Malenkij Wolk
Photo taken by: Marco Grundmann
[tags: acoustic folk, singer-songwriter]
Listen while reading:
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I’m happy to introduce another german folk artist/singer-songwriter to you. Today it’s Clemens Scholtysik from Leipzig/Germany performing under the moniker Malenkij Wolk – meaning little wolf. The name itself was inspired by an animation film by russian film maker Jurij Norstein.
Malenkij Wolk as a band was founded 5 years ago as a project of Clemens and his brother but in the last two years more members joined and with them a big variety of instruments such as guitar, bass, percussion, cello, viola, piano, accordion, saxophon and vocals. But for now most of the members left the band due to professional issues and so Clemens continues Malenkij Wolk as a singer-songwriter singing and writing songs on his own.
Few days ago I stumbled upon the Balcony TV session he did and I really liked what I heard. I checked out his MySpace profile and I was sure that I found another talented artist from Germany. I contacted him and asked for some songs he kindly sent me. As I listen to them I can feel a strong melancholic moment in them not at least because of the expressive but also mirthless and lonely voice. All tracks seem to be sad to the bone although Clemens and his former band enrich them for example with some noisy flavor as in The Feast or some explosive instrumentation as in The Swimmer.
Photo taken by: Marco Grundmann
But overall the music is very calm and refelctive and I listen to it with great pleasure. Maybe I would have liked the tracks even more if they were just vocals and acoustic guitar but as you can hear in the two tracks I embedded in the post (both from his 2007 debut Slipping Through The Black Curtain) this man knows how to write songs and how to implement instruments in a very positive way.
His current work as a solo singer-songwriter can be heard on his MySpace profile. The songs Just An Illusion, Cemetery Of The Noname, Dance When The Year Is Dying and Don’t You Know give you a perfect picture of his abilitys. I think his whole style improved and the new songs are just beautiful and got what I missed a bit in some of the tracks recorded together with the whole band: great intimacy (and just vocals and guitar).
I really look forward to the next release by Malenkij Wolk because I believe Clemens Scholtysik has much talent and it is a good feeling to know that the german folk scene got another talented artist to count on in the future. Be sure to check out his new songs on MySpace and don’t forget to watch the Balcony TV session featuring him.
