''Goldregen'' (Gold Rain) is the third album released in 1998 by German band La! Neu?. Like the previous year's ''

Zeeland Zeeland (; ), historically known in English by the Endonym and exonym, exonym Zealand, is the westernmost and least populous province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the southwest of the country, borders North Brabant to the east ...

'', ''Goldregen'' takes the form of a series of spontaneous jams, quickly recorded and mastered. Unlike ''Zeeland'', ''Goldregen'' is entirely acoustic, containing only piano, violin, harmonium, drums and vocals. Unlike most other albums released by

Klaus Dinger Klaus Dinger (24 March 1946 – 21 March 2008) was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock band Neu!. He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of New wave music, new wave group La Düsse ...

it is quiet and meditative rather than aggressive or abrasive; its low key and low-fi values arguable align it with

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

Background and recording

The album title is a

play on words Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

. The cover painting depicts a

laburnum ''Laburnum'', sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are '' Laburnum anagyroides''—common laburnum and '' Laburnum alpinum''— ...

plant, which in German is called ''goldregen''. Klaus Dinger's

grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

was made by a company called "Goldregen". Recording began on 2 May 1998 at Klaus Dinger's studio in Düsseldorf, starting with the album's opener "Zeeland Wunderbar"; the only track to have been written before sessions began. It features Klaus Dinger's mother Renate on vocals and is a light-hearted, humorous track about life in

. On 27 May, Klaus and Victoria Wehrmeister convened in Dinger's Dutch studio to create three harmonium based tracks (which close the album), whilst Rembrandt Lensink and Thomas Dinger finalised "Zeeland Wunderbar" in Düsseldorf. Four days later the whole band met up in Düsseldorf to record tracks 2-9. ''Goldregen'' was the first musical collaboration between the Dinger brothers since 1983; a product of their 1997 reunion following a long and bitter legal battle over the rights to

La Düsseldorf La Düsseldorf was a German band formed by the former member of Neu!, multi-instrumentalist Klaus Dinger, his brother Thomas Dinger, and Hans Lampe. La Düsseldorf released a string of successful albums (with sales totaling over a million) durin ...

. Klaus described ''Goldregen'' as a "family album". Despite this he also expressed regret that Andreas Reihse had not been able to join the sessions (due to commitments with

Kreidler Kreidler was a German manufacturer of bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles. Kreidler was originally based in Kornwestheim, between Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian la ...

). Klaus cited his musical influences for the record as including

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, dr ...

's ''

Music for a New Society ''Music for a New Society'' is the eighth solo studio album by the Welsh musician John Cale, released in September 1982 by ZE Records and Island Records. With the suggestion from ZE Records owner Michael Zilkha, Cale performed the album mostly i ...

'', the "almost sacred atmosphere" of that album being something he consciously tried to recreate on ''Goldregen''.

Track listing

# "Zeeland Wunderbar" - 1:59 (Klaus Dinger, Renate Dinger) # "Rembrandt + Viktoria" - 3:32 (Rembrandt Lensink, Victoria Wehrmeister) # "Langsam Bewegt, Aber Nicht Traurig (Part 1 + 2)" - 6:44 (Lensink, Wehrmeister) # "Strathomaso" - 2:59 (K. Dinger, Thomas Dinger, Lensink) # "Where is the Geiger" - 0:57 (K. Dinger, Lensink) # "Shakesbeer/Shakesbier" - 4:33 (K. Dinger, T. Dinger, Lensink) # "Dinger Brothers mit Remmi + Wicki" - 5:13 (K. Dinger, T. Dinger, Lensink, Wehrmeister) # "How Could I Not Be" - 2:42 (K. Dinger, T. Dinger, Lensink, Wehrmeister) # "Light Blue Intermezzo" - 3:41 (Wehrmeister) # "Langweg 27 Mai" - 8:09 (K. Dinger, Wehrmeister) # "Klaus + Wicki" - 8:48 (K. Dinger, Wehrmeister) # "Comme Nuages Dans Le Ciel" - 8:17 (K. Dinger, Wehrmeister)

Personnel

* Klaus Dinger - drums & percussion (tr. 1 & 4-8), harmonium (tr. 10-12), piano (tr. 1) * Renate Dinger - vocals (tr. 1) * Thomas Dinger - violin (tr. 4 & 6-8) * Rembrandt Lensink - piano (tr. 2-8) * Victoria Wehrmeister - drums & percussion (tr. 1 & 11), violin (tr. 2), piano (tr. 9), vocals (tr. 1-3, 7, 8 & 10-12)

References

{{Authority control 1998 albums La! Neu? albums