String Attack

HISTORY

In the beginning of 1998, somebody gave me Tony Rices CD “Manzanita” to listen to. I had never heard that type of music -a mix between jazz and bluegrass- before.

Except of this, I was impressed by Tony’s playing the guitar. I also burrow into that musical style and instrumentation: acoustic guitar, violin, bass and mandolin.

Interestingly, my first STRING ATTACK CD “Tacos For The Beast” and our live performance with Hans Greuel on bass and Phillip Richter on violin were already going in that direction without knowing this musical style.

But, most important, I was immediately infected by the “Mandolin Virus”! It seems, in musical terms that 1998 should become one of the most influential year since I heard Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin (especially when they came out together with Paco DeLucia and ahe LP “Friday Night In San Francisco”).

Anyway, in 1998 I also saw Michael Flatley’s “Lord Of The Dance”, what blew me away. I loved the performance and the irish/celtic music. I had to follow that music......there again was the mandolin.

In august 1998, I bought my first mandolin and started to learn the instrument, inspired by some of the greatest mandolin players as Sam Bush, David Grismann, Mike Marshall, Butch Baldassari and Simon Mayer.

For whatever reason, I bought a CD of raï music, Khaled’s “Sahara”, as a birthday present. And I kept the CD for myself I`ve got very interested in that kind of music. Some great raï music and artists came across.

That was the third important influence in 1998. If you listen closely to raï music -a mix of North african and South european music- you will find some flamenco type of changes and melodies, also some latin flavored grooves.

This builds the bridge to the music of DiMeola, McLaughlin and DeLucia. Nevertheless, i love to listen to all that music and it’s a great inspiration. But I write my own music by just listening into myself. The music just comes out of me without thinking of other music styles or musicians. It’s simply the music I feel.

f.l. Carol Knauber, Gerd Weiler, Hans Greuel

DISCOGRAPHIE

All acoustic folk - Latin jazz, with a touch of gypsy - jazz

"Worldmusic" with elements of folk and latin mixed with gypsy-jazz, polka and blues.

Instruments: acoustic guitar, bass, upright-bass, percussion, drums, drumsequencer, violin

Released in December 1996

Bass - Hans Greuel, Gero Gellert, Stefan Rademacher

"Jazz" and "Blues" Country

"The Journey" is a musical voyage from Northern Africa to Ireland with stops in the land of jazz and blues.

Instruments: acoustic guitar, quart- & octave guitar, sitar, guitar, mandolin, Irish bouzouki, bass, percussion and violin.

Released in August 2000

Bass - Hans Greuel
Violins - Ingmar Meissner, Michael Pölchau, PhillipRichter
Percussion - Mario Argandona, Alfonso Garrido, Roland Peil
Dobro - Tom Busse
Guitars - Carol T. Knauber