Gerhard Egger remains a free flyer

He stands by himself and his “multimusical” life, which once took him from the harmonica to the guitar. Back when love, peace and freedom gave a young generation a new attitude to life, Gerhard Egger freed himself. Musically. Suddenly there was a wide world that needed to be conquered.

The now 74-year-old has remained a free spirit, does not pretend and plays musically with the influences that his background and the fascination for the “wild, new songs” gave him. His name is mentioned in the same breath as the pioneer, the alpine rock pioneer.

The word monster doesn’t really need it, but Egger deserves the credit for being musically unique to this day with his mix of Salzkammergut dialect and rock, folk, country and soul. And so in the opener, which gives his new album its name, he sings about the chance to never have to sound different than what his heart tells him, free from all constraints. A privilege.

An album like a script

“Freiflug” is a typical Egger work. Conceptually conceived to be understood as a cinematic script. But it is also coherent in its twelve individual parts, completely independently of one another.

Egger places the blonde Susi, who shakes her hair like Marilyn Monroe, in an upbeat country-folk environment. “Feia and Flamm” not only reflects a conviction that has never left the songwriter and musician over the decades, but also a clear commitment to his origins and cosmopolitanism. And so the “Gosinger Hymn” fits at the end. That’s where he came from, that’s where he belongs. Also.

Gerhard Egger & Die Mostrocker: “Freiflug” (Birne Records)