In his own country, the prophet is not valued much. Volker Bertelmann knows this all too well. Under the pseudonym Hauschka, he has toured half the world, but at home in Düsseldorf, he rarely plays. About at the "Salon des Amateurs," where he presented one of his albums.
With "Salon des Amateurs," Hauschka returns to the sound that made him famous. The prepared piano is in the foreground. Bertelmann manipulates his instrument in such a way that it sometimes no longer sounds like a piano at all, but like percussion – or like an electronic instrument. The technique sounds more complicated than it is. Actually, "prepared" just means that Bertelmann uses everyday objects for assistance. He wedges butter paper between the strings, places erasers and bottle caps on top, and sometimes he even pours a bag full of table tennis balls into the piano. These interventions do not always meet with favor. The concert at the prestigious "South by Southwest" festival in the USA nearly failed due to Bertelmann's experimental nature. The performance was supposed to take place in a church, and the cantor was afraid Hauschka would damage the grand piano. Only after tough negotiations was the artist allowed to begin.
Anyone who considers the manipulated piano to be avant-garde gimmickry is mistaken. The sound effects are well thought out. The butter paper creates a crackling sound like in an old film, and the muted strings sometimes make the piano sound like a drum. Admittedly, some of the actions do have a certain show value, especially pouring in the table tennis balls. And yet, one can tell that Volker Bertelmann does not want to be seen as a showman. On the album "Foreign Landscapes," released in 2010, he used the prepared piano very sparingly. The album has little in common with its predecessors. It was no longer pop; rather, it was chamber music.
The desire for musical change runs through Bertelmann's entire biography. Aside from jazz, he has touched upon nearly every genre of music. His first compositions could be heard in the TV series "Ein Fall für zwei" (A Case for Two), which was a quarter of a century ago. In the 1990s, Bertelmann played in an indie band called God’s Favorite Dog. Under the pseudonyms "Music. A.M." and "Tonetraeger," he later added electronic albums and club sounds. Traces of this digital era are still recognizable today. In some places, Hauschka's prepared piano sounds like a pre-programmed loop (in an interesting inversion of the principle whereby electronic instruments imitate "real" sounds).
Bertelmann has received significant recognition for his music, especially abroad. This is also reflected in his record deal. Like his Rhineland colleagues from Mouse on Mars who moved to Berlin, Hauschka has signed with an English label – his music is released by Fat Cat in Brighton. However, the artist does not overlook his hometown: "I am glad to live in Düsseldorf and wish for more great music from here to be heard elsewhere".
