Hans Haider: Lautarre mal 2 (1977)

Re-up on request:
A German luthier who plays his own compositions on a self-developed lute-guitar. This is a very beautiful album that has evolved into a personal favorite. The music is warm and soothing and equally suited to be listened to closely or just to create a calm atmosphere.

Haider's compositions tend to the classical side but show many other influences, too, such as folk and jazz. None of these pieces wears it's influences on it's sleeve, though. The opening "Cancion para Olivia" is a good example. Even if it is titled "Cancion", it is structured like a small concerto, with a lively first movement that introduces a lovely theme, followed by two slower movements (adagio and andante, if you will) and a reprise and variation of the first movement. "Pour Barbara" has a bit of a jazzy drive, an influence that is more obvious on "Stephan's Swing", which sounds like a (very relaxed) variation on gypsy/manouche jazz. I like all tunes here and most are probably best categorized as being simply "guitar music".

The following was cobbled together from the album's liner notes and from German wikipedia (which has an entry on Haider as well his "Lautarre"):

Haider was a skilled luthier who teached himself to play guitar. He played with several popular orchestras (James Last) and Schlager singers (Caterina Valente), as well as working with guitarists such as Sigi Schwab or David Qualey.
Haider's guitar-concertos and compositions for solo guitar were recorded by several radio stations. He also worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Music in Hamburg.

Haider started to develop his own type of instrument in the 1970s, the "Lautarre" (from "Laute" and "Gitarre"). There are variations of the lute-guitar with 6, 7, 8 even 13 strings. Talking about the seven-string version, Haider said: "Thanks to the seventh string and a longer neck the sound possibilities are broadened by a quint down and a quart up. What's more, the sound is much fuller thanks to a doubled sound board. The biggest benefit though is the possibility to play all kinds of music without having to change the guitar all of the time. Everything is possible from renaissance lute music and classical music, to bossa-nova, flamenco, folk and jazz."

The instrument on "Lautarre mal 2" is an 8-string model with a cutaway. The album was recorded at Haider's own studio using overdubs to add a second lute-guitar, which explains the title that translates to "Lute-guitar 2 times".

Hans Haider: Lautarre mal 2
Eulenspiegel (Ger) EULP 1016

Side A
Cancion para Olivia 5:07
Serbian Dance 3:13
Memories of a Summerday 6:21
lndian Walz 3:22

Side B
Pour Barbara 3:00
Summer's Beauty 6:21
Stephan's Swing 3:30
Improvisation 6:03

All tunes written by Hans Haider