CONNY OCHS Future Fables [CD]

Future Fables is the triumphant third solo LP by melancholic German folk/rock singer/songwriter, CONNY OCHS. The artist’s solitary ventures see him make a marked departure from the direct sounds of modern rock, letting the influences of revered folk singer/songwriters like Woodie Guthrie, Townes van Zandt, Nick Drake and others inform his firm new direction across the course of multiple solo LPs and collaborations. Imported from Germany, the CD version of Future Fables comes in a four-panel mini-gatefold with matte varnish and a lyric book. In mid-2015, having released Freedom Conspiracy with fellow Scott “Wino” Weinrich (St. Vitus, The Obsessed, Shrinebuilder) and completed some touring across Europe, CONNY OCHS once again returned to the studio with Thommy Krawallo, with whom his previous album, Black Happy and both collaborative albums with Wino were created in full analog fashion. The Kabumm Studio had just relocated from its historic location in a former East German and Soviet government radio complex in Berlin, to the wilderness of a rural Brandenburg village. OCHS went in with a bag full of sketches and licks, inhaling the raw atmosphere of the surroundings, a yet unfinished house full of instruments and equipment in the middle of nowhere, also trying to find its place. This unstable environment birthed a new start for him, letting in much more than a breeze of fresh air by widening his instrumental repertoire to drums, electric guitars, piano, bass and organ. The lyrics and stories circulate more than ever around people encountered and journeys undertaken over the past years – the album title referring to our tendency to give an unwritten future some kind of tangibility through dreams and visions. [Exile On Mainstream]