🇺🇸 CD 1 – Rosa von Zehnle úr: „Desire against expectations: GDR 1984/1‟

🇺🇸 Rosa von Zehn­le (úr) – CD 1
“Desi­re against expec­ta­ti­ons: GDR 1984/1”
The­se (my) poems were writ­ten in 1984 in a pri­son of the for­mer GDR. — In 2024, for­ty years later, I set them to music.

My gift for Natio­nal Beer Day!
On April 7, 2025, ever­yo­ne here will have the spe­cial oppor­tu­ni­ty to lis­ten to the 26 tracks of my FIRST GDR-CD up to three times for free and in full length as a gift.

My first GDR-CD is now also available in Eng­lish for Natio­nal Beer Day in the USA – Che­ers! 🍻 This day marks the anni­ver­sa­ry of the Cul­len-Har­ri­son Act of 1933, which allo­wed the sale of beer again after Pro­hi­bi­ti­on.

This artic­le in the­se lan­guages:
🇭🇺 »> itt …
🇩🇪 »> hier …
🇺🇸 »> here …

Sum­ma­ry of the CD:
Final­ly, my first CD is digi­tal­ly available, fea­turing 26 tracks based on poems I wro­te in pri­son in 1984. The texts, stron­gly shaped by poli­tics, reflect per­so­nal expe­ri­en­ces and thoughts. The 13 songs appear in two ver­si­ons: one calm, the other powerful.

This CD offers deep insight into my past and the exege­sis of a life I had to live—born in West Ger­ma­ny but forced to endu­re 29 years within the Wall until 1989.

The CD offers a blend of musi­cal styl­es: gui­tar music, syn­th pop/wave, elec­t­ro swing, gothic and hard rock – see right column below.

Click here for the album:
Rosa von Zehn­le úr:
“Wis­hes Against expec­ta­ti­ons: GDR 1984/1”

Here it is at last:
My first music CD!

All lyrics are 100% writ­ten by me. I wro­te them 40 years ago in GDR pri­son, whe­re I ser­ved 18 months for try­ing to flee the coun­try (8 months of which in a STASI pri­son).

Some of the­se poems ear­ned me addi­tio­nal pen­al­ties while impri­so­ned, which I took with a smi­le — and they even inspi­red me to wri­te more poli­ti­cal ver­ses. Neither 72 days in soli­ta­ry con­fi­ne­ment, nor 18 days and nights in a dark base­ment, nor hun­ger strikes, nor the STASI pri­son hos­pi­tal and other harass­ments could break me. I was 24 years old and full of ener­gy — just like today!

About fif­ty poems were writ­ten back then, in 1984, many of which will be musi­cal­ly adapt­ed and released on future CDs.

This first CD includes the first 13 songs (11 of which are from 1984). The ori­gi­nal poems rare­ly had refrains, sin­ce I didn’t intend them for music back then. The first demos alre­a­dy spark­ed deba­te: some pre­fer­red the sof­ter, others the more powerful ver­si­ons. That’s how the idea came to crea­te two ver­si­ons of each of the 13 songs, resul­ting in 26 tracks with over two hours of total play­ti­me.

Later this year, Hun­ga­ri­an and Eng­lish ver­si­ons of this CD will also be released — and fans will be able to purcha­se all three ver­si­ons on a sin­gle DVD, for the pri­ce of one CD (see below: “Ten Advan­ta­ges for Fans on Band­camp”, point 2).

Most of the ori­gi­nal poems from 1984 still express the same thoughts and truths as they did for­ty years ago.
It’s striking how litt­le has chan­ged in terms of power and con­trol over the past four deca­des.

Music as a Heal­ing Force!
This CD shows powerful­ly how music helps pro­cess poli­ti­cal, social and per­so­nal expe­ri­en­ces. It trans­forms the past so that it’s not mere­ly a sad memo­ry, but beco­mes an ele­ment of heal­ing — dri­ving away the dark shadows of what was lived through, wit­hout gran­ting tho­se nega­ti­ve ener­gies more power than they deser­ve.

