Lloyd Cole in Rodelius’ studio in Vienna

Great Googly Moogly! [pronounce the last word “mogue-ly”] This Monk has just discovered that two great tastes that taste great together, Lloyd Cole and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, have a new collaborative album being released on February 22, 2013 called “Selected Studies – V. 1” out on the magnificent Bureau B label. It’s seriously getting so that I can listen to anything this label issues with pleasure and in all honesty, I was not even aware of them until a year ago!

The backstory to this is fascinating. Apparently Cole slipped out an instrumental, electronic album called “Plastic Wood” in 2001 during the time when Cole had completely passed me by. Truth be told, 2001 was a year of explosive change for me and I missed a lot of things. Word has it that a mutual friend sent it to Roedelius who was so taken with it that he made a remix album of the material on his own. Cole approved of the results, but by the time he found out he had moved on so the results weren’t released, but the seeds of this collaboration had been sown. When Cole was touring the world in 2011 [even The Monk saw his show] he made a layover in Vienna so that the two could finally meet. Thanks to broadband, the two were able to begin working at their leisure on the new project.

Bureau B | GER | CD | 2013 | BB124

Lloyd Cole + Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Selected Studies Vol. 1 GER CD [2013]

1. Pastoral
2. Selbstportrait-Reich
3. Wandelbar
4. Still Life With Kannyu
5. TangoLargo
6. Orschel
7. HIQS
8. Fehmarn F/O
9. Virginie L
10. Lullerby

Cole does not sing or play guitar on the album and Roedelius is said to barely touch his lovely piano. And yet this album exists nonetheless! A sampling from our friends at Soundcloud reveals a new form of beauty from the heretofore sturdily traditional Cole previously unknown to these ears. Having been ignorant of “Plastic Wood’s” existence, this collaboration came as a bolt from the blue to these widened eyes. But even if I had no preconceptions of Lloyd Cole prior, this would have been at least on the periphery of my radar via the participation of Roedelius. Last year I bought many of his titles after decades of hearing about him to find that I enjoyed all of the albums a great deal. It became apparent that I would probably enjoy any album that he had played on.

It pleases me that Cole can work so far out of his normal comfort zone in this electronic world; so alien to the songwriting traditions he normally embodies. Let’s have more matchups between singer-songwriters and Krautrock pioneers! Anyone up for Chris Isaak and Klaus Schulze?

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