Cologne\u2013Wuppertal\u2013Lennestadt is the geographical triangle of BONGEN’S. And rock\u2013indie pop\u2013singer\/songwriter is their musical style. With their third studio album, \u201cFragebuch,\u201d they deliver a lovingly arranged and rough-and-ready powerhouse.
\nThree years were spent writing, arranging, recording, changing, discarding, and re-recording. But in the end, the trickiest question of all was the title of the album. And yet it was so obvious: <\/p>\n
“I’ve had this notebook since the band started. I write down ideas for lyrics, random thoughts, words I like. And questions. Always questions. And at some point, I wrote in capital letters <\/p>\n
\u201cMEIN FRAGEBUCH\u201d written on the front of the cover,\u201c recalls Mario Bongen, singer and songwriter of the band. The neologism then made it into the lyrics of \u201d360\u00b0” and finally onto the cover of the new album.<\/p>\n
So let’s get to the questions. Producing an album, for example, raises a lot of questions: about the sound. About the right attitude. About the song selection. How to send the listener on a journey. How to get someone to give you 45 minutes of attention in the 2010s. And then there’s the question of financing.
\nThe four musicians found a contemporary answer to that: crowdfunding. With the campaign \u201cBONGEN’S VIER UND IHR,\u201d they raised the necessary funds to create the album they had in mind, independently and without compromise. The result is a record with a lot of light and a lot of shadow. Warm and noisy. Emotional and angry. Without fear of old-fashioned genres (country, folk) or new-fangled instruments (beer bottles). The main thing is that it serves the song, its story. And so each story gets the backdrop it deserves: the rumbling walking bass in \u201cDiese Beine werden nie wieder humpeln k\u00f6nnen\u201d (These legs will never be able to limp again), the haunting organ hookline in \u201cDas hier ist es\u201d (This is it) or the eerily beautiful brass ensemble in \u201cGrab ein Grab\u201d (Dig a grave).
\nThe lyrics are free of platitudes and pretentiousness. Instead, they feature personal anecdotes, love songs free of kitsch, and rough-hewn everyday poetry. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy am I here? And what percentage of me?\u201d <\/p>\n
Lines like these point simply and precisely to the big picture and to the truth that always lies somewhere in between\u2014questions don’t lie, after all. This opens up a clear view of the songwriter’s inner life\u2014at least as far as one can expect from someone who prefers to ask questions rather than give answers. <\/p>\n
Tracklist<\/strong> Cologne\u2013Wuppertal\u2013Lennestadt is the geographical triangle of BONGEN’S. And rock\u2013indie pop\u2013singer\/songwriter is their musical style. With their third studio album, \u201cFragebuch,\u201d they deliver a lovingly arranged and rough-and-ready powerhouse. Three years were spent writing, arranging, recording, changing, discarding, and re-recording. But in the end, the trickiest question of all was the title of the album. And […]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[396],"product_cat":[247],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1220","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_brand-bongens-en","product_cat-cd-en","pa_artists-bongens-en","pa_audio-format-stereo-en","pa_genre-rock-en","pa_genre-singer-songwriter-en","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muvi.sndhvn.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1. Das letzte Lied
\n2. Boxer
\n3. Diese Beine werden nie wieder humpeln k\u00f6nnen
\n4. Das hier ist es
\n5. Wo ich hin will
\n6. 360\u00b0
\n7. Grab ein Grab
\n8. Am traurigsten Tresen der Gegend
\n9. Krzwrtrtsl
\n10. Blaues Auge
\n11. Geschlossene Gesellschaft
\n12. Der im gelben Regencape
\n13. Zeichen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"