Dead & Gone #1: Trauermärsche - Funeral Marches

CD, Trikont 1997

Track list: Leichenzug mit Blaskapelle - Banda De Tontontepec: Tres Marias - Albert Ayler: Our Prayer - Robert Wyatt: Song for Che - Brass Band and Village Drummers in the Fanti Area of Ghana: A Village Funeral - Tuxedo Brass Band: Nearer My God to Thee - Begräbniskapelle aus Saigon: Trauer-Sturmmarsch - Jopie Vrieze's Klein Bazuin: Hymn - Buck Funk & Reverend Anthony W. Reves - West Lawn Dirge / Just a Closer Walk with Thee - "Banda Musicale" der Vucciria, Palermo: Karfreitagsprozession - Serbische Blaskapelle: Begräbnismelodie - Central Band of the RAF: Marche Funèbre - Olympia Brass Band: In the Sweet Bye and Bye - Willem Breuker Kollektief: Ases Death - Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester: Trauermarsch - Mike Westbrook Orchestra: Free as a Bird - George Lewis Eureka Brass Band: The Old Rugged Cross - Tom Waits: Anywhere I Lay My Head

This is a rather macabre compilation. I don't know if it's too healthy to listen to this kind of music all day long, but if you enjoy sad music, here's a fine compilation of various funeral marches. Most of the songs are performed by various brass bands and orchestras, but there's some variation. Most touching, at least to me, is the simple "Marche Funèbre" performed by the Central Band of the RAF. The melody is familiar to most of you, I'm sure. The cd features also quite nice and humorous pictures by Josè Guadalupe Posada, you just have to love those little skeletons. They sure do lighten up the otherwise sad and serious mood of the compilation. ***