rheinstrand speyer - beach atmosphere at the rhine river.
at the end of august 2019 my parents and i travelled to speyer to enjoy one of the biggest & best medieval festivals in germany - the MPS ( short for mittelalterlich phantasie spektakulum - medieval fantasy spectacle ). medieval music and the medieval lifestyle is something i've been fascinated by and feel a lot of love for since i was a child. ever since my parents dragged me and my brother to several medieval markets in the 1990ies, i do have a special connection to this scene. my teenage years and even later on, i have been to quite a few markets and concerts of medieval music artists and am still enjoying those today, at 32 years of age. i love the creativity in the scene, i love the possibility to escape into a different era, and the community of the scene is unlike everything i have ever encountered, open-minded & accepting, with a big love for handmade and selfmade products, nature, magic & lust for life.
for a mix like that i am pretty much willing to give up my mostly solitary confinements ( 😂 ) and to join the hustle and bustle of bigger crowds. well, and when there's exciting music involved too, i am able to tolerate lots of people around me ( mostly because of that 😂 ).
before we made it to the festival we discovered the little beach restaurant above, making us feel like we were at the copacabana 😁 it was a hot summer day, so it was perfect to sit down for a bit and enjoy some south sea beach atmosphere on the rhine river and watch the boats, cruises and barges navigate up and down the river.
they even had palm trees and thatched parasols to create a most wonderful exotic atmosphere. another thing you can find on the beach ( but that i did not take a photo of ) is an eel shokker, a ship that was used to catch eels. definitely an eyecatcher, though i don't know why i didn't take a photo.
loved these parasols! they provided perfect shade, with the right amount of translucence! after we enjoyed something to eat and some cool beverages we made our way to the festival grounds to explore it a little first...
... to find lots and lots of booze! seeing all these fruit wine bottles i really would like to go back and purchase some, fruit wines are the best!
on medieval markets you will always find camps of the knights and their entourage, of artisans and craftsmen, of jugglers, bards, musicians and artists. it gives the markets an air of a medieval game spectacle, where people gather to overindulge in food and drinks, to dance and have fun, to watch vendors creating their produce and buy it or to satisfy their lust for dramatic fights or performances.
this dragon head emitted some smoke out of its nostrils, which was pretty amazing.
one of the first bands we saw was 'versengold', a folk rock band from bremen.
to loosen up this post i decided to include some music ( and videos ) to show you what kind of music the bands we saw create and play. ( also, i don't have a lot to say about most of the pictures, i mean, they're pretty much speaking for themselves! )
versengold create a lot of very up-beat and danceable music, they were a great kick-off for the day!
the frontman malte and the violinist florian!
seems like i managed to only get good photos of the violinist 😂 he was pretty cool, though, jumping and dancing around all the time. i feel that was pretty impressive, playing violin AND moving around.
the next band was 'saltatio mortis', quite a heavyweight in the medieval music scene - representing the medieval rock branch. here's lasterbalk ( not his real name, they all have stage names ), who is one of the founding members of saltatio mortis. he plays some of the drums and percussions in the band. here he plays the davul.
i really like saltatio mortis, so you gotta have to deal with more videos and pictures here 😂❤ they are part of the medieval rock scene ( as mentioned above ) and therefore serve a harder sound, but with lots of different influences from all kinds of musical origins. the red ribbon throughout their music, though, will always be the love of medieval music, which they started out with and will always incorporate into their music.
up until then, i had never seen them live before, which is quite a shame, because they are pretty intoxicating and thrilling! all of the band members are super charismatic and know how to pull you up and MOVE. definitely one of those bands that makes you have goosebumps all over your body.
el silbador ( or elsi ), one of the bagpipe musicians. in the background is till promill ( or till ;D ), the bass player.
falk, the 'grey eminence' of the band, seemingly the dude who pulls all the strings in the band. he plays all kinds of instruments in the band, such as hurdy-gurdy, the shawm, the nyckelharpa and many more.
well, and who would saltatio mortis be without alea, the lead singer ( who's also able to play quite an assortment of instruments, too like guitar, flute, bagpipes ). he's the enigmatic and dazzling focal point of the band ( he definitely is a dreamboat of a person for quite many fans of the band 😂 ). let's also not forget the bagpipe player in the back, luzi. i know him from another band i loved to listen to growing up, schelmish. there's two more band members, frank and jean, but i didn't take any photos of them. i think i was more preoccupied with dancing in the end, than with taking photos ;)
i do have to admit that i find alea quite handsome myself. 😅 he's just got something to him that's pretty attractive and magnetic.
this song was the first song i ever heard from them, way back in in the 2000s ( my awakening time when it comes to medieval rock music 😂 ). i still love it today, the lyrics are amazing.
here's another oldie-goldie:
and before we go, here's a live video from 2017, when they played on germany's biggest rock festival 'wacken open air':
after the concert we strolled the festival grounds some more and discovered a little tournament going on.
it was a match between this woman...
