Arne Jansen & Stephan Braun

"Going Home"
Arne Jansen & Stephan Braun
The scent of childhood. The parents' comforting bedtime song. The first kiss. How great it would be if you could preserve the magical impressions of a young life forever! Not in the form of a discolored snapshot, but in its entire emotional essence. As an "explosion in the heart", so to speak, as the lyrics of the Dire Straits song "Romeo & Juliet" say.

One thing is clear: the most famous songs of the most successful British rock group of the 1980s have never been heard like on "Going Home". It even goes so far as to make it difficult or even impossible to recognize some of the million-selling hits until very late in the day, allowing you to rediscover them for yourself - be it "Money for Nothing", which is reborn as a waltz with a certain desert-rock twang, or the incredibly easy-going, dancing "Sultans of Swing" or the almost clubby, psychedelic "Calling Elvis".

In addition to Jansen's solo performance of the title track with its fine chord-melody poetry, the silent duo reading of the world hit "Brothers in Arms" is particularly impressive. Jansen has a special connection to the latter - in 2012 he played the number with his trio at a concert as part of the Koktebel Jazz Festival in Crimea, which was still Ukrainian at the time. "That was a very moving moment, there were real fraternization scenes afterwards," says the guitarist, "that's when you realize: Mark Knopfler manages to write songs that conceal deeper truths that make something resonate in people all over the world."

A vacation trip during which he listened exclusively to Miles Davis and Mark Knopfler made the guitarist, who lives just outside Berlin, realize that his two heroes Miles and Mark have more in common than is generally thought. Especially when it comes to their ability to tell a deeply personal story with just a few notes.

"Someone is really revealing something about themselves," explains Jansen. "That's exactly what interests me now - that the listener realizes what meaning the music has for you. And that's also what this album is about: singing on the instrument."