Progressive Rock is certainly first associated with a metropolis like London, but even a dreamy small town like Canterbury could develop into a haven for prog, even though it was a long time ago. But Münster of all places? The name Münster also stands for departure from convention, but the time of the Anabaptists dates back half a millennium. It's hard to believe that a band like Long Distance Calling is making similar waves, but at least the band from Münster is changing the German music scene and a bit of Europe's progressive music scene.
The band's fifth CD bears the meaningful title "Trips" and is completely different from anything the group has done before. Their sound has become more open, less claustrophobic and arrested in the Seventies, allowing for more pop elements. If this term were not so negative, one could say that the songs have become more accessible. Betrayal? Not at all. The trick is that the boys still stay true to each other. "I avoid the word happy because it wouldn't fit either, but the CD is certainly airier and also a bit more positive," bassist Jan Hoffmann sums up. "It was important for us to really let off steam stylistically on this record. We've changed from record to record anyway. Our debut album was very quiet and post-rocky, then it got faster and faster, and the last record was made a little under time pressure. As a result, a lot of the things that make us tick have fallen by the wayside. This time we wanted to take much more time for the details."
Long Distance Calling unites musicians with very different stylistic backgrounds. This broad spectrum has always been the special charm of the Westphalians, but on "trips" the group wanted to continue in all directions at the same time. The album title is not the last thing that stands for this panorama journey. Never before has so much experimentation been done as on this CD, Hoffmann emphasizes. Each song tells its own story in terms of sound and dramaturgy, and the character of the record results from the totality of the stories. "We don't want to be committed to a particular sound," says Hoffmann. "On our last record, everything sounded a little similar. This quickly falls into the trap of having to operate the same core over and over again. So this time we deliberately looked a little more to the left and right."
