CHARLES WILP ARCHIVE

The Charles Wilp Archive is a new play loud! series dedicated to reissuing the music and audio work of German artist Charles Wilp.

Charles Paul Wilp (Witten 1932 – Düsseldorf 2005) was a German advertising designer, artist, photographer and filmmaker. Wilp developed some of the most important campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, among his clients he had Pirelli, Volkswagen and Afri-Cola.

The first five releases within the CHARLES WILP ARCHIVE are:
- Charles Wilp fotografiert Bunny (1965)
- Charles Wilp dirigiert ...sexy-mini-super-flower-pop-op-alles ist drin... (1967)
- Vitanerton von Dolorgiet (1973)
- Come And Relax (1973)
- I type Supertype (1982)


Charles Wilp dirigiert ...sexy-mini-super-flower-pop-op-alles ist drin…

“In the 1960s, German soft drink Afri-Cola (which first hit the shelves in 1931) was quickly losing to its competitors Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In 1967, the brand started searching for a new marketing campaign in an attempt to regain their image. They hired prolific commercial designer and photographer Charles Wilp from Düsseldorf. The eccentric 36-year-old was rarely seen not wearing his trademark canary yellow jumpsuit and his provocative ideas that knew no creative limits would soon elevate him to a pop star level.” (Dangerous Minds magazine)

Wilp’s orchestrated Afri-Cola score was released on vinyl as a 7” single under the title “Charles Wilp dirigiert ...sexy-mini-super-flower-pop-op-alles ist drin...".

Above the music, a distorted voice-over announces that Afri-Cola is for “Menschen, die bewusst ihre Zeit genießen - bei vollem Verstand” (for people who consciously enjoy their time… with full understanding). The slogans on other ads boasted “The Earth is a paradise with Afri-Cola”, “Afri-Cola is sex over the clouds”, “Well of the Gods with the Afri tube”, “Woman turns woman and is liberated. Girl power and freedom for men. Marriage or no marriage is no the question anymore”, and “The Super-cola alcohol-free party drink.”

The two songs on the single were recorded in 1967 for the famous advertising campaign. Amongst the many models who posed behind the ice crystals were Marsha Hunt from the London production of the rock musical Hair (who was also the inspiration for the Rolling Stones hit “Brown Sugar”). Another mega star to appear in the ads was Amanda Lear. Wilp used the ads to help launch the career of 20-year-old Donna Summer who in 1968 accepted the role of Sheila in the Munich production of Hair, she later became the disco queen and one of the best-selling artists of all time. Summers collaboration with Charles Wilp and Giorgio Moroder is explained in the 2013 Donna Summer documentary Hot Stuff (pl-68 VOD).

The Monks and Afri Cola (Bonus Track)

In 1996 filmmakers Lucía Palacios and Dietmar Post, who were based in New York at that time, contacted with Charles Wilp to ask him about his collaboration with The Monks. Wilp confirmed that he wanted the band to record the music for his Afri-Cola ad campaign in 1967. In 1996 he couldn’t find anything in his archive that proofed the band having been at his studio. After four years of waiting, in 2000 Wilp called the filmmakers enthusiastically: he had found thirty six black-and-white photographs taken during the 1967 session.

Originally, Charles Wilp hired German-based American avant-garde band The Monks to record a jingle. He thought their experimental sound and blasphemous image would be a perfect fit for the controversial advertising campaign. Unfortunately, his plan didn’t work out. “The musicologists and the CEO couldn’t agree with me and the whole thing failed,” Charles Wilp explained in the 2008 documentary “Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback” (pl-04 DVD/VOD). “I performed my Afri-Cola music with 48 strings, 2 oboes, 2 harps, 4 timpani, classical instruments. And I created this ‘unreal’ sound which I always wanted to do and which I could have achieved faster with The Monks. Then I didn’t have to deal with the burden of conventions.”

In 2006 the filmmakers released “Silver Monk Time – A Tribute to The Monks”. Gary Burger (Monks singer and guitar player) and Dave Day (Monks banjo player) updated the old Charles Wilp Afri-Cola tune by adding voices (shouting, screaming, whispering), wild guitar feedback and an astonishing electrified banjo.

The Wire mentioned “Silver Monk Time” among the best compilation records of the year 2007: "Unlike many tribute projects that fall flat due to those involved being either overawed or ignorant of the original material, “Silver Monk Time” succeeds because the participants have taken the group's primitive rock surge as a template to experiment with. As a result the sound of The Monks is treated to a 21st century workout with synthesizers and beat tracks threaded through the original quartet's already way out psychotic minimalism.“

The Chicago based fanzine Roctober wrote about “Silver Monk Time”: “This double CD includes futuristic artists like Alec Empire and Psychic TV, German art rockers like Faust and Fehlfarben, and big names that don't necessarily register as big amongst connoisseurs of Dirty Water, like the Fall, Mouse on Mars and Barbara Manning. But none of them are desecrating the monks' music. What is most amazing about this is how clearly the monks music, without much alteration, can seem like punk to punks, psyche to psyche-heads, avant-garde to avant-gardeists, novelty music to humorists...their sound is so unique that no one is wrong. This is one of the best tribute albums I have ever hard, in no small part because the artists have such a connection to, and respect for, the music that they leave the best elements intact. But also each artist hears the music so differently that the tweaks really alter and elevate the songs...no karaoke here! The involvement of Gary Burger (who updates his vocals for the current wars with Empire and also teams with Faust) and the late Dave Day not only give this a stamp of approval, but also may force some haters to have to buy it. Highlights include Silver Apples and Alan Vega taking black monk time to space, "The Raincoats finding the sweetness and beauty in “Monk Chant”, and (the garage rock approved) 5-6-7-8-s going absolutely Cuckoo.”


CHARLES WILP ARCHIVE: UPCOMING RELEASES

pl-TBA Charles Wilp feat. Yves Klein and Willibald Quantz: Prince of Space, Musik der Leere, Rotkäppchen ein modernes Märchen (1965/2020)

More releases are planned.