Die Knödel - Verkochte Tiroler
                                      
                Â
                                            Â
This was the very first album of the Austrian group Die Knödel (The Dumplings). The composer and bassoon player Christof Dienz writes on his homepage :
"Die Knödel have redefined Austrian "blasmusik" (brass-band music), a genre that seems to be caged in commercial kitsch settings reinforcing the German/Austrian cliché of "lederhosen" boys and "dirndl" girls constantly drinking beer and eating sauerkraut.
No serious music lover ever expected this type of music to have some creative potential, and rather than reviving an artistical corpse, Die Knödel have fathered a sort of post-modern 'blasmusik' for the new millenium.
There are traditional rhythms of Austrian folk-music which lend the base for all sorts of exciting sound experiments involving the extensive band line-up of wind and string instruments. Die Knödel are the brainchild of Christoph Dienz (bassoon, dulcimer, vocals) who is responsible formost of the compositions.
In 1993, they had their CD debut with 'Verkochte Tiroler' (also known as Overcooked Tyroleans on the North American market), and its success was immediate."
That's a lucky thing, as this group really deserves some listening, as Frank Eisenhuth on AMG also knows: "Originally released as Verkochte Tiroler on the Swiss RecRec label, Overcooked Tyroleans, the debut album of the Austrian folk troupe Die Knödel, is a tour de force of Austrian folk music renaissance. The musicians take traditional Austrian folk rhythms, add post-modern melodies and chords, and play everything with sophisticated arrangements on an amazingly wide variety of instruments. ("In Die Ribisl" is a very nice example of this creative tension between tradition and modernity, but also all other tracks on this album make for a excellent introduction into Austrian folk with a contemporary approach."
The "contemporary approach" would be expanded on their later albums, this one is still rather folk-based, which makes it a great listening not only for the avantgarde, but also for the "ordinary" folk fan (but who is that?).
I had recently posted the link to this album in the RecRec-Forum of Lucky's bordermusic (), so this is just a repeating here:
Download at
I will try to provide only mp3-files with "good", i.e. rather complete, ID3-Tags, so you could find some information there. However, if anybody needs the album credits or a tracklist, send a message.
