IV (Ton Steine Scherben album)

IV
Studio album by Ton Steine Scherben
Released March 1981
Recorded David Volksmund Studio, Fresenhagen, Germany
Genre German rock
Length 90:56
Label David Volksmund
Producer Ton Steine Scherben
Ton Steine Scherben chronology
Wenn die Nacht am tiefsten…
(1975)		 IV
(1981)		 Scherben
(1983)

IV is a double album released by Ton Steine Scherben. Because of the black album cover, it is also referred to as die Schwarze ("the black one"). It is a collection of various influences from folk to punk and marks a departure from the band's earlier work, even though it continues the change that began with the previous album Wenn die Nacht am tiefsten…. Anarchist slogans such as "destroy what destroys you" or "no power for nobody" are no longer prevalent, although some of the songs were political, such as Der Turm stürzt ein ("the tower is collapsing").

Tarot Cards

All the songs on the album aside from Morgenlicht were composed with the aid of Tarot cards from the Major Arcana. The so-called "Tarot secret" was not revealed until years after Rio Reiser's death, as it was worried that the magic of the innovative and sometimes very different texts would be lost. Most of the text is composed of images and metaphors; very little is unambiguous. After all the living participants in the process agreed, the following list of tarot cards was offered from the year 1980:

Four lyricists and three composers

The Tarot cards were also used to assign different tasks for each song, i.e. who wrote the lyrics and composed the music. This was the first time the drummer Funky Götzner wrote lyrics for the group and the first time the bassist Kai Sichtermann composed the music, who had previously been uninvolved. Hannes Eyber, a friend of the band, also contributed lyrics. The song Morgenlicht was not written in connection with a tarot card as it was written in 1978 for the theater group "Transplantis"; the text was written by Rainer von der Marwitz. Earlier albums were co-written by R.P.S. Lanrue and Rio Reiser; this album's diversity and creativity can be attributed to the much larger songwriting team.

Musical experiments

An additional component of the album was the musical variety used in production. Several guest musicians were invited for the recordings: Jörg Schlotterer, a former band member, returned to play trombone and flute; Wolfgang Seidel - the group's first drummer - returned to play percussion under the pseudonym Wolf Sequenza; Klaus van Velzen played saxophone. A youth choir from Niebüll was also used for the song Wie in den Tagen Midians. Members of the band also played using less common instruments, such as the hammered dulcimer.

Song listing

Disc 1

  1. Jenseits von Eden (Rio Reiser, R.P.S. Lanrue) – 6:07
  2. Bleib wo du bist (Reiser) – 2:40
  3. Sumpf Schlock (Hannes Eyber, Lanrue) – 5:10
  4. Der Turm stürzt ein (Reiser) – 4:26
  5. Wie in den Tagen Midians (Reiser, Lanrue) – 2:57
  6. Vorübergehend geschlossen (Eyber, Lanrue) – 2:37
  7. Ebbe und Flut (Funky K. Götzner, Reiser) – 2:22
  8. Filmkuß (Eyber, Reiser) – 3:19
  9. Der Fremde aus Indien (Götzner, Lanrue) – 5:05
  10. Kleine Freuden (Eyber, Lanrue) – 6:43
  11. Heimweh (Eyber, Lanrue) – 5:01

Disc 2

  1. Alles ist richtig (Eyber, Kai Sichtermann) – 3:16
  2. S'is eben so (Reiser) – 3:16
  3. S.N.A.F.T. (Götzner, Sichtermann) – 2:40
  4. Kribbel Krabbel (Eyber, Sichtermann) – 3:51
  5. Niemand liebt mich (Eyber, Lanrue) – 3:27
  6. Da! (Eyber, Reiser) – 4:28
  7. Morgenlicht (Rainer von der Marwitz, Lanrue) – 5:12
  8. Ich hab nix (Eyber, Reiser) – 2:35
  9. Gold (Götzner, Lanrue) – 6:42
  10. Wiedersehen (Reiser, Lanrue) – 3:33
  11. (Auf ein) Happy End (Reiser, Sichtermann) – 5:29

See also

References

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