Sometimes pieces suddenly fall into place. That happened to me on that first Krankenhaus Festival in 2019 on the Sunday, the first festival day I was actually on time. Friday I was running late due to misjudging the hills of England and especially the passes in the Lake District. On Saturday I had to take the train to Millom in the morning to do some essential festival shopping in the Tesco store because I hadn’t brought enough provisions. So sadly I missed the bird watching walk though promised some spare binoculars by the wonderful RSPB punk rock gentleman Jon Carter. Over the years he became a regular important part of Krankenhaus bringing in all things naturewise. But that’s another story to be told…

Arriving back at Ravenglass station the Ratty Arms pub beckoned in lovely September sunshine. So I treated myself to a pint of Coniston Bluebird as ersatz for the bird watching. So at least I spotted one special bird that morning. And as sunshine tempted I finally walked along the A road up to Muncaster Castle and its festive barn where all the action took place that first time. It became a raucous day finally turning into a memorable night with British Sea Power playing all the hits and Snapped Ankles luring the crowd into an ecstatic barn stomp.

But the magic for me really happened on Sunday. After attending the lovely Sunday stroll led by Roy Wilkinson (whatever happened to ‘Mer du Nord’?) with views to the Isle of Man and Sellafield I was luckily in time for Hannah Peel. Actually I couldn’t place her name. But when she came on stage and started singing, out of the blue many things in my head connected and lines from different directions crossed my mind. Someone told me later (be assured you always bump into some music aficionado at Krankenhaus who knows all the details about any artists on stage and is happy to share it all in detail with you!) that her spellbinding rendition of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ was already ten years old and appeared on her debut EP ‘Rebox’. Wow! I was totally blown away by her ethereal singing to a tiny musical box chiming the melody of this beloved classic.

Apart from all the things I learned from that lovely aficionado (sorry, forgot your name… was it you, Matt?) I suddenly remembered an interview I listened to on John Kennedy’s fantastic radio show ‘Xposure’ where obviously Hannah Peel was talking about her then new album ‘Awake but always dreaming’. I listened to it a lot in 2016 but totally forgot about it at some point. But there it was again, hidden somewhere in my memory. And in that interview she was telling John Kennedy about that musical box thing too, because a year before she had done another EP ‘Rebox 2’. Somehow I never digged into it back then.

But immersing myself into Hannah Peel’s magical sounds while she was accompanied by the poet Will Burns on the barn stage at Krankenhaus 2019 (which was another one of her numerous collaborations throughout the years), there came another dim musical memory. From the back of mind other tunes chimed in and a female vocalist singing heavenly tunes from a far away island. To this day ‘Orkney Symphony’ by The Magnetic North is still one of my favourite all time albums. If you don’t know it, look it up and listen deeply. Hannah Peel of course is involved, as is Erland Cooper and Simon Tong. But that Hannah Peel angle only came to me when seeing her on stage at Muncaster.

To this day I still have a vivid memory of that Krankenhaus perfomance. But as music and especially voices sometimes do, there is another connection since that sunny September Sunday at Ravenglass. And that is, by synaptical ways unknown to me, deeply engraved to cycling to Krankenhaus.

On the very first day of that epic first bicycle tour to Muncaster when I was just crossing the border into the Netherlands, I saw a sign pointing to the Dutch National Park ‘De Meinweg’. It is located right behind the German border. While cycling in the Netherlands I always try to indulge as often as possible in these wonderful National Parks and nature reserves. There are dedicated cycle paths and it’s always easy and rewarding. So I followed the sign and soon found myself cycling through heather in bloom as far as the eye can see. That rose colour always gets to me. And when I saw and heard Hannah Peel playing Krankenhaus Festival these two things – her music and heather – became like magic entwined and entangled in my mind.

While Hannah Peel sadly never returned to Krankenhaus Festival (Hey Nobby and David, bring her back to Krankenhaus!), the heather is still part of cycling to Krankenhaus. Every time since 2019 I cycled at one time or even more often if possible through blooming heather in the Netherlands as it is always late August. There are many opportunities en route, so it is quite easy. And while staying put today on a quiet campsite at the river Maas due to lots of rain last night and late into the morning, I got on my bike eventually and cycled to the nearby Maashorst, a spellbinding wood with gnarly trees and wild horses and, yes for sure: heather in bloom.

And as you might have guessed, music by Hannah Peel is still part of cycling to Krankenhaus in 2026. Only a few weeks ago she was again interviewed by John Kennedy, She released a collaborative album with Chinese musician Beibei Wang this year. ‘The Endless Dance’ is such a wonderful listen which combines not only different musical worlds, but also crosses borders in a sense that we all should do as often as possible: To communicate differences and find words and sounds and songs and music for all the strangeness we live in.

So today I cycled through the heather, stopping to let wild horses pass before me, and listened to new and old music by Hannah Peel. A brilliant way to turn a day starting with lots of rain into something wonderful.

Last night by the way while the rain was tapping restlessly on my tent, I put my headphones on and tuned into BBC Radio 3 via the Sounds app and listened to ‘Night Tracks’. Another favourite of me. And of course it is hosted regularly by Hannah Peel playing all things ‘classical’ in a broad approach to music that mixes diverse genres, conjures up dreamy atmospheres and, yes again, crosses so many borders. Because that is what they are there for these borders, in our minds and reality, to cross and to meet.

Christoph x