Hinterlandt - Ode to Doubt (hinterlandt.org)

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

Hinterlandt is the ongoing project of the German born, Sydney based composer, arranger and musician Jochen Gutsch. Gutsch cut his teeth on classical music in Europe in the 1970’s but soon became interested in the guitar and alternative rock music. He moved to Australia in 2000 and his music began to develop into highly arranged contemporary chamber music. This is his follow up album to ‘Ensemble’ in 2016 and is a concept based the positive aspects of doubt. Lyrics on the three vocal pieces such as ‘Embrace the insecurity’ and ‘You’re almost halfway there’ support the four instrumental pieces which include violin, cello, xylophone while Gutsch also plays trumpet, piano and glockenspiel. ‘Break a Leg’ is one of those instrumentals with an arrangement full of good humour with unpredictable twists, turns and colourful shapes. The music can become incredibly simple sometimes with single note dialogue between xylophone and cello or xylophone and string section but this only adds to the ornate textures of the broader aesthetic. ‘Draw a Line’ fuses soft rock folk elements with chamber music using the unison vocals of Brian Campeau and Nicole Smede. Packaged in plain recycled cardboard, this music has all the hallmarks of the artist’s honesty and the acceptance of one’s fate as a creative artist.

Peter Wockner