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Charlemagne: Sons
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Charlemagne is a man, not a band. Charlemagne is Carl Johns. Johns is ... the leader and songwriter of the psychedelic country-rock band Noahjohn. With Noahjohn on hiatus, Johns continues to assert his prolific musical creativity with the freedom provided by Charlemagne.
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Charlemagne were written as character sketches. Sometimes combining several characters into one voice. Johns sings from the first, second, and third person, and his voice changes just as much, providing each track its own aural fingerprint, with blissful harmonies to boot. For the most part, Charlemagne is pop, sometimes borrowing elements of upbeat folk, roots-rock and droning psychedelia. Nevertheless, some say the songs have a certain sensibility and structure that shares a common lineage with country. Pop songs written like country songs?
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In the midst of the continual struggles to subdue the Saxons, Charlemagne carried on several major campaigns that resulted in territorial expansion. Perhaps the most renowned of these was his expedition into Spain. In 778, during the return from this successful campaign, Charlemagne's rear guard, led by Count Roland of the Breton March, was ambushed by traitorous Basques near Roncesvalles. The story of this episode was immortalized in the epic poem The Song of Roland. The historical importance of this campaign was the establishment of a military district called the Spanish March, a territorial buffer zone between Frankish Gaul and Moslem Spain.
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Charlemagne's biographer, Einhard, reported that the king was surprised by this coronation and that had he known it was going to happen, he would not have gone into the church that day. This report has led to much speculation by historians. Charlemagne probably desired and expected to get the imperial title and he subsequently used it. In 813 he designated his sole surviving son, Louis, as his successor, and personally crowned him.
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"This CD features two very special moments of the acoustic production of Charlemagne Palestine. A very peculiar strumming for 2 harpsichords and the first piano composition marking the passage from the electronic music period to strumming technique. Elisabeth Freeman and Charlemagne Palestine met in 1971 at Cal Arts near L.A. while she was a student of the international harpsichord virtuoso Fernando Valenti. The sound and clarity of the harpsichord perfectly fitted the sonic approach of Charlemagne who, in 1975, invented a strumming for her. In 1976 she performed the World Premiere of Strumming for Harpsichord at the Purcell Room in London and the next year, 1977, the American Premiere of this work at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City to critical success.
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[T]hat limited tonal palette ... means that the album as a whole is somewhat monochromatic, which is really the chief failing of Charlemagne. With all those too-genetically-perfect Carolingian harmonies slathered all over everything, it's easy for things to blur a bit, no matter how airtight the melodies are. Still, Johns has put together an engaging record all by his lonesome, which isn't terribly common in the realm of singer/songwriters.
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