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Friedemann is a thoughtful, sensitive person who contemplates many things very intensely. As someone who knows him personally and appreciates him greatly, it is something very special for me to discuss his acoustic album.
Friedemann wrote and arranged the songs by himself. There is some bass, drum, and vocal support, which is used very gently, including from his good friend and brother in spirit, Conny Ochs.
The album is very calm, contemplative, and one could even say melancholic.
Friedemann's voice has been captured very well by Janko Moede, giving it the space it needs to unfold its effect.
The themes of the songs are diverse, the lyrics sometimes a bit cumbersome, but each song offers access; however, one must be willing to engage with it.
The song “Vogel,” for which a video has also been released, is the first song that was released in advance. A very strong song, sad and realistic... because people are blind. A song that almost brings me to tears.
With “Nichts können,” things continue on a somewhat more positive note, which might be good, as “Vogel” is truly a song that can bring you down. “Nichts Können” is a song that gives strength. A song that could also be a bit of the soundtrack of Friedemann's life. “Daneben” is the almost logical continuation of “Nichts Können,” a song that is just as personal from Friedemann. However, one can also find oneself in this song. With our otherness, we are never part of society, never part of the mass. This is important and right, but it also costs a lot of energy. When the singer of C.O.R. records a song with the following lines, he gives the strength needed for one's daily otherness:
We don't really belong,
we always stand on the edge or outside,
if this is our fate,
then we laugh in its face.
However, Friedemann is by no means someone who presents his otherness as superiority per se. He is far too intelligent for that.
Friedemann is someone who thinks deeply and wants to share his thoughts with the world. Friedemann still has hope, somewhere deep inside, and this hope is the strength that keeps him... and us alive. When you meet someone like Conny, who seems like a soulmate, it's no wonder that he dedicates a song to him. It often happens that you are right in the middle of things and yet not really part of it.
Friedemann puts so much of himself into each song that anyone who listens to the songs can find themselves in it, or at least understand the lyrics.
Friedemann has chosen a life that is far from the norm, in the eyes of those who set the norm. And we, who are supposedly so different, also set the norm; this is made clear by the man from Rügen in “Was,” and he is right. Individualism is not a uniform, and a mohawk is not necessarily punk.
With “Uhr vs. Zeit,” Friedemann releases a very personal, thoughtful, powerful, combative, and (self)reflective album.
An album that gets under your skin.
“Uhr vs. Zeit” is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. It is the first album in years that gives me goosebumps from the very first song.
I could write pages about every song from “Uhr vs. Zeit.”
“Uhr vs. Zeit” is available in addition to the CD version in a cardboard cover with all the lyrics, also as a stylish 180g vinyl record in a gatefold cover.
And if everything goes well, there will also be concerts by Friedemann this year.
