30 MINUTES
30 MINUTES
BEFORE
CD
MAY 2011
REPLIKA (REP 01)
30 Minutes is a live recording of Danish post-punk act Before’s legendary support concert for New Order at Saltlageret, Copenhagen, on May 17, 1981. This was founding member Martin Hall’s last performance with Before.
The concert was released on cd and as download exactly 30 years later, on May 17, 2011.
1. Intro (0:59)
2. Metal Dreams (3:21)
3. Alle Fangerne (3:27)
4. Special Surprise (2:29)
5. Surrender (3:53)
6. Beautiful Crisis (2:31)
7. Unexpected Emotions (3:13)
8. Wasteful Hours (6:30)
9. Whip on My Shoulder (3:59)
10. Wasteful Hours (Demo) (3:19)
11. Alle Fangerne (Demo) (2:37)
12. Surrender (Demo) (3:46)
13. Beautiful Crisis (Demo) (2:18)
Fritz “Fatal” Bonfils: Vocals
Lars Bo “Tolle” Tolstoy Jacobsen: Bass
Martin Hall: Guitar
Michael Rasmussen: Drums
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Cover photo: Territorium
Live photos: Søren Svendsen
Before was formed in September 1980 by singer and figurehead Fritz ”Fatal” Bonfils and a 17-year-old Martin Hall on guitar. Together with drummer Michael Rasmussen (later The Sandmen) and bassist Flemming Andersen (Art in Disorder) the group played its first concert in Rockmaskinen on Christiania in November the same year. After this concert Lars Bo “Tolle” Tolstoy Jacobsen undertook the task of playing bass.
Before’s support act for New Order represents a landmark in Danish post-punk history. One ting is the band’s line-up at the time (Hall having already established his own group Ballet Mécanique), but obviously far more relevant is the outstanding musical performance on the night itself. What you hear on 30 Minutes is the sound of a far more brutal band than the one you experience on the later debut album, A Wish of Life, released during the summer of 1982.
Before was, without the shadow of a doubt, one of the best live acts on the Danish post-punk scene. At the New Order support gig you’ll witness a sonic savagery never really captured on any of the group’s following studio recordings.
All live-tracks are recorded directly via the sound mixer at the event which means that the recordings are as good as the possibilities of the period allowed. As an interesting side note, New Order’s Peter Hook assisted the band with the live mix on the evening.
Apart from the concert 30 Minutes also contains four likewise never before released studio demos recorded a month before the event.
APPARENTLY ALL THE SAME (SPECIAL EDITION)
APPARENTLY ALL THE SAME (SPECIAL EDITION)
UNDER FOR
CD
FEBRUARY 2009 (ORIGINAL RELEASE MAY 1984)
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 13)
Apparently All the Same was the only album Martin Hall released with Under For. The title remains one of his most significant releases during the eighties.
Separate to the original recordings the 2009 special edition of the album also contains Under For’s legendary concert at The ISCM World Music Days in October 1983, a radical performance that bears some resemblance to Hall’s canonized work Inskription.
1 Imagine Focus (5:12)
2. Meanwhile (6:45
)
3. Form (6:17
)
4. Theme Remains Theme (5:50
)
5. Less (5:00)
6. In the Prism of Evil (7:25
)
7. Consecutive Lines (7:07)
8. Module (2:26
)
9. Prism (4:33
)
10. Subliminal Transfer (3:51)
11. Mass and Conduct (7:25
)
12. The Third Room (2:29
)
13. Admission (5:56
)
14. An Ending (6:39)
IMAGINE FOCUS
Just a touch of lost
Burning as always
As it was, as it is
And eventually
Just in trust, nothing more
So suddenly
From beginning to end
While this centreless present reflects itself
In inverted moves of an obsessional stage
In a stream of light from unreachable marks
Something long ago in everlasting terms
In a crossfade of untitled reasons
What it turned out to be
And occasionally
Everything in my hands
So totally
In the heat of the touch
Like the way we were
Beyond love under will
Suddenly away in these only words
By mistakes again into changing links
In this compromise of dependence then
Stage by stage, in exposure
Still so timeless in this life release
Nearness hidden in casual moves
Watch the changes and recall
Touch through another focus
Mark perfection twice
With or without purpose
Still tons against tons
Carefully mistaken in retrospective fear
Restrain it all while I imagine focus
MEANWHILE
While origin thins and narcosis thickens
It’s so easy to be mistaken
Now and then so absolute
When I phase out in light
While I synchronize reality and drug
In just another move of make-believe
With life in close-ups, so deliriously true
But only allusions to help me
In this concept of illusion
Cool, shining, clear
FORM
Apparently all the same
Like never before
Hidden in the contrast
The distance, the pulse, the reflection
Such awareness in every move
