Lotti Tauber's Concern and Simplicity Volume 1: Original Recordings 1981-1986 is Out Now on Freedom to Spend!

Lotti Tauber’s Concern and Simplicity Volume 1: Original Recordings 1981-1986 arrives today on Freedom to Spend, a testament of music's ability to provide a dialogue between pain and joy.

Years ago, Matt at Freedom to Spend began picking up copies of Lotti Tauber’s eight self-recorded, privately pressed albums released in the 80s; at first based on the mysterious, surrealist illustrations adorning the covers, and then for the stunning solo piano compositions that each contained. Operating as an outsider, unknown even within a small Swiss scene, Tauber crafted music that staddled aesthetic worlds, and was unapologetically for and of herself.

Throughout her life, Tauber’s playing was chronically hindered by pain from tendonitis, a condition worsened by a 1973 car accident. To overcome these challenges, she developed a unique playing style and approach to minimalism. As Kristen Gallerneaux notes in her incredible liner notes, Tauber’s compositional simplicity functions as “a counterspell against stasis,” a permission and challenge to both musician and listener to “abolish, preserve, [and] transcend” the out-of-jointedness of subjective experience.

Concern and Simplicity captures the singular curiosity that links all of Tauber’s pursuits, from her education in the psychic structures of Jungian psychoanalysis, to her research into an array of global / historical mystical traditions, to the DIY ethos of music production that she defended despite her disabilities. It is a curiosity that asks what we might hear if we listen to those wordless parts of ourselves, if we engage with an endless, eternal dialogue with the self.

We are honored to reintroduce Lotti’s vibrant inner world to our own. A special thank you to Vincent de Roguin for the tireless research and advice, and to Tauber’s family – Marianne and Julian Ludwig, and Christian and Roswith Tauber – for entrusting us with Lotti’s music. Below are Lotti’s siblings, Marianne and Christian.

This archival volume serves a heartfelt, humbled dedication to Lotti, whom we never knew but know so well now.

Lotti Tauber’s Concern and Simplicity Volume 1: Original Recordings 1981-1986 is available now in vinyl and digital editions from Freedom to Spend.