Schwarzwaldfahrt 1977

"In the spring of 1977, two musicians—Han Bennink and Peter Brötzmann—disappeared into the depths of a German deity known as the Black Forest..."—David Keenan

Black Forest Trip 1977 is a magical document of a moment outside of time—a moment in which saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Han Bennink set off deep into the heart of the Black Forest, equipped with cameras and one of the first portable recording devices to capture the sound of the moment.

The recordings made there were released by FMP in 1977 under the title Schwarzwaldfahrt (Black Forest Trip) and are now considered classics of free music: recorded entirely in the open air, with duets by Brö and Bennink with birds, splashing in streams, drumming on giant wooden xylophones, and recording airplanes crossing the sky. It is music of elemental connection, expansive, raw, and free.

This new book contains the original recordings on CD and is built around a newly discovered treasure trove of photographs taken by Brötzmann and Bennink themselves during their journey. Photos of each other, their accommodations, their rituals, and their path into and out of the forest.

To accompany the photos (and music), award-winning author David Keenan (This Is Memorial Device, Monument Maker) contributes a poetic and haunting text that places the duo's radical musical gesture in the larger context of their artistic work—while also reflecting on the strange beauty and timeless aura of the images, images that themselves seem like an echo of the sound of the dark forest.

"This music is so lonely—these two friends making music alone, in all this space, and beyond time, now too, a document of a world that seems less populated—by people, by ideas, by demands, by the tyranny of modern times itself."— David Keenan

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