The nearer the source, the purer the stream
Direct to the centre
Remember the thin lines
Why regret what something became
We’re all “fascists” anyway
So much earlier
In these ages
This fetish of time
The making of the swastika
The titles of the symbols
The force, the form, the love as the core
I need the power of understanding
I need the power
In bleached vision
Find it all again
But no nearer than the touch allows
And inside time, in the media
All weaved in days
The patterns seem so unreal
One single point where it all lies
THEME REMAINS THEME
Just like the trademark of nowhere
So careless, so tender
Please don’t forget it, but don’t mark your life by remembering
Crossing the past in these present decisions all the time
Failing to master the techniques of knowledge in my own life
And in this metamorphosis of love
Every breath I take contains it all, but remains formless in this life-synthesis
Once belief weaved me in the finest stuff I have ever known
But now the touch feels so graceless in this chemistry of fear
From the love
LESS
No longer there
In mantras of anaesthesia, as a sacrifice of these methods
Gone, but not forgotten
Hidden in the parallels
So deep within the doubt, in these shapes of hatred
From circle into circle
In the touch that never ends
In beginnings
So tenderly aware, in cover of dreams
In endless sequences beyond all the love
Just like nothing has changed, a moment ago
In the glow that deepens all shadows
Touching the light for the first time
The last time
IN THE PRISM OF EVIL
Another burst of desire in the privilege of a dying race
In this concept of fear, this misguided potential
The emotional anonymity reflects itself in vision, document and word
In this conjectured freedom, this intellectual pornography
It’s yours forever
It has been written and you’re the only one to know
In this framework of prostitution
Cynicism and self-hate intensify the emotional fascism
The one-dimensional sexuality of this culture
A survival that makes life historical but dimensions alone
In these sacred words of form
In this devaluation of the enigma
And while love crystallizes in the outline of the focus
In the diagrams of the scars
In the libido of death
This associated reality marks the difference
Between the soul and the language
Between the art and the artificial
After two thousand years of misunderstood Christianity
Into this final phase, the trauma of dualism
Where the dream of the free will becomes the torture of freedom
Where the taboo of fear becomes the monopoly of death
This is the art of desire
The art of decline
Understanding is decay
The terminal disease
The end of evolution
It makes me …
Berit Spælling: Harp
Lena Walsh: Harmony vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, bass, violin, tapes, horns
Michael Karshøj: Drums
Per Hendrichsen: Treatments, guitar
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Martin Hall
Apparently All the Same was one of the few Scandinavian releases from the period that was given positive coverage by British music magazines such as New Musical Express and Sounds at the time of its release.
The re-release marked the album’s 25th anniversary.
Track 1–6 recorded and mixed at Easy Sound Studios, January/February 1984. Mix assisted by Freddy Frank. Track 7–14 recorded live at The ISCM World Music Days at Musikhuset (Aarhus, Denmark) on October 30, 1983. The 2009 re-release was remastered by Johnny Stage.
HOSPITAL CAFETERIAS
HOSPITAL CAFETERIAS
MARTIN HALL
CD
FEBRUARY 2009
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 15)
Hospital Cafeterias, an album featuring a wide range of guest vocalists and performers such as legendary Danish electronica performer Else Marie Pade and members of Efterklang, was met with a line of top ratings from the Danish music press.
With the album’s mix of classical compositions and electronic sounds, recitations, opera and music hall, the general opinion was that Martin Hall had managed to create one of the best and most complex albums in his career so far.
1. – (0:39)
2. 40 Versions of the Time Before (2:38)
3. Das Doppel Meiner Selbst (2:15)
4. No Thanks and Then Some (2:28)
5. Eden Cinema (0:59)
6. So Much for Nothing (1:35)
7. Lied Zwei (3:03)
8. P.O. (2:36)
9. Lavender Grey (3:37)
10. Tinfoil (3:36)
11. Wohnung (2:58)
12. Brother Spare a Moment (4:13)
13. Soft Tissue Damage (3:10)
14. Sob Story (3:46)
15. Wartesaal (1:56)
16. At The Lido (Helium High) (2:31)
17. A Case of Epic Needs (2:46)
18. Nætterne er så Lyse (3:09)
40 VERSIONS OF THE TIME BEFORE
Falling asleep on a long distance flight
The images in the still of the night
A scent of waste
The sight of your face
A flicker of uneasiness
Will I be able to forget now?
Nurses and young girls in a row
How can I ever let you go now?
