Paul Plut – Lieder vom Tanzen und Sterben (2017, Austria)
[This guest post was written by Urban (aka @Banur, previously @Almoehi) about number 98 on The List. The album was also submitted by Urban.]
Ois wos guat is in da Wöt Konnst in a Tuchant aus Lärchnhoiz legn
(“Everything good in the world, you can lay down into a coffin made out of larch wood”)
– “Lärche“
Talking about Austrian music is a little hard, especially when it comes to dialect, and when you are writing not in your native language. So forgive me about the grammar and the not perfect sentences. Translations are roughly made by myself.
Paul Plut’s[1] Lieder vom Tanzen und Sterben (“Songs of Dance and Death”) is a beautiful dark folksy album that found a niche for him and itself in the diverse Austrian music scene.
Lots of Austrian folk music, especially sung in the Viennese dialect, had a dark and morbid touch (like Ludwig Hirsch[2]), but Paul Plut didn’t want to recreate that. It’s not morbid and it’s less humorous than others. It’s dark and depressive, melancholic and sometimes also uplifting. Something made from someone who knew which way he wanted to go.
Heiliger Vota, valoss mi jetz nit
(“Holy Father, don’t leave me now”)
– “Vota”
Coming from Ramsau am Dachstein, Plut is an autodidact and social media objector who has made music for the theatre since 2009. Later he played in the indie pop band Viech (with a beautiful song called “Stick your competitiveness up your arse”) and blues punk band Marta, bands that are still active and releasing music. Around 2016 he started to make his first solo record, and released one song (plus liner notes) every month for his newsletter,[3] until the album release in 2017. It was very well received in the media and, from my personal perspective, also from lots of people in the alternative scenes. Maybe it’s the DIY attitude that Paul Plut shows with his bands before and here.
But what does it sound like?
Griaß du ma meine Leit, die Freind, den Rausch, die Tschick, des Bluat, des Gift
(“Greet my people, the friends, the ecstasy, the cigarette, the blood, the poison”)
– “Sunn”
A little bit of Tom Waits,[4] some Leonard Cohen, a sprinkle of Johnny Cash and a guitar sound, that at times is depressive and deep, at other times it could be from a western movie (like “Wer”). It could sound like pure chaos but it’s beautifully coherent, e.g., “Vota” rooted in a gospel sound with background singers coming right after a guitar and emotion-heavy song like “Lärche”, then “Sunn”, a fragile ballad that seems positive even though it’s not. The production, earthy and with feeling, helps to produce the feeling of coherence, but also melancholy.
Die Wöt is a Gräberföd, die Wöt is sche
(“The world is a burial ground, the world is beautiful”)
– “Grat“
Lyrically, as mentioned above, it’s a dark album. A personal album about suicide and death, as Plut tried to kill himself twice before.[5] It’s rooted in the place where he comes from and where he wanted to die (in “Toten Gebirge”/”Dead Mountains”), as the cover shows him in front of the place of his suicide attempt, still there but also a part of the stones behind him. Other songs like “Wer” or “Klatsch” are more light-hearted, but still far away from being happy songs.
Se tonzen im Kroas, da Tote tonzt und wü si drahn
(“They dancing in circles, the dead dance and want to spin”)
– “Kreis”
Personally, this album (and Voodoo Jürgens[6]) was the way back to Austrian music in dialect for me. There were people before who recorded in the Austrian dialect, but at the time of this album it was mostly pop acts doing that and almost no one remotely intense like this album. But the dark and depressive atmosphere, the sound and the feeling that you can use your dialect for more than just to use for songs to drink and fuck, made me fall for that.
Paul Plut is still active and his sound is still not very easy to categorise. Dark folk could be the right answer here, and I would recommend also taking a listen to his last album Herbarium.
As he doesn’t like social media: paulplut.com ↩︎Also on The List: 1001otheralbums.com/2024/11/01/ludwig-hirsch-dunkelgraue-lieder-1979-austria/ ↩︎See: paulplut.com/lieder ↩︎Described as “Après-Ski Tom Waits“ in: www.derstandard.at/story/2000067877707/paul-plut-sonnenfinsternis-im-toten-gebirge ↩︎See here: www.argekultur.at/Event/13268/paul-plut-lieder-vom-tanzen-und-sterben ↩︎Also on The List with Ansa Woar, number 887. ↩︎#Austria #AustrianMusic #darkFolk #folk #music #musicDiscovery #PaulPlut
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