Tank Battles (1988)

Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler is a solo album by German singer Dagmar Krause released by Antilles New Directions on LP and CD in 1988. It is a collection of 22 songs (LP release) and 26 songs (CD release) by German composer Hanns Eisler and sung by Krause in English. She also sang the songs in the original German which were simultaneously released by Antilles on a companion album, Panzerschlacht: Die Lieder von Hanns Eisler on LP and CD.

Tank Battles was reissued by Voiceprint Records in 1994 with all its original tracks from Tank Battles, plus ten bonus tracks taken from the German edition, Panzerschlacht.

Reception

In a review of Tank Battles at AllMusic, John Dougan called it " worthy follow up" to Krause's previous album, Supply and Demand. He said her vocals here are "stunning" and the instrumental backing is "impeccable".

Writing in The Wire, Philip Clark called Tank Battles a "laudable attempt" by Krause to present a modern interpretation of songs by Eisler-Brecht. He said producer Greg Cohen's "sensitive arrangements" of the album's material "winningly evokes 1920s Berlin". Clark stated that Krause's "vocal production, the shaping of her melodic contours and the brittle, staccato phrasing" all owes itself to Eisler's work.

Legacy

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Personnel

• Dagmar Krause – vocals
• Alexander Bălănescu – viola
• Steve Berry – double bass
• Michael Blair – percussion
• Lindsay Cooper – bassoon
• Andrew Dodge – keyboards
• Phil Edwards – saxophone
• John Harle – saxophone
• Sarah Homer – clarinet
• John Leonard – bassoon
• Ian Mitchell – clarinet
• Bruce Nockles – trumpet
• Ashley Slater – tuba
• Steve Sterling – horns
• Graeme Taylor – guitar, banjo
• Gertrude Thoma – vocals
• Danny Thompson – double bass
• John Tilbury – keyboards