Like 40 versions of the time before
The ballerinas at my feet
The connoisseurs out in the street
Oh you mean nothing to me
Just try to tell yourself the tale again
You tell yourself it’s all the same again
The city lights that came alive
The stars that fell down from the sky
You turned around within the light
Your skin so frail and lily-white
The centre of the Western world
A glamorous confusion zipped
Upon the parting of your lips
Intangible as every breath
As inescapable as death
Oh it means nothing to me
NO THANKS AND THEN SOME
Young, thin and already faded
A whispering shine
Boats drift along silent rivers
Fall from the sky
No thanks and then some
It’s too far away
No thanks and then some
Your sentimental waste
Clean like a face in the morning
Lips made of air
Cream-coloured light falling gently
But nobody’s there
EDEN CINEMA
There’s a silent craving
In the ballroom of your eyes
Like a face map of desire
I don’t know what more to find
In tomorrow’s tabloids
Down in Eden Cinema
Run around in circles
Never seem to find the place you are
SO MUCH FOR NOTHING
I know a girl with a smile on fire
Dressing up like a memory
Never seen the things she’s hiding
Hope I’m not one of them
So much for nothing
Is all I hear her say
So much for nothing
Feeling so
Feeling sad
LIED ZWEI
Sad whisper
Told unforgiven
Lied towards
I reflected yours
At all to feel
This too has caused
Curse of need
Sand of bleeding
Painful doubt
Lies of love
They have killed me beneath me
Nor likely
Reach for fall
I will not fall
High will save
Gutter’ish feel
You have to kneel
Before and for
Nothingness doomed
Sweet-lain or dried
Conquership or
Conquered emotions
Would you lie to me?
P.O.
I’ve seen your face a thousand times
I’ve seen you hide within the crowd
I feel you run within my blood
But dreams are never quite enough
Not enough
All I want to believe in
Is the look in your eyes
All I want to believe in
Is your sigh
Let me stay here forever
Let me stay here tonight
Let us stay here together
For a while
No one knows you better than me
No one knows you better than me
TINFOIL
Her skin is like tinfoil
She glitters and breaks
Hand-written silver
The lines that she makes
If she didn’t say so
I wouldn’t believe her
If she didn’t say so
I’d feel no relief
A case of symmetry
Between her heart and me
Where I want to be
Is by her side
A case of symmetry
Between herself and me
Where I want to be
Is by her side
WOHNUNG
Die Wohnung war stockdunkel. Ich schaltete eine Lampe an. Ihre Lider waren schwer, entzündet wegen Schlafmangels; sie betrachtete mich mit äußerstem Misstrauen. Die kleinen Bewegungen ihres Kopfes erinnerten mich an diejenigen einer Kuh an einem Zaun, und ihres Blickes bestechlicher Glanz erfüllte mein Herz mit Traurigkeit.
Die Stimme war die einer Fremden. Sie sprach zu mir wie zu einem sechzigjährigem Mann, obwohl ich damals erst 37 Jahre alt war.
Ihr Ton war voller Unterstellungen, es war schwer, die Bedeutung der Wörter zu unterscheiden. Vielleicht war es der Wein, vielleicht der Inhalt.
Längst war alle Feinheit, Finesse dem Verschleiß der Gewohnheiten gewichen.
BROTHER SPARE A MOMENT
Brother spare a moment
Sister lend an ear
People show compassion
For the cross I bear
No one seems to notice
No one seems to care
For the broken-hearted
Lovers in despair
Say you feel it too
You sentimental fool
Don’t you know it’s true?
Every word I’m telling you
Brothers born as strangers
Brothers born to hate
Goaded on like creatures
Drained of any faith
How I want to free them
Set their souls alight
Turn their rage and fury
Into battle cries
Don’t you know it’s true?
Living by these bullring rules
Say you feel it too
Stranded on a ship of fools
Don’t you know it’s true?
We’re sentimental fools
Say you feel it too
Come and share my lonely view
SOB STORY
Hide away
With somebody else by my side
It could have been anyone
It could have been you
A moment ago
Whatever you do
Whatever you say
It won’t be the same
Just won’t be the same
For someone like you
It’s all just a game
I guess it’s always the same
Whatever the stakes
It’s a reason to fail
A reason to hate
WARTESAAL
Das bemalte Gesicht mit der kessen Gangart lachte wieder laut und körnig auf. Gut versteckt in einem Kamelhaarmantel mit Perlmuttknöpfen wirkte sie gleichzeitig zerbrechlich und heiter. Das Licht im Wartesaal, braun wie Suppe, bedrückte sie offenbar, denn wie eine schuldbewusste Verrückte murmelte sie jetzt unzusammenhängendes Zeug über alles und nichts, besonders Letzteres.
