Artist

ANALOGY
THE JOICE - YOICE

Jutta Nienhaus (vocals)
Martin Thurn-Mithoff (guitar)
Nicola Pankoff (keyboards)
Wolfgang Schoene (bass)
Hans Jürgen "Mops" Nienhaus (drums)

Even if four of the five musicians were foreigners, Analogy absolutely deserve a place here along with the other "italian pop" groups, having spent their whole career in Italy and having released here their records.

The group was formed by four german musicians living in northern Italy, near Varese (three of them had grown up there, Thurn-Mithoff arrived in 1968), along with two italians, keyboardist Nicola Pankoff (originating from Arona) and bassist Mauro Rattaggi.
The initial name was The Joice, but it was changed by mistake by their record company to Yoice, and it was with this name that their first single was released by the small Produzioni Ventotto label, distributed by Messaggerie Musicali.
In 1972, when Rattaggi quit and rhythm guitarist Schoene switched to bass, the group changed its name to Analogy, and had the chance to play some very important concerts like Caracalla Pop Festival in Rome (first concert with the new name) or the Be-In in Naples, though they remained totally unknown outside Italy, apart from Switzerland.
Their only album, very rare and interesting, shows some rock-blues influences, with the nice voice of singer Jutta Nienhaus in strong evidence, and had a distinctive cover with the group members all naked.

In 1973 keyboardist Nicola Pankoff left the group, though he kept playing and also dedicating to painting, he was replaced by flutist Rocco Abate.
The group split around 1974, after more than 250 concerts in Italy and around 60 in Switzerland.

Jutta Nienhaus and Martin Thurn-Mithoff collaborated with  Franco Battiato on his Sulle corde di Aries 1973 album, with the musician/composer Paolo Ciarchi and  also with director/actor Dario Fo's Collettivo Teatrale La Comune in 1974 (they appear on a cassette called Cammina, cammina).
These two musicians then moved to England, where they formed a new band called Earthbound in 1975. The original group split in 1977 and soon reformed with new musicians, only releasing a rare EP, with a style not far from Curved Air but even some influences from the then popular new-wave. It's odd to notice that Nienhaus and Thurn introduced themselves in the press information sheets as past members of the "italian group Analogy". During their career Earthbound also played some dates in Northern Italy, and split at the end of 1979.

The same two musicians recorded in 1980 in London an ambitious symphonic-influenced opera, The suite, which had been composed and played live since 1974, but this was only released for the first time in 1993, again under the old name Analogy.
A new CD, released in 1996 by the german Ohrwaschl label but recorded in Italy, includes reworkings of old songs by a line-up including the above duo of Nienhaus and Thurn and original bassist Rattaggi with other musicians. The album was intended as a homage to drummer Mops Nienhaus, passed away some years before.

The only live appearance after these recordings was in 2003 when Analogy (Jutta Nienhaus, Martin Thurn-Mithoff, Mauro Rattaggi and Geoff Cooper, second drummer of Earthbound) played God’s Own Land in a club near Saarbrücken for Jutta's 50th birthday. It was the first concert ever by Analogy in Germany!

Analogy is a very rare and expensive album, pressed in around 1000 copies, some of which had a promotional stamp on label. It had a delicate single cover made of thin cardboard, and some copies were wrapped in a poster with a foot (pictured also on the back cover, this was in fact an ashtray!) to hide the naked bodies.
The original picture used for the LP had the six members of Yoice, but at the time of its release Mauro Rattaggi has left the group, so he was hidden under a blue stripe printed on the cover. The Akarma reissue has a retouched picture of the five Analogy members without the blue stripe which has been added to the record like the japanese albums' obi's.

The album was reissued for the first time in Germany by Ohrwaschl, with a cover identical to the original and a different poster (with the five musicians naked), and later by Akarma, with a reworked gatefold cover.
The CD reissue by Garden of Delights issued in 2001 contains an unreleased extra track, Milan on a sunday morning.

The CD The suite was issued in Germany in 1993 by Ohrwaschl, and later in 10-inch form by Akarma in 2000 with a different cover design.

Even the single by Yoice is rare. The track Sold out also appears on a promo single backed with a song by Terza Classe.
The song God's own land also appears on a promotional single, but under the name Eternity, on the other side the german group Ihre Kinder. Eternity was the name of the old band of Wolfgang Schoene, and was chosen by the record company for this promo single.

The Earthbound single is rather rare, having been issued in 2000 copies each for both the 7-inch and 12-inch versions, the latter has an extra track. The 12" version has a laminated cover and an insert.

Singer Jutta Nienhaus also appears on a 1971 single issued on the Cooper label (CPI 7008) by Jutta & Ice, containing Here's to you and Hot love.

No bootleg reissues exist.

Analogy - LP, cover and label

Analogy - poster (from the Ohrwaschl reissue)

The suite - 10-inch LP and CD

25 years later - CD

Yoice/Sold out - 7" single

Earthbound/Liberated lady - 7" and 12" single

An interview with Martin Thurn-Mithoff, by Augusto Croce, january 2008

1-When did you came to Italy and where?

