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If it had been up to Andreas Dorau's teacher, "Fred Vom Jupiter," his biggest hit, would never have seen the light of day. The 16 year-old Dorau wrote the song during project week at school and his tutor was of the opinion that the composition was therefore the intellectual property of his institute of learning. Luckily, the teacher in question didn't get his way. And, as they say, the rest is history. In the year 1981, the small, cool Düsseldorf label Ata Tak first released "Fred Vom Jupiter" as a single, selling 20,000 copies in the space of a few months, followed up by the Blumen Und Narzissen LP. It is a strange album, for the most part conceived and executed by a 16 year-old on a family holiday in the mountains. And what is even more extraordinary: it was successful. For Blumen Und Narzissen was a pop album, and when one considers the time (1981) and place (FRG) of its creation, then nothing would have appeared to have had less of a chance of success than a pop album in Germany. The mainstream charts were led by the Smurfs and Ernst Mosch, bars and discos resounded to the sound of Deutschrock and blues, while beyond the mainstream, well-meaning tree-huggers and punks ruled the roost -- two marginal groups whose seriousness was a bore. A tiny niche was occupied by Dorau's soulmates, the likes of Der Plan, Palais Schaumburg et al, but in this very niche they were destined to remain. Blumen Und Narzissen is -- even decades later -- a great album. Dorau had actually planned on issuing not just the one single on Ata Tak, but ten further singles, each on a different independent label he admired. Thus Blumen Und Narzissen sounds just like that: a collection of singles. "Nordsee," "Junger Mann," and "Tulpen Und Narzissen" certainly had the potential to become hits. Connoisseurs will note parallels to the golden years of pop: singles, a girl group (Die Marinas), a passion for style. And now? Not much has really changed. The German charts continue to showcase an equally gruesome parade of local talent. And because good pop music is good pop music, Blumen Und Narzissen has found and will continue to find fans both at home and abroad. Both strange and contrary, Blumen Und Narzissen sounds neither old-fashioned nor 30 years old. Housed in a digipak with liner notes, rare photos and six bonus tracks which appear on CD for the first time.
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