Aus der Sicht eines Filmkritikers war ihre Leistung unvergleichlich.
AT THE LIDO (HELIUM HIGH)
Blue eyes, blue eyes
Blue like all of the sky
Blue eyes, blue eyes
Climb your helium high
All unbroken
Windows open
Blow you out
Climb the airwaves
On the staircase
Sliding down
Blue eyes, blue eyes
Feel the needles and pins
Blue eyes, blue eyes
Don’t know where to begin
A CASE OF EPIC NEEDS
Sad and stupid
Perverted Cupid
An undisputed case of epic needs
Parade the frozen
Conceal the broken
Just a token of my epic needs
Never thought I’d ever feel the same
No rhyme or reason will capture this feeling
She said “free all angels”
With a nervous laughter
In the still of night
Did she ask me?
Did she love me?
I guess I’ll never know
Forever
The painted smiles and the sweet delight
It’s over
Falling like rain
All over again
Still awake in the morning
“Exceptional: In the wild growing Martin Hall catalogue Hospital Cafeterias is both a concentrate as well as a climax in his production.”
( * * * * * )
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
“A varied and beautiful album: Hall balances self-assured on the knife edge between decadence and humility, to a degree where you can be nothing but fascinated.”
( * * * * * )
Soundvenue (the Danish equivalent to Q Magazine)
”Best album since 2001. Outstanding.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)
“One of the best albums in his career.”
Geiger (the Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
“Hall is a pioneer who still searches for the absolute limit.”
( * * * * * )
Undertoner
“Magnificent!”
( * * * * * )
MetroXpress
”Grandiose and generous.”
( * * * * )
Skopet
”An extraordinary and spectacular experience. Wow!!!!”
Voxhall
”Desolaten Atmosphäre und desperaten Intensität.”
Grenzwellen
“Hospital Cafeterias is a masterpiece! A beautiful masterpiece!”
Ernesto Tomasini
Andrea Pellegrini: Mezzo-soprano
Casper Clausen: vocals, keyboards
Christian Skeel: Piano
Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial: Vocals
Else Marie Pade: Electronics
Herbert Zeichner: Voice
Johnny Stage: Guitar
Katja Andersson: Vocals
Knud Odde: Vocals
Marcel de Sade: Piano
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Mikkel Meyer: Keyboards
Miss Fish: Vocals
Sara Fiil: Vocals
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Volkmar Zimmermann: Guitar
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Territorium
Hospital Cafeterias has been described as a salon record – as a thunderstorm of clashes, ideas and words that do not nervously seek recognition or intelligibility. Several songs and recitations take place in German and classical score music plays a central role throughout the record.
As Kim Skotte wrote in Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian) where the record received five out of six stars:
“Tableaux staged as flickering soundscapes. A kind of soulful drunkenness flickers on the eardrum via ghost phones, European train drumming and electronica crackling as today’s ectoplasm. It starts with a lonely voice and it ends with one. Voices in the night desperately seek each other, but the room is large and the hospital corridors endless.”
The first video made for the album was “P.O.” where Martin Hall collaborates with Danish electronica legend Else Marie Pade (85 years old at the time).
The video, however, was banned by YouTube and removed from the site a few days after its premiere due to its “offensive nature” – something that in hindsight might seem a a bit ironic, especially since current videos featuring executions of civilians and standard sexist pop behaviour caused no censorship.
