Songs for Insomniacs 3: “Ach heile mich” by Cassiber
The German experimental group Cassiber recorded three improvised versions of “O Cure Me,” based on a J. S. Bach recitative ending with the lines “My soul is anxious and fearful with terror; Ah, Lord, why so long?” This is the sparsest version, best for late night listeners. Massimo Ricci characterizes the song nicely:
… a hallucinating circus beginning with Anders chuckling and talking over a chaotic parallelism of volatile harmonies. [Saxophonist] Harth hopelessly tries to restore some balance with more linear (…) phrasings, only to get overwhelmed and blasted out by the return of a Tchaikovsky-ish cadenza leading the foursome towards a crazed garrulity in one of the many dangerously exciting moments of this group’s history. This particular piece should be downloaded in millions of iPods across the globe.
Despair at its most poignant.
