CDs, DVDs & Sheet Music Books

Natur pur

Wild. Authentic. Earthy. That is what the Jüüzli and songs of the formation „Natur pur“ are like. A handful of Muotathalers came together in 2007 to create an unadulterated document of their time in this snapshot. With the simplest of means they captured their singing. 

How will the ancestral songs of our forebears sound to you? Might this music awaken something in you too? Immerse yourself and listen to the archaic singing from the wildly romantic Muotatal. You may well find yourself covered in goosebumps. Because the simplest thing is often the most beautiful. Because the juuz is the alpine language of the heart.

This CD is different - and therefore a genuine rarity. It has now appeared in a second edition.

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Natur pur & Echo vom Schattenhalb

How does it feel to hear a Muotathal Naturjuuz? Or an almost forgotten melody played on ancient Schwyzerörgeli? Might it stir feelings that surprise even you? That would be no surprise at all. For far from western, well-tempered vocal and instrumental harmonies, music is performed in this unique valley at the heart of central Switzerland just as the forebears of today's protagonists performed it.  And as unique as the Muotatal itself is, so is the music made there.

With the CD «Schrägers und Gräders us äm Muotatal», the Juuzer group «Natur pur» and the Schwyzerörgeli formation «Echo vom Schattenhalb» take the listener on a musical journey through time that has no equal. Traditional, sprightly Schwyzerörgeli dances combined with heartily sung Jüüzli and wistful Chuäreihäli, the ancestral song of the Muotatal. A gem of folk music and folklore alike!

Order the CD "Schrägers und Gräders"

Black Creek

Behind the name Black Creek stand three lads from the Muotathal/Illgau area who served up treats from right across 50 years of music history with a great deal of charm and wit.

The story of Black Creek begins at Christmas 2008 in Canada, on the farm of one Edith-Mary Manseau. By a roundabout route, Bernhard Betschart, Andy Betschart and Remy Bürgler had „washed up“ there to celebrate Christmas together, with guitars in their luggage, of course. After a few nights spent jamming it was clear that three musicians had found one another here. Various projects followed until, in the autumn of 2011, the band „Black Creek“ was founded, named after the place in Canada mentioned above where it had all started. 

Two guitars, a bass, mandolin, blues harp, kazoo – Black Creek had everything they needed to win over any stage. The sheer joy of playing, wit and energy pulsed through every song, and their countless appearances all across Switzerland made the three of them an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind combo. Alongside their musical range, Black Creek stood out for a particular delight in playing.

One special hallmark of the band was their closing song: «Wagon Wheel». From the very beginning the three ended every concert with the same number. 

In the autumn of 2013 the lads recorded their version of «Wagon Wheel» in the studio and then released the song  as a single.

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Heimweh

The single «Vom Gipfel is Tal» speaks straight from the soul of the Heimweh singer Bernhard Betschart. He is a true «Bergbueb» and draws all his energy from the stillness of the mountains. «Vom Gipfel is Tal» is not only the name of the single, though, but also of the third Heimweh album. By now there are already ten albums. The song «Jahreszyte» from the album of the same name, for example, stands as a poetic masterpiece in which the Heimweh singer Bernhard Betschart sings of the four seasons in a deeply moving way.  

On their new and subsequent albums, the seasoned men with the stirring voices of Heimweh sing more movingly than ever before. Songs that go straight to the heart. From the «Alpabfahrt» to the journey into the «Muotathal» or dancing the way they did «Dazumal» - the most varied of life's events shape their songs.

For almost ten years now the down-to-earth Heimweh singers have been delighting audiences and filling concert halls all over Switzerland, telling stories of home in the Muotathal, on the Urnerboden or at the southern foot of the Jura. With their authentic and moving songs, Heimweh have secured themselves a firm place in the Swiss music scene. 

Order all Heimweh CDs here

Pirmin Huber Ländlerorchester

Juuzing instruments! This concert offers you a surprising combination of modern folk music with jazz elements and the archaic Muotathal Naturjuuz. The instrumental ensemble of up to 10 musicians around the well-known bass player Pirmin Huber is joined by the archaic sounds of the Muotathal yodeller Bernhard Betschart. This novel interpretation of folk elements carries you off into a musical world all of its own. Give yourself over to the experiment and experience that incredible „feeling“ at first hand!

CD «Feeling»
LIVE recordings from the Tonhalle Zurich

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Muotathal Jüüzli - 30 Years Later

«A film far removed from the ‹alpenglow cliché›, one that touches the heart precisely because of its unaffected and realistic images», writes Raymond Ammann of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Thirty years after the four documentary films about the Muotathal Naturjuuz made by the Swiss ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp, who lives in France, this new film shows the present-day situation of this singular local tradition. The seven-year-old boy Bernhard Betschart, who juuzt back then with his parents and siblings, is now 37. Like many young people, he became interested in American music as a teenager and became a rock and country singer, which he still is today. But he also felt drawn back to the local tradition, the juuz. 

Among other things, this film shows Bernhard Betschart giving a workshop and the group «Natur pur» «juuzen» in convivial company and talking informally about tradition and change. In this way Hugo Zemp succeeds in tracing the development of a local musical culture in an absorbing way.

Documentary film by Hugo Zemp
70 minutes plus 20 minutes of bonus material

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Muotathal - Mi Heimat, songs by Cecilia Schmidig

This is a production of compositions by Cecilia Schmidig, who loved her homeland. Some of her compositions are known throughout Switzerland and are sung regularly. Her family, three generations of it, have now rehearsed and newly recorded 20 songs in various line-ups. The result is a recording of simple and stirring folk songs.

It was both a pleasure and an honour for me to be part of this one-of-a-kind production with these 3 songs:

Ich spiel' auf der Gitarre : Karin Gwerder-Bernhard Betschart  (vocals, guitar & blues harp)

Summernacht am Muotastrand : Karin Gwerder-Bernhard Betschart  (vocals & yodel)

Uf um Stoos ob Schwyz : Julian von Flüe & Bernhard Betschart  (vocals & yodel)

Order this CD directly from Phonoshop