SUSAN WEINERT- RUNNING OUT OF TIME
When Mike Manieri, musical chief of the legendary New York band Steps Ahead, heard Susan Weinert's guitar playing for the first time, he couldn't believe it possible that a woman could play so powerfully, and engaged her on the spot for a tour with his band. What impressed him above all apart from her powerful style was her independence, and he gave the journalists a quote "Susan has carved out her own niche in the cluttered world of guitarists. International recognition is at her doorstep." And that's how it would be; meantime, the energy-laden powerhouse has been half way round the world with her guitar and her songs.
In addition, she has repeatedly been engaged by musicians on the US music scene for their formations as a guest soloist. But for Susan Weinert, work with her own trio, with Martin Weinert (bass) and Hardy Fischotter (drums) always came first. Susan: "I love composing, it's like painting with notes, I can give full rein to my emotions in the music and improvising on my own songs is a challenge for me and gives me a great feeling at the same time." Here she can rely on the blind understanding of both her colleagues. Susan: I really have magnificent interpreters for my songs in Hardy and Martin. I don't have to make any long-winded explanations. Often we just start playing, they both understand my music, and it immediately sounds exactly like I expected." The three musicians have now been treading the same musical path for 16 years already, and over 2,000 concerts have welded them into a homogeneous unit which leaves behind adoring fans and amazed critics wherever they go. With her new album "Running out of time", Susan is cutting totally new paths. After 6 instrumental albums, she is now offering one completely vocal album. It has long been a dream of Susan's to work together with a singer who could write a story to the songs. And two years ago, she found the partner for this project in Francesco Cottone. Susan: "I was caught immediately by Francesco's voice, and knew he'd be able to interpret my songs. After the decision to work together, there started a period of hard work when recordings had to be interrupted repeatedly, because Susan did a number of tours in the last two years to Europe, Africa and South America. Between the tours, she worked on the tracks with Francesco. Susan: "Unfortunately, we're all perfectionists in the band, and we're never satisfied. That doesn't exactly make the work any easier. In fact, the production has taken the longest of any I have ever made. But it's been worth all the work. The album that has appeared carries real conviction with its independence and its rich variety. Susan's compositions are artistically-woven carpets above which Francesco Cottone's expressive voice floats. The strengths of the trio haven't been sacrificed; earthy grooves and virtuoso soli don't come too short. Persuasive is Susan Weinert's versatility of sound and virtuoso handling of the instrument, and Hardy Fischotter dazzles with his tasteful grooves and inventive soli, and underscores one more time that he belongs to the technically best equipped and most imaginative drummers on the scene. Susan Weinert has grasped perfectly how to integrate the voice with her powerful music, and Francesco Cottone displays a multi-faceted brilliance. He uses his charismatic voice to sing Susan's compositions at times with bewitching beauty, at times with a smoky-soul timbre, as if they were his own pieces and his voice blends to a homogeneous unity with the instruments. The extremely demanding texts, all of which are from his own pen, are presented in English. They are fascinating and thought-provoking at once; they are his own reflections on his journeys to the inner self, the delving into the inner oceans which conceal so many stories that it would take more than a lifetime to relate even fragments of them.
You should take your time with this album, really let yourself into the music, as musically Susan is responsible for the heavy pieces. Easy listening and bar music are not her thing. She goes to work without compromise and sets herself new musical challenges, introduces unusual instrumentations and experiments with a wide variety of guitar sounds and virtual sound generation.
One thing is for sure: whoever takes the time will be rewarded with a broad musical spectrum which awakens deep emotions for 52 minutes.