Hubert von Goisern (born Hubert Achleitner, 17 November 1952) is an Austrian singer-songwriter and world musician. With his mix of rock music and elements of traditional Volksmusik he has become a prominent exponent of the so-called New Volksmusik and Alpine Rock in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. His stage name von Goisern refers to his hometown. Hubert von Goisern has won numerous record certifications and several national and international awards.
He was born in Bad Goisern. Already interested in music as a youth, he joined the local brass band where he learned playing the trumpet as his first instrument. When conflicts arose with the band leader about the band's repertoire and Hubert's long hair, he had to leave the band and return the trumpet. He then learned to play guitar starting with an acoustic guitar and then expanding his skills to a self-purchased electric guitar. He also took lessons in trumpet and clarinet. Other instruments like the Steirische Harmonika that was introduced to him by his grandfather were learned in private study.[1]
South Africa, Canada, Philippines (1972–1983)
Aged 20, he left Austria with his girlfriend and relocated to South Africa where he worked in a chemical laboratory. He became involved in the struggle against apartheid but returned to Austria five years later. There he married his Canadian wife and adopted her surname Sullivan.[2]
At the age of 27 he decided to become a professional musician. He studied guitar in Toronto for two years and learned to play flamenco music. After separating from his wife, he went on another journey and learned to play the nose flute on the Philippines. This was also where he began to develop his own musical style by incorporating elements of a foreign traditional music into the traditional music of his home country Austria.[2]
Austria: the Alpinkatzen (1984–1995)
Back in Austria in 1984, he worked as a freelance musician and composer and studied electroacoustics and experimental music at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. In 1986 he and Wolfgang Staribacher founded the band Original Alpinkatzen. At this time he also adopted his stage name Hubert von Goisern while Staribacher was Wolfgang von Wien. Beginning with small performances in clubs and pubs, they published a studio album Alpine Lawine [Alpine Avalanche] in 1988 on CBS using the moniker "Alpinkatzen featuring Hubert von Goisern".[3]
Together with Wolfgang Ambros, Joesi Prokopetz and Manfred Tauchen the Alpinkatzen performed the Watzmann tour, a stage adaption of the audio drama Der Watzmann ruft [Mount Watzmann is calling]. Afterwards the band parted with Wolfgang Staribacher. Hubert von Goisern kept his stage name and continued the project with a number of new musicians: Stefan Engel (keys), Wolfgang Maier (drums), Reinhard Stranzinger (guitar) and Sabine Kapfinger (vocals). Kapfinger became later known as "Alpine Sabine" and eventually "Zabine". At first she participated in studio recordings only, but taught von Goisern how to yodel.[3]
The band had a breakthrough in 1992 with their album Aufgeigen stått niederschiassen [Striking up instead of shooting down] that featured the tracks "Heast as nit" (Austrian German for "don't you hear it"), "Weit, weit weg" [far, far away], and "Koa Hiatamadl" (dialectal for "no herder girl"). "Koa Hiatamadl" received extended airplay and peaked at No. 2 in the Austrian singles charts.[4] The Alpinkatzen toured across German language countries and became one of the most successful Alpenrock bands.
In 1994, the second album Omunduntn (dialectal for "Up and down") was released. It contains the track "Goisern" which is a German language adaption of Ray Charles' song "Georgia", and also reworked versions of the songs "Cocaine" and "Kren & Speck" [horse radish and bacon] from the Alpinkatzen's first album Alpine Lawine. A new tour was conducted through Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Another quick tour included performances in Paris, San Antonio and Austin, Texas, and New York City. It was the last concert tour by the Alpinkatzen. Their last concert was given on 1 November 1994. Shortly before, a performance at the Circus Krone Building had been filmed by director Joseph Vilsmaier and his wife Dana Vávrová. The documentary Wia die Zeit vergeht [how time passes by] was presented at the 1995 Munich Festival and was later published on VHS and DVD. The concert at Circus Krone was declared the farewell performance by the band.[3]
Fashion and film
Apart from his musical activities, von Goisern had created two fashion lines together with his friend Klaus Höller, which were produced by Modehaus Meindl. Like his music, these collections were meant to interpret traditional elements in a modern way.
