Deine Lakaien is a German band project active since 1985. It is formed by the vocalist
Alexander Veljanov
Alexander Veljanov (Macedonian: ''Александар Вељанов'', ) is a Macedonian singer. He became famous through singing in the darkwave band Deine Lakaien which he founded with Ernst Horn in 1985.
Biography
Veljanov studied theatre ...
and by the composer and multi-instrumentalist
Ernst Horn
Ernst Horn (born 1949 in Munich) is a German musician who played a crucial part in founding the bands Deine Lakaien, Qntal and Helium Vola.
Biography
Ernst Horn studied conducting, piano, and percussion in Munich, Freiburg and Hamburg. Afterwa ...
. The group unites influences from
dark wave
Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...
with
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
and elements of
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
.
History
The beginning (1985–1989)
Deine Lakaien was founded in 1985 by Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov. Ernst Horn had just quit his position as a
conductor at the
Statestheater of Baden in Karlsruhe, while keeping his freelance work as pianist and composer for dramas at the "Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel" in Munich being engaged in
avant-garde music of the 20th century. Alexander Veljanov, born in Republic of North Macedonia, was enrolled for
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
theatre studies
Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychobiological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also e ...
in Munich in 1985. He was part of the
gothic subculture and mainly interested in
Dark Wave
Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...
. Alexander Veljanov described the first meeting with the about 10 years older Ernst Horn like this:
Ernst Horn was dissatisfied with his occupation in the past and wanted to do something more modern.
He had recorded a few pieces for a new project in winter 1984 already. Only a singer was missing. In 1985 he advertised in a newspaper "Vocalist wanted who enjoys experimenting". After Alexander Veljanov contacted Ernst Horn responding to the ad, both met in Munich and founded Deine Lakaien within the same year.
Their debut album ''Deine Lakaien'', that was distributed by themselves, was released in 1986 an edition of 500
records
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
, which Ernst Horn financed personally.
[Jo Ziebe: ]
Deine Lakaien – eine Biografie
' (German, accessed 27. October 2019) Though the musicians were looking for record stores all over Germany to sell the album, only few showed interest. Thanks to some stores a few 100 records could be sold eventually. The track ''Colour-Ize'' got played in local discos and became an underground-hit.
[ Nadine Krüger: ''Jeans and Music 250 – Deine Lakaien'' on ]VIVA
Viva may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator
* Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia
* Viva Air Dominicana
* VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company
* ...
, spring 1999 The success of Deine Lakaien remained locally restrained. ''Colour-Ize'' was released in 1990 on the first
Zillo
''Zillo'' (or ''Zillostrierte'') was a German alternative music magazine, published monthly, originally edited by Rainer "Easy" Ettler. It was in circulation between 1989 and 2014. The headquarters of ''Zillo'' were in Lübeck.
History
The magaz ...
-Sampler ''German Mystic Sound Sampler Volume I''. At this time, the band was already under contract.
[''Deine Lakaien''](_blank)
on Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...
(englisch, accessed 4. July 2007)
Despite the uncertain future they recorded a demo-tape in 1987, which was called ''Silver Tape'' due to the silver wrapping. With an edition of 50 pieces of the ''Silver Tape'' Deine Lakaien tried for years to attract interest of a label. A fan of Deine Lakaien contacted Carl Erling in 1989. Finally, Deine Lakaien signed a contract with him in 1990 and with the new founded sublabel ''ClassX'' took the band. From the ''Silver Tape'' only the pieces ''Days gone by'', ''Reincarnation'', and ''Love Me to the End'' were used for the next album. All the other pieces were dismissed by the band, though ''ClassX'' offered to release the ''Silver Tape'' without changes.
The ''Silver Tape'' was re-released with the name ''1987'' in 2003.
The road to success (1990–1995)
Deine Lakaien was the first European band which got a record contract from Gymnastic Records
[Sven]
''Deine Lakaien''
in ''Niagara'', 1991 (German, accessed 14. September 2007) and the uncertain times were over: In January 1991 the second album ''Dark Star'' was released and sold more than 5000 within the next months.
The EP ''2nd Star'' with more pieces and remixes was published already in November. The debut album got re-released end of 1991 and the band went on their first tour, playing in front of up to 800 people in Bochum.
Since Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov wanted to give concerts without playback and bandtracks, two musicians reinforced the live ensemble:
Violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
ist Christian „Komo“ Komorowski and
Michael Popp, multi-instrumentalist and specialist for medieval music. Alexander Veljanov knew Christian Komorowski from the band ''Love Sister Hope'', Michael Popp and Ernst Horn met each other at the Residence Theater in Munich.
Together they founded the band
Qntal
Qntal is a German "electro-medieval" band founded in 1991 by Michael Popp and Ernst Horn. They later added vocalist Syrah (Sigrid Hausen) to complete the band. It has roots in Estampie, an acoustic band based on "authentic" Early music, wherea ...
also in 1991. Due to its tremendous success the ''Dark Star''-Tour was continued in 1992, and with ''Dark Star-Tour '92'' the first Live-album was released.
