Much of the new album by actress Katrin Sass (“Good Bye, Lenin!”, “Usedom-Krimi”) comes across as a kind of musical autobiography. On “Am Wasser”, which will be released on Friday, the 66-year-old, in the style of a chanson singer, sings about life in and after the GDR, her alcohol addiction, which has now been overcome, and her beloved dog Lucky. “Now was just the time for it,” said the actress of the German Press Agency.
Ten years ago, Sass released an album with songs she sang in the television series “Weissensee” in her role as a chanson singer and piano teacher. During performances, she was repeatedly asked for her own songs.
Your voice is the focus
Accompanied by piano and accordion, Sass’ voice is the focus of the music. The lyrics are sometimes self-deprecating, melancholic, sometimes combative and come up with one or two punch lines. So she sings dreamily and longingly about what it would be like to live her life again, only to mock at the end: “No, better get wrinkles then.” “There’s a ghost living in my closet,” Sass sinks into the tango “Witching Hour”. In the end, it turns out to be her Stasi file.
The song “Drink, Sister, Drink” is dedicated to Sass’ overcome alcohol addiction. “By my early 40s I had overcome my addiction, saw the world more clearly in two senses and noticed things again that I hadn’t noticed before,” Sass recalled. “It was a great attitude towards life not to be trapped in it anymore.”
In her lyrics, the Schwerin-born artist shows a lack of understanding for people who, in retrospect, gloss over the GDR or even wish for it back. “Today displeasure is freely expressed and some people forget that in the GDR you could go to prison for making such statements,” she said. Because of her longing for freedom, the moment the Wall came down was indelibly burned into her memory. “I remember exactly, I was standing in my kitchen in Babelsberg when the news came.”
The songs live from the stories
Most of the texts come from the author Antek Krönung, who was based on Sass’ autobiography “Happiness never gets old”. The music is by Rainer Oleak, who has worked with the Puhdys, Manfred Krug and Armin Müller-Stahl, among others. Apart from two instrumental songs, the 13 songs live mainly from the stories that Sass tells. They give entertaining insights into her eventful life, show what drives her politically and how or rather where she gathers strength: “On the water”.
“You can find peace by the water, thoughts can circulate and you feel a sense of freedom, especially by the sea,” said the artist, who went to drama school in Rostock and regularly on Usedom for the crime thriller named after the island as a former prosecutor in front of the The camera stands and lures an audience of millions in front of the television. A recurring theme is the longing and restlessness of the actress (“Always On”). When asked if she had arrived in the meantime, Sass’ answer was brief: “I don’t know.”
