[05.07.03] - Review from AKUSTIKGITARRE (Germany, 4/2004)

Martin C. Herberg has pulled off the difficult trick of capturing the folky naivity of "back then" and combining it with "world music" and a little modern studio technology elements in beautifully fresh melodies and arrangements centred on his guitar and supported by some choice musicians.

Additional Infos:

Romantic Escapes is my 7th longplayer, a New Folk double-cd with over 2 hours running time. Most pieces were recorded in an old church. It is one of my bestselling albums, probably because it is very atmospheric and peaceful. The sounds from the rain, the frogs and the birds become part of the music. Somehow it's a bit psychedelic.

Additional Infos concerning the "Romantic Escapes" bonus-cd:

In order to explain why this album took quite some time to finish, here is CD 2 as a kind of documentary. The album was planned as a double-CD, Though you can't listen to the tracks we didn't record, here's some stuff that might interest you. It contains some outtakes, something that didn't make it onto this album, some basic ideas as well as some demos and also some premixes and unedited tracks.

It's meant for those who are curious to know how things developed and changed. The basic tracks were recorded in May 2002 in a small church in Messdunk near the city of Brandenburg. As you can hear, the frogs and birds joined in for free. Additional recordings and arrangements were made at the Manufaktur Studios in Wuppertal June '02 to June '03.

1 At The River 6.21 (Premix, May '02)

2 Romantic Escapes 3.16 (Premix, May '02)
The basic track was recorded with two guitars in Messdunk.. Later we found out it was played too fast so we „tuned“ it 1 key lower to become 1/12th slower.

3 Once Upon A Time (Part 2) 2.53 (May '02)
This is the original take. The accordion is a bit too loud but unfortunately we couldn`t mix it differently, as we both played into one microphone at one time.

4 Ireland Revisited (Demo Solo, ?/ '02)
This is the way I improvise in my solo performances.

5 Frühling (Spring) 4.00
( Basic arrangement Dec.`02)

6 My Island 5.07 (Premix, Oct. 30.`02)
Here`s an early premix of Island.

7 Trancefiction 4.19 (Live Solo, 1999)
This is an early live-version recorded during the sessions for „Extraordinary Live“.

8 Feeling Like A Feather 4.21 (March '03)
This is the only song that was entirely recorded in Wuppertal. Here we used a drum- computer. (Basic track)

9 Achill Island 1.49 (Demo, April '03)

10 The Messdunk Campfire ... 5.14 (June '02)
Unedited version. Everybody played just what occured to them which left us with many choices for the final mix.

12 An Idea 1.08 (Sketch 2001)
Sometimes you get the feeling thatyou've got something right.

13 Frühling (Spring) Demo (Jan. '02)
I listenened to the above track and suddenly it came to me. So in order not to forget, I recorded it on an old 4-track cassette-recorder.

11 At the River 1.50 (Demo, May '01)
I played this "test version" with my friend Golly on the sax in his studio in the Bavarian countryside . Golly plays an awful lot of instruments and he has published some 20 completely different albums so far. Golly`s homepage is: http://www.knopfstudio.de

14 Beautiful 3.25 (Demo (while composing), 1997)

15 Some Kind Of Cajun 1.56 (Demo, May '02)

16 Sample Island 4.12 (Session, June '03)
Just for the fun of it.

17 Good Night 3.07 (Demo, 1997)
I am still unsatisfied with the published live-version, here`s the original, I was thinking of a remake.

18 Dorffest (Village Fete) 1.39 (Test, March '03)
(Mix: Herberg & Buktu)

19 The Messdunk Campfire.... 0.46 (Demo, 1997)

Music & lyrics: Martin C. Herberg if not otherwise indicated
Tracks 1 to 10 belong to the early concept of the album.
Tracks 11 to 19 are a selection of sound sketches.

[Overview]