Various - Mort Aux Vaches

Mort Aux Vaches

In Scandinavia there has been quite some talk about this cd release. First of all, they made quite a few covers (probably around seven, but I don’t really know) all with different information on them. Secondly, it seams that the information written on the cover in English does not match the information written in Danish.

One cover was written by Danish writer T.S. Høeg and tells us that the music is from three shows btw. 2000 – 2002. The first one at Loppen in the free state Christiania in central Copenhagen, then one in some concert place in Glasgow and one at the Thorshavn mental hospital at the Faroe Islands the track list is for sure wrong because it’s the same as the one written for the 2001 Skipp cd Narc Beacon released by Dat Politics. – Very confusing.

But to blur the picture completely various 5” records containing extra material have been released to go with it. Rumours have talked about four different records but I have only seen two different ones, surprisingly enough nobody seams to have this version here on Discogs. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t see it listed anywhere.

CONCLUSION. The music on the disc must be different form the one Staalplaat has released and in the press release they state it is a live recording from Holland in 2004, which I believe was the time when Goodiepal was not touring at all. On one of the tracks, which sounds like Goodiepal is showing and telling about his mechanical bird to the public, the language he speaks is a very Scandinavian sounding English, and I believe the track then must be from an English speaking country, so maybe this is the one from Scotland in 2000 though this doesn’t match with the fact that he first introduced the mechanical bird later on. Very mysterious, very confusing.

One can only speculate what goes on in the mind of Kristian Vester, but I imagine it's a wee bit chaotic at best and completely potty at worst. This album for Dutch stalwarts Staalplaat is so hard to actually describe that I'm really going to struggle. The opener is a gorgous track featuring the sounds of the sea combined with a gently folky whistling melody over the top. The second track is more of a soundtracky piece which really sounds like the music accompanying a Vision Express advert, in a good way, you understand. The rest of the CD is given over to more whistling and found sounds and then a gorgeous traditional folk section with multiple recorders and twanging guitars. Bizarre, as ever, but immensly good fun as well. Some versions comes with a very limited 5" record as a bonus as a gift for free!