Hospital Cafeterias features a line of guest vocalists and other contributors on each separate track. The index goes like this:
1. “ – ” (Anonymous)
2. “40 Versions of the Time Before” (Martin Hall feat. Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial)
3. “Das Doppel Meiner Selbst” (Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial feat. Christian Skeel)
4. “No Thanks and Then Some” (Martin Hall feat. Mikkel Meyer)
5. “Eden Cinema” (Andrea Pellegrini)
6. “So Much for Nothing” (Martin Hall feat. Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial)
7. “Lied Zwei” (Sara Fiil feat.Volkmar Zimmermann and Mikkel Meyer)
8. “P.O.” (Katja Andersson feat. Else Marie Pade)
9. “Lavender Grey” (Knud Odde)
10. “Tinfoil” (Martin Hall feat. Christian Skeel)
11. “Wohnung” (Herbert Zeichner feat. Casper Clausen)
12. “Brother Spare a Moment” (Andrea Pellegrini)
13. “Sob Story” (Martin Hall feat. Miss Fish and Mikkel Meyer)
14. “Soft Tissue Damage” (The Vista Dome Ensemble)
15. “Wartesaal” (Herbert Zeichner feat. Johnny Stage)
16. “At The Lido (Helium High)” (Andrea Pellegrini feat. Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial)
17. “A Case of Epic Needs” (Martin Hall feat. Marcel de Sade)
18. “Nætterne er så Lyse” (Anonymous)
The record is written, arranged, conducted and produced by Martin Hall except as follows:
“Das Doppel Meiner Selbst“: Lyrics written by Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial, piano sequence by Christian Skeel. Arranged by Martin Hall. “No Thanks and Then Some“, “Sob Story“ + “Nætterne er så Lyse“: Electronical post-production made by Mikkel Meyer. “So Much for Nothing“ + “Tinfoil“: Orchestral arrangement written by Christian Skeel. “Lied Zwei“: Guitar arrangement written by Volkmar Zimmermann, vocal interpretation by Sara Fiil. Original recording made by Peter Helms, post-production and remix by Mikkel Meyer. “P.O.“: Modulations performed by Else Marie Pade. Arranged by Martin Hall. “Lavender Grey“: Original song written by Knud Odde, orchestral arrangement by Martin Hall. “Wohnung“: Music written by Casper Clausen, mixed by Mads Brauer. “Brother Spare a Moment“, “Lavender Grey“ + “Wartesaal“: Guitar by Johnny Stage. “Soft Tissue Damage”: Written by Martin Hall and Ole Hansen, arranged by Ole Hansen. “Wartesaal“: Music written by Johnny Stage. “A Case of Epic Needs“: Piano arrangement by Marquis Marcel de Sade, orchestral arrangement written by Martin Hall. “Wohnung“ + “Wartesaal“: German translation made by Herbert Zeichner.
The video accompanying “40 Versions of the Time Before” is shot at a soirée held at Marquis Marcel de Sade’s residency on the night of the release:
CAMILLE (OST)
CAMILLE
MARTIN HALL
CD
JANUARY 2002
MNW (MNWCD374)
Martin Hall’s soundtrack to Gladsaxe Teater’s major 2002 launch, the theatrical production of Alexandre Dumas fils’ The Lady of the Camellias, received a line of overwhelming reviews at the time of its release. All newspapers and magazines unanimously gave the album top ratings and called it Hall’s perhaps best album ever.
The album itself is a very quiet, mostly instrumental piece of work.
1. Camille (3:52)
2. Replicator (2:44)
3. 48/40 (2:53)
4. Slow Code (2:57)
5. A Darkness Of Our Making (3:10)
6. Demimonde (3:43)
7. Gloria (2:14)
8. Frostpowder (3:00)
9. Lucid (3:18)
10. Clinical Detachment (2:14)
11. Trivia (2:55)
12. The Music Room (2:02)
13. Texture (2:06)
14. Late August (4:54)
48/40
48 hours of no sleep
40 days turning inside me
Lit inside of me
48 hours of all need
40 days frozen inside me
Sentimental to the core
Take it all and then some more
Always more
All these imitated dreams
Never know just what they mean
DEMIMONDE
Hey baby
Let’s go out tonight
I don’t wanna feel this way
Hey baby
Let’s go feel all right
Wear that smile on your face
Forget all your troubles
Forget them tonight
GLORIA
In gloria Dei Patris
In gloria Dei Patris
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Deus Dominus, et illuxit nobis
Omnes
Omnes
Deus
Hosanna in excelsis
Miserere nobis
Sempiternam
Sempiternam
TRIVIA
Strepere
Bagola
Gemito erotico
Fertile
Grazia
Fragola memoria
La vanità in segreto vivrà
Molcera
Nàusea
Fertile memoria
Morbido
Limpido
Strepero, silenzio
La vanità in segreto vivrà
LATE AUGUST
When the sky falls down
We’ll be turning every shadow on the ground
Close your eyes and feel the strain
Let me hold you
While we’re waiting for the rain
Falling
Falling inside me
A feeling that’s fading
A feeling in gold
Hiding
Deep inside me
A summer that’s turning
It’s turning away
Cry like a yearning
That’s burning
Far away
Cool the pressure
Inside us
From the day
”Crystalline beauty … Sublime listening.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)
“Some of the most spellbounding and immediately accessible music Hall has produced.”
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
“Hall is one of the most visionary and uncompromising artists in this country. A grand and strong listening experience.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest newspaper)
“Decadent, beautiful and mean.”
Berlingske Tidende (the Danish equivalent to The Times)
“A candidate to the very best album of the year. So good it hurts, so aching that it feels good.”