Deine Lakaien gave a concert in the ''Vier-Linden'' in Hildesheim already on 11 October 1991 that was recorded for the radio show ''Grenzwellen'' another followed on 19 February 1992 in the ''Hunky Dory'' in Detmold. Ecki Stieg, moderator of ''Grenzwellen'', suggested an "Event on his own account" after the successful collaboration. Ernst Horn thought it would be a private party and developed a concept to perform pieces of Deine Lakaien with a
prepared piano
A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Bacchanale' ...
.
The event shaped up as a festival with several bands in a hall. Though the audience was much larger than expected, the show was perceived very well. Thus, in December 1992 Deine Lakaien went on the ''Dark Moon-Tour'', a first acoustic tour, together with Stephen Brown and Blaine L. Reininger from
Tuxedomoon
Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, or ...
.
Deine Lakaien gave several more acoustic concerts in 1993. However, the musicians were mainly occupied with the recordings of the third album. Veljanov published the album ''Suck Success'' with his Side-project
Run Run Vanguard in March 1993. ''Forest Enter Exit'' was released on 29 October 1993. It was the first album of Deine Lakaien which got into the charts. In November and December 1993 the first Forest Enter Exit-tour took place, which was continued in 1994. The concert on 10 December 1993 in the Durlach-Hall in Karlsruhe was filmed and published in 1995 as VHS. The first single, Mindmachine, was released in 1994. The second large-scale Acoustic tour with the instrumental group ''Das Holz'' as supporting act happened in 1995. Due to this occasion, the live-CD ''Acoustic'' was released. The second album of
Qntal
Qntal is a German "electro-medieval" band founded in 1991 by Michael Popp and Ernst Horn. They later added vocalist Syrah (Sigrid Hausen) to complete the band. It has roots in Estampie, an acoustic band based on "authentic" Early music, wherea ...
, ''Qntal II'', was released, too. Alexander was working together with the English band
Sleeping Dogs Wake, who got in touch with Deine Lakaien as their supporting act on the ''Forest Enter Exit'' tour.
The second decade (1996–2005)
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the band, the VHS ''First Decade'' was published in 1996 with live-recordings and video clips. The album ''Winter Fish Testosterone'' was released in the same year. During March, April, October and November, the ''Winter Fish Testosterone'' tour took place, with Qntal as supporting act. The musicians stayed on stage during the entire concert, only Qntal singer
Sigrid Hausen, left the stage during ''Un vers de dreyt nien'' and was replaced by Alexander Veljanov. ''ClassX'' was dismantled in autumn 1996 and replaced by
Chrom Records
Chrom is a fictional character in the video game ''Fire Emblem Awakening'' and its related ''Fire Emblem'' franchise. Chrom is the prince of the Kingdom of Ylisse, and a descendant of Marth. He is the brother of Lissa and Emmeryn, and the father ...
. Deine Lakaien took a break to have time for solo activities.
The album ''Kasmodiah'' was recorded in 1998. Christian Komorowski and Michael Popp were present in the studio for the first time. They took part in the videos of ''Return'' and ''Into My Arms'', and they became part of the official band. The album was released in 1999 together with the singles ''Return'' and ''Into My Arms'', and Deine Lakaien toured together with Summit. For the release of ''Kasmodiah'', Deine Lakaien worked together not only with Chrom Records but for the first time with the
Major label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
. In 2000, Christian Komorowski and Michael Popp left the band. Ernst Horn parted from Qntal and founded
Helium Vola.
Besides several side- and solo-activities, two acoustic concerts were given in 2001 - the first after six years - just after the recordings for the next album were completed. ''White Lies'' was released in January 2002. The single ''Generators'' had been published in October 2001. Two versions of ''Where you are'' were released in November 2002. The live-musicians Tobias "B. Deutung" Unterberg from
The Inchtabokatables
The Inchtabokatables were a German band active from 1991 to 2002. The band only played on classical instruments ( violins, cello, bass and drums). The band was known for their ''no guitar'' policy. Their style ranged from folk rock and Medi ...
, Rober Wilcocks from
Sleeping Dogs Wake and Summit, as well as Yvonne "Ivee Leon" Fechner and "Sharifa" joined the band for the tour in March and November 2002. The concert in the ''Lindenpark'' in
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
on 29 November 2002 was taped and released on DVD in 2003.
Only some bad bootlegs from the ''Silver Tape'' were circulating, because it never had been released. After Ernst Horn listened to a bootleg, where somebody added own pieces between the original tracks, Deine Lakaien decided finally to release the album after 16 years with the title ''1987''. The album ''April Skies'' was released in 2005 and the band was on tour again in April 2005. The band
Vanilla Ninja
Vanilla Ninja is an Estonian all-female rock band which enjoyed chart success in a number of countries across Europe, especially in Estonia, Germany and Austria.