Von Goisern made his debut as an actor in the 1995 television drama Hölleisengretl by director Jo Baier. He played the husband of protagonist Gretl (Martina Gedeck), and wrote the film score together with Austrian singer-songwriter Stefan Melbinger. Due to the Omunduntn tour he was unable to accept another acting offer for the role of Elias in Vilsmaier's film Brother of Sleep (German title: Schlafes Bruder), but he wrote the film score together with Winfried Grabe and Enjott Schneider. Other film music by Hubert von Goisern includes the scores for two films by Austrian actor and director Julian Pölsler in 1991, and a television film Die Fernsehsaga – Eine steirische Fernsehgeschichte [the TV saga – a Styrian television tale] (1995).
The soundtrack for the children's television film Ein Rucksack voller Lügen [A backpack full of lies] was published in 1996 as Ein Sack voller Lügen [A bag full of lies].
Africa and Tibet (1997–1998)
Hubert von Goisern had been introduced to anthropologist Jane Goodall by their common friend, publisher Michael Neugebauer. Intrigued by her work and eventually invited by her for a visit to Gombe Stream National Park, von Goisern travelled to Tanzania in 1996 for the first time. During another voyage, a documentary film was made in cooperation with the Austrian ORF and German Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcasters: Von Goisern nach Gombe [From Goisern to Gombe]. The soundtrack Gombe was published on CD in 1998.[5]
Tseten Zöchbauer, chairwoman of the Austrian organisation Save Tibet introduced von Goisern to artists of the India-based Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA). Subsequently, he accompanied and presented their Austrian tour. Afterwards he planned a voyage to Tibet and invited Zöchbauer, who had left her native country aged two, to come along. For six weeks they travelled through Tibet and later, in an ORF interview, reported on the status of the Tibetan people, culture, and relationship with their Chinese national government.[6]
Together with Wolfgang Spannberger he later travelled to Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India, where the Central Tibetan Administration is located. There they met Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. With a mobile sound studio they recorded traditional Tibetan music performed by artists of TIPA. These recordings and other songs from a recording session with Tibetan guest musicians in Salzburg, Austria, were released in 1998 on the album Inexile [in exile]. The Dalai Lama followed an invitation by Hubert von Goisern and visited him in Bad Ischl in 1998.[6]
Restart (1999–2006)
In 1999, Hubert von Goisern worked again on recordings for an album of his own. The tracks for Fön[Foehn wind] were recorded with a new band in the summer of 2000. The album was released the same year. In early 2001, the band went on a promotional tour starting in Linz, and Trad, a compilation of Austrian folk songs, was released.
In May 2001, Hubert von Goisern received his first Amadeus Austrian Music Award as best national rock/pop artist.[7] In his acceptance speech, which turned out to have been edited by ORF prior to airing, he criticised the Austrian music industry for a lack in supporting Austrian artists.[8]
Following the Fön tour, Hubert von Goisern played a number of concerts in Egypt and West African countries. In Assiut he shared the stage with Mohamed Mounir,[3][9] one of the best-known Egyptian musicians, who fuses elements of traditional Sufi music and modern rock. During his tour through West Africa, von Goisern was accompanied by a film team that recorded a documentary Grenzenlos [Without Borders] about connecting the meetings of the Austrian musicians with various African artists. In the summer of 2002, a concert tour was made in Germany, and the album Iwasig [Above] was released.
The same year, when the Dalai Lama performed a kalachakra ceremony in Graz, Austria, Hubert von Goisern and Tseten Zöchbauer presented several Sounds of Tibet concerts with TIPA artists.[6]
After an indoors concert tour through Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, the band recorded the album Trad II in a studio that had been custom-built in an abandoned hotel on Mount Krippenstein in the Dachstein Mountains. The subsequent concerts included locations in Sarajevo and Cape Verde.[3] In 2003, von Goisern toured with Mohamed Mounir through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[10] After presenting Trad II on Mount Krippenstein in October 2003, von Goisern went on the Trad II tour in 2004.
In January 2005, Hubert von Goisern and his band performed at the Festival au Désert in Mali together with balafon player Kele Tigi. Again, this trip was recorded on film and was later shown as Warten auf Timbuktu (Waiting for Timbuktu).
After the numerous tours of the past years, von Goisern turned to different activities. Examples include the presentation of a sound installation in a cave of the Dachstein mountains. In November 2005 he recorded the duet Rita mir zwei with Wolfgang Niedecken which was released on the anniversary album of the German band Bap: Dreimal zehn Jahre [Three times ten years].