( * * * * * )
Nat & Dag (the Danish equivalent to The Face)
”One of Martin Hall’s most successful works of recent date.”
( * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine)
“An elegant and cultivated album.”
Ekstra Bladet (the Danish equivalent to The Sun)
“Grandiose and generous music.”
B.T. (the Danish equivalent to The Mirror)
“Album des Monats: Camille funktioniert auch ohne Bilder; Camille projiziert neue.”
(9/10)
Grenzwellen
Andrea Pellegrini: Mezzo-soprano
Katja Andersson: Vocals
Konsort: Choir
Martin Hall: Piano and electronics
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen
Camille has taken its title from the film version of the story from 1936 in which Greta Garbo stars in the leading role as Marguerite Gautier.
Among the soloists on the album is Danish-Italian mezzo-soprano Andrea Pellegrini who performs three arias out of the record’s all in all 14 compositions. Camille was recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany, with the orchestra The Vista Dome Ensemble and the choir Konsort. The end title “Late August” is performed by Saccharin vocalist Katja Andersson.
The leading parts of the theatre performance was played by Danish film star Stine Stengade and then intending upcomer Thure Lindhardt. Alexandre Dumas fils’ original manuscript was rewritten and directed for the stage by Flemming Enevold. The set design was made by Louise Beck of Operanord and all costumes were designed by the internationally acclaimed Danish designer Joergen Simonsen.
The play premiered at January 20, 2002 and ran until April 21.
METROPOLITAN SUITE
METROPOLITAN SUITE
MARTIN HALL/CHRISTIAN SKEEL
CD
MARCH 2001
MNW (MNWCD361)
Metropolitan Suite is a classically orchestrated work made in collaboration with visual artist Christian Skeel. The album was Martin Hall’s first release as a singer since his gold record achievement with Boel & Hall in 2000.
The album features 25 musical fin de siècle vignettes. Electrical instruments were banned on the recordings, a method of working that secured the album its fine air of Viennese exclusivity.
1. My Argentine Rose (1:52)
2. Opium and Sugar (1:10)
3. Stating the Obvious (1:17)
4. Plaza Flesh (2:31)
5. A Vulgar Display (1:42)
6. She’s My Goodbye Europe (0:58)
7. Unzipping the Abstract (1:11)
8. The Moon’s a Balloon (1:24)
9. The Mephisto Effect (1:36)
10. An American Tragedy (1:04)
11. Walking on Eggshells (1:59)
12. Natives of the Gutter (1:10)
13. Animal Emotion (2:04)
14. The Circus Comes to Town 2:18)
15. Young, Vain and Beautiful 1:52)
16. Pieces of Venice (1:23)
17. In Chambers (1:13)
18. Subject to Injury (0:51)
19. Pink and Fuzzy (1:03)
20. Eichstadt (2:23)
21. A Lonely Impulse of Delight (0:44)
22. Pristine (1:27)
23. Greed (2:10)
24. A Résume Highlight (0:35)
25. Tomorrow Belongs to Me (1:14)
MY ARGENTINE ROSE
She’s a cool breeze of discontent
She’s like a story that never ends
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose
See the twenties within her eyes
Eternal stardust that never dies
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose
She’s my melancholic maybe
Come and save me
Come and set me free
OPIUM AND SUGAR
Don’t flatter yourself
You died a long time ago
Opium and sugar helped me along
Now my heart is closed
To your bourgeois repertoire
So
I know your face
But no
I can’t relate
To the things that you say
STATING THE OBVIOUS
Hey
I don’t know what to do
I’ve
Fallen in love with you
Would you mind if I stated the obvious?
Would you mind if I did it again?
Would you mind if the sky fell apart?
Left us caught in the thunder and rain
Hey
I don’t know what to do
I’m
So in love with you
PLAZA FLESH
Show me your true desires
Show me your plaza flesh
Pictures of people dying
Seem to have no effect no more
I don’t really give as much as a toss anymore
I just want to hide away, never beg anymore
I don’t really count the days or the hours anymore
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone
Come now, inject the daylight
Come here, each little girl
At first, I just want to kiss you
But then I want it all
I want excess
Your plaza flesh
A VULGAR DISPLAY
I don’t know where to start
Never ever seen such a vulgar display
Losing mind, losing heart
Never ever want to fall in love again
No new sights to be seen
Sailing on the ocean of arrogant dreams
Chasing nightmares away
Trading any reason for lost yesterdays
Don’t spread your stars
Around this perfect moon
Don’t spread these stars
Around this perfect moon
SHE’S MY GOODBYE EUROPE
She’s my goodbye Europe
She’s my goodbye to the world
She’s my goodbye Berlin
She’s a goodbye to a thousand girls
UNZIPPING THE ABSTRACT
I believe in sincerity
I believe in it all
I believe in the good life
I believe in encores
I believe in forevermore
More and more
I’m unzipping the A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T
The libido-re-mi-fa-sol
THE MOON’S A BALLOON
The moon’s a balloon
That hangs in the room
The moon’s a balloon
All broken and blue
Where will it be tomorrow?
