THE artist LOUIE AUSTEN has come a long way. hardly anyone at the age of fifty-five takes up new artistic challenges. MR. AUSTEN took the risky road. he survived. big time.
in the year 2001 he recorded his very first dancefloor CD/LP. the group of people responsible for last year's dance track HOPING has not changed. PATRICK PULSINGER and MARIO NEUGEBAUER produced electronic music presenting LOUIE with a perfectly modern music back up. the result was the same man, LOUIE AUSTEN, but placed on a different stage and sounding like he has never been heard before.
AMORE has been the very first single of the album. it is obvious that the central theme is love. the message is clear. together with PEACHES he recorded GRAB MY SHAFT - the old singer from vienna is music-wise absolutely in tune with time and place. still, it is quite impossible not to go back in time and talk about stories, names, faces and music that MR. AUSTEN was involved with.
lets see, where shall we start? the sixties might be a good topic to begin with. LOUIE started out in vienna taking on parts in musicals. he also studied classical singing, but then, in the early seventies, he left for the states, a country famous for its showbiz. there, he was hoping to meet and spiritualise the big stars (FRANK SINATRA, DEAN MARTIN, SAMMY DAVIS JR.) at places like las vegas or san francisco. LOUIE himself began playing in bands like the HARLEM BLUES and JAZZ BAND in NYC, doing mainly cover songs of LOUIE ARMSTRONG yet also jazz and blues classics. after performing in several hotels and hosting his own show in pittsburgh/pennsylvania, he returned to vienna about ten years later, in the late seventies.
from 1980, he performed in the hilton hotel bar the all-time jazz and blues classics.
later, in 1986, he moved on to the marriott hotel. one reason was that he preferred its atmosphere but most importantly did he enjoy to perform in front of familiar faces. the same audience made the trip to the bar each week only to hear him sing.
in 1985 LOUIE and the legendary GINGER DAVIS recorded an album that is nowadays seen as quite valuable. It was a very rare edition; only 2000 copies went into production. unfortunately there is no live recording from the occasional live-jams with famous artists like AL GREEN or even ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK, paying vienna a visit from time to time.
whilst doing live recordings in vienna he met 26 year old MARIO NEUGEBAUER, whom he met again two years later when making a trip to his favourite boxing club. at that point, they decided to work together and start a new project. NEUGEBAUER, who had been working as a studio-technician, was always a great admirer of electronic music. he rented out a small studio and spent some quality time doing sound experiments, programming and recordings. The result was a debut-album of him and AUSTEN. shortly after, PATRICK PULSINGER joined the team.
that means we are back in the beginning. from this point we only assume the rest. more importantly, we hear his special voice that keeps bringing one near far-away places. it might be cities like chicago, las vegas or a journey back in time that keep crossing our minds. it could also be the feeling of warm and great love that surprises us waiting in front of our doorstep. but still, or perhaps because of that, we can't help but keep swinging our hips to these tender and funky grooves. admirers ought to really listen to LOUIE himself talking about his lifetime story - everything he says sounds like wisdom, magic and a world that only seems familiar when thinking of television programmes we gulped down with great appetite 20 years ago.
File under DANCE
Vinyl on Cheap Records info@cheap.at |
CD 6.99 €