In April 2006, the Freedom Party of Austria used von Goisern's song "Heast as nit" [Don't you hear it?] in an election campaign. Hubert von Goisern then published an open letter to party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, demanding that the Freedom Party stopped using his songs. The letter included a statement: "I stand for an open, tolerant society, for the destruction of fear of the unknown and new, and not for the fomentation thereof. I stand for looking changes in the eye and looking forward, not for the attempt to stop time, or to even turn it back; that is the content of 'Heast as nit...'."[11]
Linz Europe Tour 2007–2009
Willi Resetarits (left), Hubert von Goisern (right) and band members of Hohtraxlecker Sprungschanzenmusi at the 2007 Donauinselfest
In 2007, von Goisern started the Linz Europe Tour 2007–2009 which was a promotional tour for Linz as European Capital of Culture 2009. The planning had already begun in 2005. Until 2009, he navigated several European rivers with a convoy of three ships, including a cargo ship converted to a floating stage, a towboat MS Wallsee, and a houseboat. This included concerts with local musicians in numerous towns along the route. Performances were made at the 2007 Donauinselfest in Vienna (featuring Willi Resetarits), The first part of the tour lead down the river Danube to its delta at the Black Sea. In 2008, a documentary DVD of this tour was released: Goisern goes East.[12]
Hubert von Goisern performing in Passau, Germany, in June 2007
Von Goisern wrote a logbook Stromlinien [Streamlines] about this tour. It was published in 2010.
Entwederundoder
From late 2010 to spring 2011, Hubert von Goisern toured pubs and inns in Austria and Germany. Live recordings and a documentary were broadcast by the Salzburg-based station Servus TV in August 2011. Soon after, the album Entwederundoder [Either and or] was released that reached the top 20 charts in Austria and Germany. Hitradio Ö3 put the track "Brenna tuat's guat" [It burns well] on the playlist. The single reached position No. 1 in the Austrian within a few weeks, outperforming the previous success "Koa Hiatamadl". "Brenna tuat's guat" got a platinum certification in Austria in 2012 and was also a success in Germany where it was von Goisern's first single in the charts. The album was awarded three platinum certifications in Austria and gold in Germany.[13][14]
Music
Style
Hubert von Goisern is counted among the exponents of the so-called "Neue Volksmusik", lit. "New Folk Music". He is however more often associated with "Alpenrock" or "Alpine rock".[15][16][17][18] His music fuses modern rock and traditional Alpine music. His style is significant for stressing the sound of the harmonica which is then balanced by electric guitars.[19]
Other influences include traditional African music as recorded on Gombe[20] as well as Brazilian samba and also funk. The latter genres have helped von Goisern develop from Alpine music towards world music.
Lyrics
The lyrics of Hubert von Goisern's songs are often political and critical of society.[17][21] An example are the references to far right politician Jörg Haider who hailed also from Goisern, and whose Freedom Party enjoyed high polls during the late 20th century and early 2000s.
Hubert von Goisern (2010). Stromlinien[Streamlines] (in German). St. Pölten: Residenz Verlag. ISBN978-3-7017-3186-2.
Awards and nominations
Hubert von Goisern and his band at the 2012 Amadeus Austrian Music Awards
Von Goisern has won multiple Amadeus Austrian Music Awards by IFPI Austria, and RUTH, the German World Music Prize. In 2004, he was granted an honorary citizenship by his hometown Bad Goisern.
Flieher, Bernhard (2009). Weit, weit weg – Die Welt des Hubert von Goisern[Far, far away – The World of Hubert von Goisern] (in German). St. Pölten: Residenz Verlag. ISBN978-3-7017-3135-0.
Related Research Articles
Ralph Christian Möbius, known professionally as Rio Reiser, was a German musician and the singer-songwriter. of rock group Ton Steine Scherben. From 1970 to 1985 he was the lead singer and main lyric-writer for the rock group Ton Steine Scherben. After that band broke up, he worked as a solo artist. Among his best known songs are Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht, Keine Macht für Niemand, and the Rauch-Haus-Song with the Ton Steine Scherben. As a solo artist, his best known songs are König von Deutschland, Alles Lüge, and Junimond. Reiser supported squatting in the early 1970s and later the green political party Die Grünen. After the German reunification, he joined the Party of Democratic Socialism.
Germany claims some of the most renowned composers, singers, producers and performers of the world. Germany is the largest music market in Europe, and third largest in the world.
Alpine folk music is the common umbrella designation of a number of related styles of traditional folk music of the Germanosphere, particularly in the Alpine regions of Slovenia, Northern Croatia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol (Italy).
Vienna has been an important center of musical innovation. 18th- and 19th-century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Johann Strauss II, among others, were associated with the city, with Schubert being born in Vienna. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music. Vienna's status began its rise as a cultural center in the early 16th century, and was focused on instruments including the lute.
