Die Tour mit Band

Gentle, wistful and sacred - that's the sound of the new Dagobert album "Rama Kalala". On what is now his eighth studio album, the Swiss pop innovator focuses on his core competence: the love song. And there is a lot of love on "Rama Kalala", so much so that you want to blush from time to time at all the honest feelings that touch you in these 34 minutes like a warm embrace.

It all begins with the song "Hör auf dein Herz", a great pop song and an immediate Scrooge classic, in which love remains as unheard as hope remains immortal, without any kind of despair creeping in, because love is far too pure and hope far too much the essence of life itself.

It becomes spiritual again and again, as in the next song "Das innere Licht", in which Dagobert sings about a telepathic connection that could not be more poignant. "I see how you shine / I see you / I see the inner light / I stand in your love / It fills me / It is the inner light".

Dagobert also surprises us once again with ethnological influences, because he has been consistently developing his sound for years and always gives his listeners much more than what is expected. This is also the case in his home song "Komm zu mir in die Berge" (Come to me in the mountains), which loosens up the contemplative sentimentality of the album a little.

"Lady Kalala" is the first ever English-language Dagobert song, which features a delightful indie beat and a magnificent saxophone solo by Swiss jazz legend Christoph Gallio and, despite its sad lyrics, comes across with an upbeat lightness that is a lot of fun.
"Rama Kalala" is the fifth collaboration with producer Konrad Betcher, who presents Dagobert's songs here in a mostly intimate and reduced manner. The influence of Alice Coltrane's Hindu late work is always present in the form of spherical synths, mantra-like choirs and the reduction of rhythm elements to tambourine and hand claps, which also explains the album title. Overall, "Rama Kalala" is permeated by a pleasant lo-fi indie sound that beautifully conveys the emotionality of Dagobert's lyrics.
Dagobert dedicates a particularly impressive love song to his mother, who has dementia, and even in this situation finds words that act like a plaster for the soul: "You have now overcome reason / And no longer need language / You have found love / Your river now flows into the sea".