I came to Italy in September 1968.
Jutta, Mops and Wolfgang lived here since their childhood in the Laveno/Luino area, they had their parents working for the Euratom in Ispra [A very important international nuclear research center]. We met at the European School in Varese, which I attended to get an european high school diploma and to avoid the draft in Germany.
Along with Wolfgang and two other schoolmates (a german and a belgian) we formed a cover band called Sons of Jove, playing between December 1968 and June 1969 around Varese (some 15 gigs, among them one with I Cuccioli). Since October 1969 up to the spring of 1970 I played as a duo with Jutta (always around Varese) before starting the Joice project (later Yoice).

2-What’s the story behind the different names of the band?

The Joice (a pun, based on “James Joyce” and “joy”) was the original name. When the single came out, we discovered that Produzioni Ventotto had made a mistake, but covers and labels had already been printed, so we had no choice but to accept the “new” name. After recording the LP – without Mauro and with a more pretentious style – we decided to change name once again, using the title of one of the new songs which we felt could well reflect the new direction of the group.
Our first concert as Analogy was indeed the Villa Pamphili Festival in Rome in May 1972.
Eternity was a name chosen by Produzioni Ventotto for the jukebox issue of God’s own land and we knew nothing about it. I don’t know why, but I think it was for a copyright matter.
Sold out was later released in the jukebox circuit with the name The Yoice.

3- Did you earn any money from the record sales?

I can say that we never made any money from our records, though the record company paid for the instruments (Gibson, Hammond, Fender, Ludwig) and for the big festivals where we played (Roma, Napoli etc). The name of Jujuy as composer was a lie, this was one of the nicknames used by Aldo Pagani, our manager/producer, who earned all the  SIAE copyright incomes.

4-How many copies have been pressed and sold of your LP?

I have no idea of how many copies were pressed in 1972, there were at least 1000. I remember that the record was easy to find in many italian stores because Messaggerie Musicali had a good distribution network. There’s no unsold copies of the LP. A reissue was not possible because Produzioni Ventotto went bankrupt and we had bad relations with the boss (Antonio Cagnola) and with Aldo Pagani for the above mentioned reasons.
The single was probably issued in a high number of copies because it was easy to find it in every jukebox in Italy.

5- Is it true that the blue stripe on the cover was used to mask Mauro Rattaggi? How come he didn't appear in the poster picture with the five of you naked?

Yes, the pictures on the cover of the Yoice single and the Analogy LP were taken in the same day in 1971 when Mauro was still with us, while the one on the poster was taken later.
Mauro Rattaggi left the bass at the beginning of 1972, staying with us as road technician until April and coming back in this role at the end of his military service (I think it was in April 1973).

6- Did the LP come out with a poster?

The poster with the foot - I think it was a matter of fairness - was indeed "the cover" because otherwise the record couldn't have been exposed in the shop windows, or so they claimed. So, the record in the shops always had the poster wrapped over the internal cover, in fact that foot was an ashtray belonging to Aldo Pagani.
The other poster (with us naked with no body painting) didn't exist at that time, it was added by Vinyl Magic, in the first CD reissue in 1990, which we were totally unaware of.

7-Did you play many concerts in Italy? Some major ones?

Yes, we played almost everywhere in Italy, and we made many big concerts with major names. We made more than 300 concerts, some of which in Switzerland, both as Joice/Yoice and Analogy, and we played among others, with Battiato, Showmen, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Osanna, De De Lind, Rovescio della Medaglia, Area, Perigeo, and foreign names like Chicken Shack, Atomic Rooster, Curved Air, Van der Graaf Generator.

8-How long did you stay in Italy after the record release? And what did you do?

After Analogy, Jutta and I worked for a while with Battiato on his Sulle corde di Aries and then we engaged and moved to London.

9-How was your english experience with Earthbound?

Earthbound were well known in London’s rock circuit between 1978 and 1980.
We made two italian tours (1978/79) with TV shows and concerts (Milano, Genova, San Remo etc), around 50 concerts in London and the release of a 7” single and an EP gave us some attention from the press and the radio, where the popular John Peel helped us with his show.

10-Did you have other musical experiences in the 80’s?

Since 1983 until 1990, I played with Alan Dunn as a songwriting duo in Germany, releasing a cassette album entitled Yours Faithfully.

11-Any chance to see Analogy together again?

No! We made 25 Years Later as a homage to Mops and for the pleasure of meeting after 25 years, but that’s enough. There was a short “concert” for the 50th birthday of Jutta near Saarbrücken in September 2003 (Mauro, Jutta, me and Geoff Cooper from Earthbound), but it was just a short musical break during her party.

A sincere Thank you to Martin Thurn-Mithoff for the friendly help and the detailed information on the story of Analogy