Where will it be by then?
Where will it be tomorrow?
Where will it end?
Where will it all end?
THE MEPHISTO EFFECT
Now that you’re losing yourself
Now that you’re so far away
I want you to leave me
To never believe me
Now that your porcelain skin
Is cracking apart from within
I want you to love me
Forever think of me
Licking your sugartrace skin
Stirring up one final scene
To ensure and correct
The Mephisto effect
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY
Your mouth’s so open your brain spills out
You’re everything I can do without
But I love you
For a moment
Of despair
When Johnny comes marching home tonight
He’ll find his beloved in tears of delight
She’s wearing that beautiful smile again
Cause I loved her
And I left her
To him
WALKING ON EGGSHELLS
Walking on eggshells
Finding my way to you
Midnight in Dresden
It’s such a depressing view
From Café du Monde the music still flows
All the way back to Rwanda dust roads
But where are you now?
Where are you?
I can’t seem to find myself
I can’t seem to find nobody else
NATIVES OF THE GUTTER
Never thought that I’d lose you again
To the thunder of the open day
Never two of a kind, me and you
Natives of every gutter we choose
ANIMAL EMOTION
I want to reach out and grab any pink cloud
I want to shoot them all down
I want to put you inside of that pink cloud
I want to push you around
Gonna show you animal emotion
Gonna show you automatic motion
Gonna raise a little locomotion now
I want to show you invisible cities
I want to waste images
I want to ride into sunsets on horseback
I want the world in a kiss
THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN
The circus comes to town
Ballerinas and clowns
Nothing new but the pain they provide for us all
I don’t give second thoughts
To the waves of applause
Pop a valium and chill
Art for art’s sake and the thrill
When they all end up crying and sad
I feel so glad
I feel so gay and marvellous
I feel refreshed for all of us
I feel like I am someone else
Someone better than myself
But then I’m not
What about me?
What about you?
What about us?
What are we going to do?
YOUNG, VAIN AND BEAUTIFUL
Young, vain and beautiful
For you I’d change it all
Your oral services
See you
Nowhere
But where my heart is
All blue
For you
For me too
PIECES OF VENICE
Hey-hey
Get a sailor and a priest
Hey-hey
Tame the world beneath my feet
Pieces of Venice
Pieces of Venice
All cool and mellow
I told you I’d love you
I’d love you
I’d love you
Is it Paris in the spring?
Hidden underneath your skin
Is it just another dream?
Hidden nowhere even near you?
Hey-hey
Be a soldier for a day
Hey-hey
Keep the enemy away
So alcoholic
So diabolic
So metastatic
IN CHAMBERS
We’re in chambers
Just like you wanted
We’re alone now
Until the end
Can I ask you that single question?
Can I ask you not to pretend?
SUBJECT TO INJURY
She’s so subject to injury
She’s so frail
Poor impulse control
They just don’t care how old she is
PINK AND FUZZY
Pink and fuzzy
Carved out of make-believe
Dreaming of good times
Working in coal mines
Breaking my heart
Pink and fuzzy
Not that you need to be
I’ll pay you off
A LONELY IMPULSE OF DELIGHT
A lonely impulse of delight
Raising Cain down the borderline
I don’t know, I don’t know
Words of the virus and words of the host
I get so tired without even trying
PRISTINE
I can’t forget
The words you said
Your voice, so loud
Your talk, so foul
Maybe the sea will hush my heart
Maybe the sea will wash away the stars
Within your eyes
Pristine
The mother of bad things
Pristine
Conveyor of nothing
Pristine
I never believed you
Pristine
Pristine
The day will come
My will be done
Forevermore
GREED
Famous last words
A playlist encore
Lips red as blood
Give me some more
Bad gene behaviour
Seems like my saviour
Hunting and shooting
Your tinseltown beauty
Love me for me
Love me for my greed
With pockets full of stars
Forgetting who you are
Your imitated gods
Were never quite enough
And these mighty dresses
A photographic session
With jazz age believers
The skyscraping feelings
Where have they gone?
TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME
Thunder on the sky
I wish it’d last forever
Caught within the night
You don’t know what it means to me
Set ablaze any sails
Aragon, Mandalay
Now I know that tomorrow is mine
Yesterday’s far away
Nothing left of today
But I know that tomorrow belongs to me
“A sublime work … a high-flown European cycle of songs.”
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
“Martin Hall’s voice is more many-facetted and well-balanced than ever … a stirring and beautifully delivered project.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)
“In the history books Metropolitan Suite will easily override a whole section of Danish Music Awards.”
Geiger (the Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
“Exciting and visionary.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper)
Christian Skeel: Piano
Martin Hall: Vocals
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen
Less than a year after Martin Hall’s gold selling collaboration with Danish platinum act Hanne Boel Hall and Skeel released the album Metropolitan Suite, a labour of love that had taken the two gents three years to finish.
With titles such as “Walking on Eggshells”, “Unzipping the Abstract” and “Plaza Flesh” the audience was given a fair warning – this was not a work of intending radio hits, rather a joyous voyage of exploration into the literary realms of vaudeville, chamber music and cabaret-styled intellectualism.
Quoting Hall from an interview made at the time of the release, Metropolitan Suite was his idea of “the perfect follow-up album to the Boel & Hall success”. Despite critical acclaim the record was obviously destined to remain a niche release, so although Metropolitan Suite was an artistic highpoint, it remained a commercial disaster costing Hall’s new label MNW a fair amount of money.
The album featured the single “My Argentine Rose” (catalogue number MNWCDS 300), a release that included an instrumental bonus track called ”Pantomime Bloodline”.
THE RECONSTRUCTION IS GREATER
THE RECONSTRUCTION IS GREATER
MARTIN HALL
PROSE
MARCH 1983
BORGENS FORLAG (ISBN 87-418-5463-2)
The Reconstruction Is Greater (“Genopbyggelsen er større end selve skabelsen”) is Martin Hall’s debut as a writer. It is a book that in its openly hostile tone against its time and culture caused quite a stir at its release in 1983.
The attention surrounding the book focused very much on its mere 19-year-old author – at the time already appointed “the spokesman of a new generation” by the Danish press – and his ability to work with the Danish language in unprecedented ways. The style of the writing was abrupt, more statement-like than poetic, and defined its own level of application in the introduction to the book:
“This has nothing to do with art – this is symptom above intellectual vanity.”
Genre: Prose
Pages: 133 (illustrated)
Design: Martin Hall
“This has nothing to do with art – this is symptom above intellectual vanity.”
The release was graphically illustrated by the Martin Hall as well, mainly collage works with motives focusing on human submission.
Being released simultaneously with the author’s first solo record, Ritual, this “double feature” presentation emphasized Hall’s artistic many-sidedness and his early status as one of the 80-generation’s most important cultural characters.
AVENUES OF OBLIVION
AVENUES OF OBLIVION
BALLET MÉCANIQUE
7″
MAY 1980
BETTER DAY RECORDS (BET3)
After making their live debut at the historical Concert of the Moment in November 1979, Identity – changing their name to Ballet Mécanique in January 1980 – was signed by the independent record company Better Day Records.
Shortly after signing the contract the label was sold to CBS (now Sony Music) on which the group’s debut album, The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation, was released in September 1981.
1. Avenues of Oblivion (3:45)
2. The Screen (3:17)
AVENUES OF OBLIVION
Electric music is ripping the air
Streets lit up by electricity
Coins of death call through the haze
Disparating conditions of minds
The avenues of oblivion touch your mind
Its sick fingers seek your energy
Shades of submission printed in the air
The corps of the silent army slowly move
Arms of death crawl the highs
Dancers of destruction scream
The preludes of tomorrow
Another rebellious transmission
The avenues of oblivion
The dancers of destruction
THE SCREEN
Outside, escapism in neon
The cancer city pulsates
Transmissions flimmer in the dark
Eyes of terror in bodies of carelessness
The echo of electricity shines in the room
Dullness slowly invades with triumph
Bloodshot eyes trying to forget
Mindless people hiding from reality
The screen, happy neon nights
Terrified people seek support
Empty smiles promising happiness
The subculture’s subjection
Martin Hall: Vocals, piano, guitar
Michael Karshøj: Drums
Morten Versner: Bass, violin
Design: Martin Hall
The “Avenues of Oblivion” single shows the early stage of a band in development, caught somewhere in between their punk inspiration and avant-garde rock ambitions. Martin Hall was 16 years old when the band recorded the single.
Today the single is a highly treasured collector’s item. Due to its high value the Danish National Radio keeps their version of the vinyl release in a special strongbox for particularly rare records.
Recorded and mixed at Werner Studio, spring 1980.