... and this guy. both did not fight, but had knights who did for them. i think they were both some sorta evil rulers, judging from their bossy and lord-like posture.
i rooted for her, of course. though i would've loved seeing her fight. we had to leave the tournament eventually, because we did want to see more bands.
this woman fought for her and was pretty badass, too!
one last picture of the dark sorceress ( that's what i call her in my mind, lol ).
some random roses we passed by to our next musical act.
the singer of the band 'letzte instanz', holly. this is another one of those bands that go way back. they combine classical music with rock music, using violins and cellos, and are strictly speaking not necessarily part of the medieval rock scene ( though they started out there ). i'd say they are a melodic rock / crossover band.
an old one to start with, because that one was my first letzte instanz song :)
holly with the cellist benni cellini.
i love this song, it's so merciless with its dry humour.
and a newer one ( from 2018 )
i didn't take more pictures again, ya know, because i want to enjoy myself mostly on concerts... and letzte instanz is a band that requires your attention, as their songs are also quite deep and thoughtful.
the next band we saw we discovered on pure accident, as we went on search for something to eat. 'feuerschwanz' are what you would call a 'fun & party band'. they sing a lot about cheeky and on-the-nose stuff, and provide a good sound for any celebratory occasions. drinking songs basically 😂 they don't take themselves too seriously, which, if you don't always want to listen to heavy and dark music, is a pretty great change to the pace. sometimes it's just nice to let loose a bit.
the main protagonists are these two, hauptmann feuerschwanz and prinz r. hodenherz III. let me translate those two names for you, because... they're hilarious? hauptmann feuerschwanz is captain firetail and prinz r. hodenherz is obviously a prince called richard gonads heart. i think that tells you exactly what kind of band this is 😂
they have more band members, women also grace the line-up. they play some integral instruments, but i had the feeling they were more like sidekicks when it comes to the stage story lol. that makes it sound like the band is pretty much a 'man only' band, but i did enjoy them quite a lot, i thought they were super funny and had some real ear-catching tunes on offer.
they do have songs, though, that are not all about drinking, partying or sex. have one about the hammer of witches, which was a book that condemned many women to death if they did not adher to a pure lifestyle or where found in situations that made men uncomfortable.
the final and my personal favourite act of that night was a band that made me dream and swoon and shiver and sway from beginning to end. i did not know their music before this concert, so they basically converted me to a fan on the spot. i am talking about 'faun'. they create medieval folk music, presenting wonderful musical landscapes with dreamy & magical sounds. they can be quite melancholic, but they also have sweet little upbeat tunes in their repertoire. they truly finished this evening on a transcendental note for me ❤
the woman you can see on this picture, fiona, unfortunately is not part of the band anymore ( as of 2020 she left the band to dedicate more time to other projects - such as TVINNA - which is super fucking good, kinda dark and very atmospheric music with an electronica twist ). she was part of the band for 20 years, so i think she'll be greatly missed by fans who know the band from their early beginnings ( they had a lot of changing lead singers, but she always remained the constant - backing them up and balancing them out with her softer and calmer voice ). i am looking forward to the sound of the new faun as they found someone to cover/replace fiona, a musician called adaya. from what i've heard from her music so far, she's probably going to balance out the mezzosoprano voice of the other woman in the band, laura (who's basically the 'lead' singer now ), with a deeper, more raspy voice. i am quite excited about how that's going to sound!
this song is everything, really... ( it was recorded with another former singer, katja moslehner ).
i had the best view on fiona the whole concert through and sometimes on one of the men in the band, oliver, who also sings. so that's why i can only present to you these two, the other band members were rarely in my vision. i am quite proud of the very few pictures i took of them, though, i so rarely have the opportunity to shoot real human beings ( mainly because i want to do them justice, and also, because i am too shy to ask people to be my models 😂 ). and unfortunately, basically all of the people i know personally, are super photo shy, so... i get no practice at all 😅
one of those songs that makes you wanna dance very slow and and very wild at the same time! i love the electronic approach here! i think the lead voice was that of elisabeth pawelke, who was part of the band waaaay in the early beginnings until 2008 ).
this is oliver and in the back you can also glimpse niel, who's the magician on synthesizer, samplers and electronically created sounds.
in this song einar selvik of the band wardruna is joining the band, creating a mesmerizing and bewitching piece of musical sorcery.
and for the final picture, let's have a song where you can hear fiona's voice quite well. it is the alto voice you can hear underneath the clear and high voice of, again, katja moslehner, who clearly had/has an amazing voice as well!
this song is just pure magic, really. it is SO bewitching and enchanting, capturing the feeling of a winter full of snow and ice perfectly!
i hope someone did enjoy this little foray into germany's medieval music scene, and maybe even liked a band or two?
i quite love music ( as you probably would've guessed by my musical playlists i post on a monthly base ), but i rarely go deeper into the matter on this blog of mine. so i think it's quite nice for once to accompany some of my pictures with a musical background :) and if you didn't like it, well, we will be back to regular posting soon enough ;)
until then,
stay curious!
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