The Düsseldorf Düsterboys are Peter Rubel and Pedro Goncalves Crescenti, who by now many music lovers in this country might know as the unmistakable voices of International Music. Their albums "Die besten Jahre" and "Ententraum" are considered by many to be the strongest German-language records of recent years
Now follows "Duo Duo", the second album by The Düsseldorf Düsterboys, which Peter and Pedro founded as a duo long before International Music.
"It is said that when you bring two minds together, a third min …
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The Düsseldorf Düsterboys are Peter Rubel and Pedro Goncalves Crescenti, who by now many music lovers in this country might know as the unmistakable voices of International Music. Their albums "Die besten Jahre" and "Ententraum" are considered by many to be the strongest German-language records of recent years
Now follows "Duo Duo", the second album by The Düsseldorf Düsterboys, which Peter and Pedro founded as a duo long before International Music.
"It is said that when you bring two minds together, a third mind always emerges, a third superior mind, an invisible collaborator", this is how William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin once put it together in their book "The Third Mind" and must have had something like "Duo Duo", the second album by The Düsseldorf Düsterboys in mind. Because how Peter Rubel and Pedro Goncalves Crescenti tenderly play the words to each other on their guitars, how they take turns in the performance quite naturally and full of love for the music, how they sometimes switch to the second voice and then back to the lead vocals, it all sounds so much bigger than just two people playing a few songs together for us.
How seemingly carefree they let us participate in their associative jumps between casual descriptions of everyday life and beautiful poetry, between pillow and metaphysics, or to say it with the Düsterboys and the album opener "Stars / Sternchen": "So much said, so many clouds. Half a day goes by in my room! Take me higher!"
The lightness - despite quite present melancholy - is not least due to the familiarity of the two, who, after all, have known each other since their youth, but also because they complement each other so excellently. While Pedro is otherwise more attracted to literature, Peter is busy with compositions for larger ensembles (we get a small impression of this on this album in the grand finale of "Lavendeltreppen") - which, on the other hand, does not mean that one does not understand anything about the other, quite the opposite.
"Duo Duo" is about a functioning partnership. This makes especially the love songs on this album so wonderfully ambiguous, when it says, for example, in the first single "Ab und zu": "Denn wenn es auch mir gefällt / Und dann auch Dir gefällt / Wenn es uns beiden gut gefällt", it is completely unclear whether here the two artists are singing to each other as a couple, or whether the message is addressed to the listeners, who in turn think of possible other people. Thus, while listening, interesting double doublings sometimes occur: Duo Duo in Stereo!
As far as the musical influences are concerned, the outernational folk-pop on "Duo Duo" is no less multilayered or clearly ambiguous: there are influences from folk music, from Brazilian tropicalismo, some things remind of church chorals, others again of the anti-folk movement of the early noughties or good old Velvet Underground ("Gangster").
Sometimes all together in one song!
Thus, while listening, one has Waldeck Castle and its quarting bards as much in mind as the Monterey Festival and its cosmopolitan esprit. Despite all retro-suspicions - some of the choir voices on this album are actually from the sampler - "Duo Duo" is in any case pop music of the present!
Anyway: What are 500 years of music history, if you can take as much time in the performance as The Düsseldorf Düsterboys?! One would almost like to say "timeless", but that is for the listeners of the future to decide for themselves
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