TOMAHAWK ARCHIVES: THE KAISER’S MUSIKKORPS OF THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918

Discovered in 1997 in the attic of a house in the medieval Eastern German town of Quedlinburg by music-enthusiast Tony Dean, this unique collection of the earliest known German military 78rpm-shellacks survived the upheaval of the First World War, the Allied saturation bombing of World War II and the post-war Russian Occupation and now, almost 100 years on, have been painstakingly restored by one of the UK’s most experienced studio engineers, Simon Wood, using the latest versions of Cedar Noise Reduction and the updated Sadie-DEW audio-editing systems ...! Offering the rarest insight into German Instrumental & Bandstand Music of the Great War, these incredible shellacks were originally recorded before Spring 1916 and are representative of the 78 rpm records German officers played on their wind-up gramophones in the trenches, so reminding them of the ‘golden years of peace’ before August 1914! Working with antique recordings of bands playing ‘live’ into a large horn onto wax cylinders some very old faults cannot be remedied without physically altering the integrity of those records, so in places the odd, click hiss or tiny section of distortion will still be apparent, but remembering their true age & rarity, one must marvel at the stunning job that ‘Woody’ has done to bring these recordings back to life! 16 instrumental tracks include: Marsch des 1. Bataillons-Garde, Mussinan-Marsch, Konig Karl Marsch, Parademarsch im Galopp, Fridericus-Rex-Grenadiermarsch, Tone Jubel Marsch, Sternengefunkel, Johann Marsch mit Forhsinn, Trabmarsch des 1. Garde-Ulanen and the Kaiser Frierich Marsch performed y usikkorps der Garde-Pioniere Berlin, Garde-Kurassier-Regiment, Musikkorps des 106. Inf.-Regt. “Konig Georg”, Kaiser-Franz-Garde-Grenadier-Regiment and the Musikkorps der Kaiser1. II Sebataillons, Wilhemlmshaven