Schäbyschigg

A tweed suit, worn out but worn with attitude, with a colourful lining and a button that’s been missing for years: that’s shabby chic – transliterated in Swiss German as schäbyschigg. Or a chandelier with a burnt-out light bulb that nevertheless manages to swathe an entire room in its warm glow: schäbyschigg. Or an old suitcase that’s full of postcards, a battered old mouth organ (you can’t remember why, but it’s there): schäbyschigg. Or a worn-through armchair that still hasn’t lost its charm, with gilded ornaments and coffee stains in a smoky jazz cellar: schäbyschigg. Or a double bass that’s seen better days, but sounds like no other. That’s also schäbyschigg.

Shabby chic – however you write it – means a charming mixture of things quirky, old-fashioned, maybe a bit run-down, slightly saucy, but still stylish, creative and cool. And Schäbyschigg is the name chosen by a band that’s at home between the mountains of Säntis and Pilatus and comprises five cosmopolitan, intrepid musicians. Together, they make music that we might describe as belonging to the category of “new folk”, though it’s almost impossible to pigeon-hole. They dig up old tunes from long ago, polish them, give them a fresh coat of paint, and present them in a new guise. And these five also compose their own music. Sometimes groovy and buoyant, at others melancholic or rustic, but always authentic and fresh. They play songs and dances from real life that communicate sheer joy. With a clarinet, trumpets big and small, tuba and accordion, they take their melodies out into the world. Their music – as they modestly claim – lies somewhere between Kasi Geisser, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. It’s folk music from Switzerland with a new groove: a mixture of wind music, jazz and folk with a pinch of humour. Cult-worthy, original, but somehow casual – how shall we put it? Simply Schäbyschigg!