Archive 2018 - 2019

DIVINE CONCERN: “WALK THE LION”

Searching Music in the Shadows of Prison

"Leonard Cohen meets Kraftwerk meets Jim Morrison meets U2"
"A bit black...but very spiritual...very touching"

"Towards Hymns of Punk Rock Praise and Divine Rock 'n' Roll"

"Johnny Cash is back, walking the Lion"

(Irish Reviews)

Music sketches that are created from personal encounters with prisoners and from life experiences, folk songs almost single-handedly recorded, meditative, rocking and ad hoc improvised. Divine Concern has released their debut Demo-Album “Walk the lion,” with 23 own songs (22 in English). Deacon Dr. Meins Coetsier (vocals and guitar) and Addi Haas (piano / accordion / drums / percussion) search for contemporary expressions of faith, and for new sounds and symbolisations of the divine presence.

The music project of the two musicians was born at the gates of Fulda Prison in Germany. Inspired by Johnny Cash, they go into jail every week and play with the prisoners. In search of contemporary forms of religiosity, spirituality and art, they make a sound behind bars. The Dutch songwriter and prison chaplain, Meins Coetsier, explains, “In prison, we improvise in our Church services and pray with rock and folk music together with the inmates.” Addi Haas, the music co-director at Fulda prison accompanies the music project with vigour and good humour. “In this way, we contribute our small part in creating a better world,” says the talented German pianist, who was born in the Black Forest.

As a symbol of strength for their fragile and experimental project, they have taken inspiration from the lion, the creature symbolizing Mark the Evangelist. Since the author of the oldest Gospel in Christianity, begins with the call of the prophet in the desert, the lion who roars in the desert was assigned to him. And so he roars for Coetsier and Haas within prison: The project reflects, on the one hand, the human cry in the alienation of prison life. On the other hand, it mirrors the human estrangement and yearnings of our modern age, to find another more divine-oriented sound. “We know of our weaknesses, and of our faults and failures, and the album is certainly not perfect,” Coetsier confesses, “but as an honest demo, recorded in the shades of the prison walls, it has become a musical and spiritual compass for us, reinforced by the little sounds of hope for better times.”

With the strength of the lion, the cosmological and Christological elements are united, because the Evangelist emphasizes, in addition to the merciful love of Jesus also the role of Christ as the Judge of Mankind. “The Christian tradition,” Coetsier explains, “has translated Ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures in the Old Testament to the Evangelists: the lion represents Mark, the calf Luke, the man Matthew, and the eagle John.” The beginnings of the Gospels always have played a role in their interpretation. As the “king of the desert,” the lion is ever watchful and never blindfolded and so in a close relationship to the light. For Coetsier and Haas, it is vital, therefore, for our human search of faith, and our search of meaning, to walk through the shadows of darkness, through hopelessness, grief and pain, with the crucified Christ, into the resurrection light, as the psalmist writes, with a “new song.”

The artwork of the album has been created especially by the father of the deacon, Michel R.C. Coetsier. It shows the lion accompanied by a young naked woman. This naked feminine body symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus, and it reveals that our original state of being human is without a facade and without a mask—as it was in paradise. Her nudity and fragility stands in tension to the strength of the lion, who as human devourer is the carrier of the punitive power of justice. But they walk together quietly and peacefully, in harmony and in friendship. It represents Christ’s courageous call to his Church today: “Walk the Lion!” It’s heaven’s call to love and to wisdom, and to the truth of our inmost being, that is, with openness and fidelity, with honesty and responsibility. Symbolically, we are invited here to contemplate the natural origins of what it means to be human. Coetsier emphasises: “More than ever, in these difficult times, is the Church in need of the courage and strength of the lion to make vital decisions: And the time has come! That’s why our simple words are: Keep the faith! Be courageous! Be strong! Sing a new song with us! “

You can find Divine Concern at https://divine-concern.jimdofree.com

The album WALK THE LION is available on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Google Music.                                          

Press - Prison ministry, JVA Hünfeld / JVA Fulda