Thus, the music of my first CD is a beam of light that breaks through and over­co­mes the dark­ness of the past – trans­forming once-tor­men­ting memo­ries into gent­le, audi­ble, musi­cal echo­es that give us free­dom to dwell in the sto­ries of the songs wit­hout being ful­ly con­su­med by their tra­gic spell. My music unfolds a heal­ing force – one fil­led with strength, hope and con­fi­dence.

This CD is available in:
🇭🇺 https://rab‑k.de/bc-ddr-cd-1-hu
🇩🇪 https://rab‑k.de/bc-ddr-cd-1-de
🇺🇸 https://rab‑k.de/bc-ddr-cd-1-en

This CD is available in:
🇭🇺 https://rab‑k.de/bc-ddr-cd-1-hu
🇩🇪 https://rab‑k.de/bc-ddr-cd-1-de
🇺🇸 https://rab‑k.de/bc-ddr-cd-1-en

Rosa von Zehn­le úr:
“Wis­hes against expec­ta­ti­ons: GDR 1984/1”

Poli­ti­cal­ly Shaped Reflec­tions:
01 – Para­di­se of thoughts (1984)
02 – The real time (1984)
03 – The dif­fe­rence (1984)
04 – First thoughts (1984)
05 – … and wis­hes (1984)
06 – Nuclear play­ground (1984)

Real Socia­list Ever­y­day Life:
07 – Cur­rent coll­ec­ting tip (1984)
08 – Beco­me a par­ty mem­ber (1984)
09 – Ten litt­le Tra­bis (1984)
10 – Spring is here (1984)
11 – Hap­py bir­th­day (1984)

Bonus Tracks from 2024:
12 – In memo­ri­am (2024)
13 – New-years-gree­tings (2024)


Click here for the album:
Rosa von Zehn­le úr:
“Wis­hes Against expec­ta­ti­ons: GDR 1984/1”
Plea­se lea­ve a com­ment below, fol­low me on Band­camp (“Fol­low” under my pho­to top right), and enjoy this CD with both mea­ning and delight.


Track Titles and Short Comm­ents – How and Why The­se Songs Came to Be:

• 01 & 14 – Para­di­se of thoughts:
  My thoughts loo­king out the bar­red pri­son win­dow.
• 02 & 15 – The real time:
  On the flee­ting and peri­s­ha­ble natu­re of time.
• 03 & 16 – The dif­fe­rence:
  Con­trast bet­ween per­so­nal insight and impo­sed power.
• 04 & 17 – First thoughts:
  Ear­ly reflec­tions on later release from STASI pri­son.
• 05 & 18 – … and wis­hes:
  A 1984 song about Ger­man reuni­fi­ca­ti­on.
• 06 & 19 – Nuclear play­ground:
  Addres­ses the thre­at of nuclear war in 1984 and 2024.
• 07 & 20 – Beco­me a par­ty mem­ber:
  Per­so­nal expe­ri­en­ces in the GDR.
• 08 & 21 – Cur­rent coll­ec­ting tip:
  Sati­ri­cal take on poli­ti­cal­ly dri­ven civic invol­vement.
• 09 & 22 – Ten litt­le Tra­bis:
  Light and iro­nic, yet with deeper mea­ning.
• 10 & 23 – Spring is here:
  A hop­eful and awa­ke­ning song, open to poli­ti­cal inter­pre­ta­ti­on.
• 11 & 24 – Hap­py bir­th­day:
  Bir­th­day wis­hes with uni­ver­sal mes­sa­ges.
• 12 & 25 – In memo­ri­am:
  A per­so­nal remem­brance of my family’s fate.
• 13 & 26 – New-years-gree­tings:
  Posi­ti­ve out­look on a more peaceful year 2025.

Brief Note on Lyrics and Musi­cal Style:
The­se are the musi­cal styl­es of the 1980s that I love and used, as I still lis­ten to them today. I dis­tri­bu­ted them across the tracks as fol­lows:
– Gui­tar & rather calm style (01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11 and 13), but also very expres­si­ve and musi­cal­ly powerful, with (for me) goo­se­bump moments (06 and 12);
– Synthpop/Synthwave (22);
– Gothic, Glam­rock and Hard/Rock (14–21, 23–26).


Click here for the album:
Rosa von Zehn­le úr:
“Wis­hes against expec­ta­ti­ons: GDR 1984/1”