Download from Bandcamp

Physical: http://goatytapes.com/#!/tape/die-lieder-1981-1983-1986/

Die Lieder compiles early recordings by Die Welttraumforscher, the audio-visual avatar of Swiss native Christian Pfluger. Pfluger has spent the last thirty years refining a curious brand of hypnotic, experimental pop. His discography plots the story of the “world dream researchers” — benevolent aliens who visit Earth and deposit clues to an enlightened intergalactic culture. Each album cultivates this core mythology with new lyrical episodes, sonic excursions, and Pfluger’s pen and ink illustrations.

Side A of Die Lieder presents selections from Vanidras Kult (1981) and Reise Nach Bretzelberg (1983). These are Pfluger’s earliest albums, made up of dreamy vignettes that fuse toy keyboards and lo-fi atmospherics. They are the cream of first-wave bedroom messthetics, with an eerie acoustic ambience equally at home among the more cosmic folk revivalists. Side B presents selections from the legendary Binika (1986) and ends with the pop masterpiece This Could be the Greatest Love in Town. Here, die Welttraumforscher shifts toward bona-fide synth-pop, equal parts casio minimalism and lush, stumbling balladry.

The tape includes an accordion booklet with liner notes by Pfluger — reminiscences delivered with an endearing, casual sincerity. As much for die-hard Welttraum-heads as it is for the uninitiated, Die Lieder is a singular journey through Pfluger’s emergent musical cosmos and the early years of the Swiss bedroom underground.

1. goatytapes.com