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Faust: Lauft... Heisst Das es Lauft Oder es Kommt Bald... Lauft

aka Lauft (Alt), Psalter, Psalter (slow), 13/8, Psalter (5 May 1994), Psalter

Author : Jean Hervé Péron

"PSALTER. Everything of the psalter turns me on: the word in itself with the percussive hiss of 'ps' followed by the sensual combination of a white "a" and the kind of moist mistery of 'l'. I think already the name of this instrument is a perfect short sample of what it sounds like. The birth of this tune is based on 13. 4+2+4+3 = 13. That's for the rhythm. The harmonies are fa, sol, la from A major and their relative minors in the breaks: Dm, Em, F#m. I like A major for its positive and energetic inherent mood (imho). I use the minors in order to stay on the same energy level but still change the feel. The melody was created rather by hazardly taking fitting notes and trying to ascend by each new sentence. In the instrumental break, I decided to use quarts (fourths) which are to me like odd numbers: open and castrated. The lyrics? I felt I was not scared anymore of loosing neither my teeth nor my time. So I said so in my mother tongue: 'Je n'ai plus peur de perdre mon temps, je n'ai plus peur de perdre mes dents'. Later on, Peter Blegvad explained that you can't loose, win or kill time and, just in case you'd somehow manage to do it, it would not be a crime anyway. On the end part, I pick a straight 4/4 from D, C, B and eventually it all flows in the open sea of the almighty E major. The symbolic of the increasingly loud alarm-clocks appealed to me although i cannot really explain why. Someone mentioned (I vaguely recall he was a well known musician - his name?? was it ironic?? :) How he loved the hand clapping :) I like it too. The line up is all Faust on hand clapping (trying dead-serious not to laugh histerically while recording,) Zappi (2 meters high and 120 kilo strong) on the psalter (30cm big and 150g of fragile substance!) then on the marimbaphon and of course on his magic drumms (dig the drums in Psalter!), Irmler joining at the end on the down-run (familiar pattern, I realise: the organ joining the accoustic guitar at the end of a tune....) and I on guitar/vocals. The ambient studio cuts are from the Wümme mixing room (Kurt and Uwe and whoever of Faust was not IN the recording studio) could address the studio through a 'horrible' mono speaker which sounded to me like... mmmm... not human. So there i was, probably alone in the studio and going through the usual ritual of not knowing wether we were recording or if they were still 'checking'... So Kurt would say 'lauft!' ('running') but most of the time they would stop for some (in my smoked head) obscure reason. So this time I wanted to make sure it was no kiddin' and really running! So I asked 'does it mean it's running or will it be SOON running?' and Kurt answers 'running!' Psalter is also a good tune to freak out while dancing: it creates a spiral and if you keep turning round and round, suddenly you'll start to levitate! So, careful with the Psalter ... :)))", Jean-Hervé Péron, mail to teh faust list, 4th Dec 2004.

Recordings
  Lauft... Heisst Das es Lauft Oder es Kommt Bald... Lauft  3.35 
from  Faust IV
  Lauft (Alt)  4.12 
from  Faust IV
  Psalter  4.05 
from  71 Minutes Of....  /  The Last LP  /  Virgin Sound  /  Faust: The Wümme Years
  Psalter (slow)  2.46 
   1980
 
from  Patchwork 1971-2002
  13/8  2.12 
from  The Faust Concerts 1
  Psalter (5 May 1994)  5.27 
   Live at Real Art Ways, Hartford, 5 May 1994
 
  Psalter
   Aberdeen Tunnels, 2005
 
from  Faust in Autumn