People often are asking me why Klaus Harmony, when he was so famous for the accordion in the 1960's, did not incorporate more of the versatile and universal instrument onto his soundtracks for the Erotik Expressionist movies with Friedrich Wohlfäht.

Well, of course, I cannot say precisely because I am not Klaus and would not presume to know the inner workings of a genius brain but I do have a thesis on the subject.

It is well noted and documented in the biography of Klaus, 'Porno Sonatas' by Godfrey Gilliam, that Klaus may have some less than happy associated memories of the accordion in his life, in particular in connection with his mother Lotte Schmitt.

"In 1948 with a child to support, with Orff having departed from the film circuit to open a chain of stores selling sex toy vent dummies, Lotte embarked on new creative ventures. Influenced by her earlier incarnation as a supporting artiste in the clubs of 1930's Berlin, she created a new form of cabaret, breathtaking for its daring employment of street theatre as a medium from which to comment on events in post-war Berlin. Dressed only in a negligée, she would stand in the windows of shop fronts singing her songs accompanied by the young Klaus on accordion. These songs soon became well known, and ballads such as Der Nun und das Pferd and vaudevillian foot-tappers like Wo Loflt Meinen Kleinen Sturzhelm Gehen? have become standard repertoire in certain German circles. During the early-fifties a new aspect of her 'Vaudeville Nouveau' developed whereby she would wait for a man to approach her and together they would retreat upstairs enigmatically, leaving Klaus to carry the act and learn his trade alone.

Ailing health and an utterly rampant drinking problem beset Lotte over the ensuing years and eventually Klaus had to become a solo artiste. His tender age notwithstanding, he knew the songs intimately and, with his accordion, performed them with an uncanny likeness to Lotte's own delivery, moves and all. The part of the act that involved disappearing upstairs he found difficult however, preferring to simply kiss the men on the cheeks. [He later noted, that they seemed to be just as happy with this, sometimes making favorable remarks about his underdeveloped pubescent moustache.] "

He did base his early pop career on this instrument but he soon moved forward into the Progressive Rock style and left it behind. There is always somewhat pain and yearning to be found in the life of an artist to make his art and here, I think, is the pain of Klaus Harmony.

Peace,

Jan Sink