buy Yello music, even on import, so I let it slide.

<insert 14 year gap>

It was sometime in 2006 when I was a member of the wonderful LaLa website that [lightly] monetized CD trading among its members so that I could swap a CD and pay $1 to get something new in return. That year saw me pursuing many disparate threads, but when a “modern” Yello CD became available, I took a chance on it.

1997’s “Pocket Universe,” didn’t inspire me. Even for a dollar. Most of it was faceless, instrumental tracks constructed by resident genius Boris Blank. It was then that I decided that Deiter Meier might have been the decisive factor in my enjoyment of Yello through the years. The wondrously strange creative furrows he fearlessly plowed, for me, gave Yello that element x necessary to enchant me over the years, and it was pretty thin on the ground on this release. There was even one track where a woman sang lead vocals! Now that I look, it was Stina Nordenstam, who I thought I was unfamiliar with when encountering two of her songs on the last Claudia Brücken album! Given that I had this in the Record Cell for just days before offering it for trade on LaLa, I hope that no one would look askance at me!

It transpires that Meier has been working on this solo album for several years now, and it will get a release on April 11, 2014. Meier has a dedicated website with good background on the project. Some of this music has been performed live in Europe in the last year or two before it was committed to wax and disc. Nackt, Ben Lauber, and T.Raumschmeire have jointly produced and musicians as disparate as Thomas [The Bad Seeds] Wydler on drums and Swiss improvisational violinist Tobias Preisig have contributed to the playing. There is a very healthy blend of acoustic and electric instruments to be found here and I can’t wait to hear the results.

Staatskat | GER | CD | 2014 | AKT749CD

Dieter Meier: Out Of Chaos GER CD [2014]

1. Lazy Night
2. Paradise Game
3. Busy Going Nowhere
4. Night Porter
5. Loveblind
6. The Ritual
7. Another Day
8. Jimmy
9. Buffoon
10. Fat Fly
11. Annabelle
12. Schueffele

You may pre-order signed copies of the CD or the LP/CD combo pack here and I’ve already committed for the full monty! The cost is modest for the thrills it will undoubtedly provide! Can we sample the wares? Signs point to “Yes!”

Now that sounded very tasty indeed! Some similarities to Yello are apparent, but for the most part, the music sets its sights elsewhere, much to my delight. Also of note is the fact that Dieter Meier, at 69, is helming his first world tour, since the notion of  performing live is what drove this project from the beginning. What about those tour dates?

Dieter Meier | Out Of Chaos | 2014 World Tour

May 6, 2014 | LEIPZIG | UT CONNEWITZ
May 7, 2014 | BERLIN | BERGHAIN (OFFICIAL ALBUM-RELEASE-SHOW)
May 18, 2014 | NEW YORK
May 23, 2014 | HAMBURG | MOJO CLUB
May 28, 2014 | MÜNCHEN | FREIHEIZHALLE
May 29, 2014 | WIEN | WUK
June 5, 2014 | FRANKFURT | BATSCHKAPP
June 6, 2014 | KÖLN | GLORIA

Hmmm. Only an undisclosed NYC date for this continent. Boy, I’d sure love to be there, but it doesn’t look remotely possible. But don’t let that stop you. These events are certain to be well attended by Yello fans with more money than myself. The most I could hope for would be the Minds of Moogfest® nabbing Meier for a set in my city, but in all likelihood, they’d probably opt for a Boris Blank set instead. That their loss as Meier is a highly idiosyncratic and compelling artist who is definitely one to watch in 2014.

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