Skip to content
play

Sarah Maria Sun, The Gurks

Killer Instincts

LabelModeGenreComposition

In stock (ships within 1-2 working days)

€15.40
VAT exempt
+
-

Tracked express shipping from Italy, no customs or import VAT in the EU. Shipping costs

Soprano Sarah Maria Sun and The Gurks perform fifteen songs about bad people doing bad things, from Bernstein, Weill, Tom Waits and Joe Walsh to Schubert, including the first recording of Stefan Wolpe's Hitler.

Sarah Maria Sun’s “Killer Instincts” is a gloriously creative and colorful collection of songs about bad people doing bad things. It is also a concept album, a pleasurable journey in bad people’s shoes.

To find just the right lyrics, Sarah brought together songs from a wide range of genres, from classical art song, opera, Broadway, movie soundtracks, to classic rock and pop. How can this mix work? In these songs, Sarah inhabits a wide range of characters, at the same displaying her amazing abilities in disparate styles.

The arrangements, by Max Renne and Sarah, are as clever as the repertoire. Bernstein’s virtuoso “Glitter and Be Gay” is reimagined for an ensemble of banjos and guitar, and his “There’s a Law About Men” is sung to an electronic background of the orchestral accompaniment chopped and minced with filters.

Joe Walsh’s rock classic “Life’s Been Good” is accompanied by just bass guitar. Tom Waits’ “Just the Right Bullets” becomes a wild west meets surf music arrangement. Others are sung basically straight: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “I Put a Spell on You,” the Schubert melodrama “Abschied von der Erde” and the first recording of Stefan Wolpe’s harrowing “Hitler.”

Keep an open mind and enjoy the ride!

Packaged in deluxe Digipak with 32-page book including all of the song texts in English and German.

Sarah Maria Sun, voices
with The Gurks: Jan Philip Schulze, piano, organ
Hubert Steiner, electric, acoustic & Hawaiian guitars, banjo, bass guitar
Bernd Oezsevim, drums & percussion
Axel Nitz, baritone saxophone
Max Renne, piano
Arrangements: Max Renne, Sarah Maria Sun

Details
Instruments: VoiceGuitarBanjo
Cat. number: MODE 321
Year: 2020

Format

Packaged in deluxe Digipak with 32-page book including all of the song texts in English and German.

Tracklist
1Lucky Day Overture
2Justice
3When You're Good To Mama
4Lied des Lotterieagenten
5Political Science (Let's Drop the Big One)
6Hitler
7I Put A Spell On You
8I Don't Understand The Poor
9Just The Right Bullets
10There's A Law About Men
11Life's Been Good
12Glitter And Be Gay
13A Little Brains, A Little Talent
14The Ladies Who Lunch
15Abschied von der Erde, D. 829