We met Bernhard Eder bouncing around excitedly after his set at the Melodica Festival a few years ago, where he made sure that we went home with his CD. Which we listened to. And from then on we made sure of knowing when Mr. Eder was going to hit town.
An eternally interesting and restless musician, Bernhard Eder is not your simple singer-songwriter strumming a guitar and crooning out world-weary but wise verses; although he does that too. But he also changes things up and follows his muse wherever it goes; which has led not only to electric-guitar-driven modern pop divergences but also to things like his last album.
Bernhard Eder also produces music for theatre pieces, and this is where his most recent album has come from. With nary a guitar in sight, the new Eder instead creates soundpieces that swell, dissonate and occasionally resolve, while sometimes whispered voices drift and scatter over and among the quiet maelstrom.
Bernhard Eder is once again accompanied on his jaunt across Germany by Peter Piek, a multi-instrumentalist/painter/poet/artist/musical visionary/trickster/take your pick whose humour is a constant counterpoint to instrumental variation, ironic experimentation and the all the more surprising, odd bit of delicately placed disillusionment.
Bernhard Eder and Peter Piek are sharing the night in Monarch on the 14th May, this coming Tuesday. With such a pair of thoroughly interesting, intelligent artists and performers, this is definitely not a night to be missed.