Die Toten Hosen are a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. The name is taken from the German slang idiom tote Hose, which means "nothing happening"; "boring".
Zdob și Zdub is a Moldovan folk punk band, based in Chișinău. The band represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 21 May 2005, finishing 6th. They also represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 14 May 2011, finishing 12th, and represented Moldova again, in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, on 14 May 2022, finishing 7th. The band is often referred to by its fans as ZSZ. To date, Zdob si Zdub are the only artists to have qualified from a Eurovision Song Contest semi-final three times.
The Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425, also known as the Linz Symphony, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz on his and his wife's way back home to Vienna from Salzburg in late 1783. The entire symphony was written in four days to accommodate the local count's announcement, upon hearing of the Mozarts' arrival in Linz, of a concert. The première in Linz took place on 4 November 1783. The composition was also premièred in Vienna on 1 April 1784. The autograph score of the "Linz Symphony" was not preserved, but a set of parts sold by Mozart to the Fürstenberg court at Donaueschingen in 1786 does survive.
Herbert Arthur Wiglev Clamor Grönemeyer is a German singer, musician, producer, composer and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr., was the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children. He was a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher of the late classical period whose musical style was of an early Romanticism, heavily influenced by his father's mature style. He knew Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, both of whom held him in high esteem.
Mohamed Mounir is an Egyptian singer and actor, with a musical career spanning more than four decades. He incorporates various genres into his music, including classical Egyptian music, Nubian music, blues, jazz and reggae. His lyrics are noted both for their philosophical content and for their passionate social and political commentary. He is affectionately known by his fans as "El King" in reference to his album and play "El Malek Howwa El Malek". Mounir's family is from Nubia, Southern Aswan, Egypt.
The Schürzenjäger, formerly Zillertaler Schürzenjäger, are one of the most successful bands of Austria. The band was founded in 1973; according to the band history, they were named "Schürzenjäger" by a female bartender in Austria during a concert, when they didn't have a band name.
Rainhard Jürgen Fendrich is an Austrian singer, composer, entertainer, and actor. He is one of the most successful Austropop musicians, and his songs are written in Viennese German. He is very popular in Austria and in Bavaria, but less so in other German-speaking countries and regions. In non-German-speaking countries he is little known. His song from 1990, "I Am from Austria" is still popular in Austria and considered to be the "secret national anthem".
Christina Stürmer is an Austrian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Linz, she rose to fame as the runner-up of the inaugural season of the ORF eins television talent series Starmania. Following her participation, she signed with Universal Music and released her debut single "Ich lebe" which spent nine weeks atop the Austrian Singles Chart. It was followed by the release of her first two albums, Freier Fall (2003) and Soll das wirklich alles sein (2004), both of which debuted atop the Austrian Albums Chart and produced eight top ten hits, including the number-one singles "Mama " and "Vorbei".
Wolfgang Ambros is an Austrian singer-songwriter. He is one of the most important contemporary Austrian musicians and is considered to be one of the founders of Austropop.
Georg Franz Danzer was an Austrian singer-songwriter. Although he is credited as one of the pioneers of Austropop, he always refused to be part of this genre.
Thomas Raber is an Austrian composer and producer.
Musikantenstadl is a live television entertainment program broadcast in the German language throughout Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. It features Austrian, Swiss, and German popular folk music, international pop and folk music as well as interviews and comedy. As a production of Eurovision, is co-produced by the Österreichischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen. Aside from the live television broadcasts it also tours in Austria and Germany as live concerts. It is currently hosted by Andy Borg and its location of broadcast varies between towns in different regions in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
Gerhard Egger, is an Austrian songwriter, composer, author and Alpenrockpioneer. He is also known as the "Mostrocker".
A.G.Trio is an Austrian electro house group. It was founded in 2004 in Novi Sad, Serbia, during a combined tour of the founding members Roland von der Aist, Andy Korg & Aka Tell. The A.G.Trio is known for its excessive live-act and its remixes for popular Artists like Parov Stelar. In December 2014 they announced that A.G.Trio is on hiatus and presented their new project Ages.
"Heast as net" is a song by Austrian singer and songwriter Hubert Achleitner and Wolfgang Staribacher, performed by Hubert von Goisern and the Neue Volksmusik band Die Original Alpinkatzen, released on the 1992 album Aufgeigen stått niederschiassen. It was also released as a single.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
