Fai Baba Sings the Changes

4 March 2022 saw the release of guitarist/singer songwriter Fai Baba’s first album in six years. If the title, “Veränderet”, sounds odd, there’s a good reason. Fai Baba has switched from singing in English to his native tongue, Swiss German. “Veränderet” is released by A Tree In A Field Records.

Anyone who witnessed Fai Baba’s early incarnation as the manic vocalist/guitarist in a trio specialising in trippily chaotic psychedelia, will find it hard to believe that the same artist could be responsible for this quietly confident new take on a very Swiss type of post-folk rock. “Veränderet” (“changed”) is Fai Baba’s sixth album. The first five were driven by a sometimes more, sometimes less, desperate search for personal peace. This included experiments with organic drugs in South America and a trip to an ashram in India before settling down on a farm in central Switzerland. Encouraged by his yoga teacher to sing in Swiss German, Fai Baba was not initially convinced that this was a good idea. “I listened to many Swiss songs and concluded that I didn’t want to produce music in this style. So, I created my own dialect music.” Recorded with a band that includes two guitars, bass and drums – plus a guest spot by Ronin’s bass clarinettist Sha – it sounds unhurried, laid-back and organic, the perfect fit, in other words, for Fai Baba’s light and boyish voice. Fai Baba celebrates his comeback with a tour in April of Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg.

Fai Baba
A Tree In A Field Records