The group formed in 2002 and released their self-titled debut album '' Vanilla N ...
used material from the video of the Deine Lakaien single ''Mindmachine'' from 1994 without consent for their own single ''Cool Vibes'' in 2005.
Present (since 2005)
In the following years, Deine Lakaien wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band with special events.
[The Wendigo]
''Deine Lakaien - Zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum auf großer Orchestertournee''
on Whiskey-soda.de, Januar 2007 (German, accessed 17. August 2007) The first was ''The concert that never happened before'' on 12 August 2005 at the ''Capitol'' in
Hannover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...
. For the first time in band history, Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov performed with electronic equipment only. They played songs of the first decade. In 2006, the video of the concert was released on DVD as limited edition. Still back in 2005, two Double-CD-editions were released: Dark Star combined with 2nd Star and Forest Enter Exit combined with Mindmachine. Only few concerts were given in 2006, amongst others one acoustic performance in the
Neue Nationalgalerie
The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its ...
with the exhibition ''Melancholia. Genius and Mania in arts'' and two concerts each in Russia and in Spain. In the summer 2006 ''A Fish called prince'' was released as new piece by Deine Lakaien on the sampler ''Where's Neil when you need him?''. This sampler was a tribute to
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...
, when the film adaptation of his novel
Stardust was released under the name
Stardust.
The highlight of this anniversary was the tour ''20 years of electronic avantgarde'', which started in February 2007.
Deine Lakaien performed together with the orchestra
Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt The Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt is an orchestra based in Offenbach, Germany.
The Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, established in 1996, is beside its work as a classical symphony orchestra one of the leading crossover orchestras in Europe. The orchestr ...
at places like the
Gasteig
Gasteig is a cultural center in Munich, opened in 1985, which hosts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The Richard Strauss Conservatory, the Volkshochschule, and the municipal library are all located in the Gasteig. Most of the events of the Fi ...
(Munich Philharmony) and the
Alte Oper
Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destro ...
in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. The concert on February 18 in the
König Pilsener Arena
The Rudolf Weber-Arena (originally the Arena Oberhausen) is a multi-purpose arena, located in Oberhausen, Germany. Opening in 1996, the arena is a part of leisure and shopping center, CentrO. The venue was built in Neue Mitte Oberhausen, a form ...
in Oberhausen was recorded and released on 8 June in different versions with up to three DVDs and two CDs. More concerts were given in summer and autumn 2007. Deine Lakaien gave concerts with the usual line up in October 2007 in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Austria. Supporting act was
Lola Angst. In 2008, Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov had a break to have time for their solo projects and gave only one concert at the Amphi festival in Cologne on 19 July, as well as an acoustic concert in Beijing. Two more concerts followed in China summer 2009, this time with band.
Deine Lakaien went on ''Acoustic'' tour in Germany again in December 2009, in January 2010, as well as in May 2012. The single ''Gone'' was released on 3 September 2010 and contained the additional songs ''Kraken'' and ''A Fish called Prince'' (acoustic version). Two weeks later, the album ''Indicator'' was released as an ordinary as well as limited edition. Robert Wilcocks left the live band after the ''Indicator'' tour in October 2010 on his own account.
After touring ''acoustic'', Deine Lakaien recorded their 10th studio album ''Crystal Palace'' that was released in August 2014. The band returns to its origins with this album as completely electronic production without contributing guest musicians. Therefore, Slobodan Kajkut (drums) and Goran Trajkoski (E-guitar, electronics) joined Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov on the following tour. Both musicians accompanied Veljanov on his ''Porta Macedonia'' tour in 2009.
The band celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2016 with a kind of "best-of" album "XXX. The 30 Years Retrospective", which also contained previously unreleased studio and live material in the 4CD version. The following two years Deine Lakaien played several "XXX - The 30 Years Tour" concerts in special concert halls including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Cologne Philharmonie and the Dresden Kulturpalast. On this tour Horn and Veljanov were not only accompanied by all the current live musicians, i.e. apart from Kajkut and Trajkoski also B. Deutung, Ivee Leon and Katharina Garrard, but also presented their solo projects Helium Vola and Veljanov. A live recording of the tour was released, which also included selected footage of the concert at Laeiszhalle. In 2019 Deine Lakaien performed together with the solo projects as part of the Acoustica Tour. Apart from Goran Trajkoski, Igor Zotic supported the band and the solo project Veljanov. Alexander Veljanov performed on two Helium Vola tracks as a duet with Sabine Lutzenberger.
Due to the Corona pandemic, the band's 10th studio album could not be released in 2020 as originally planned and the tour planned for it also had to be postponed. Instead, Deine Lakaien gave a streaming concert on 16 July 2020, where they presented their cover version of "Because the night" (by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen) as a forerunner of the new album. The double album ''Dual'', which contains half original compositions and half cover versions, was released on 16 April 2021. It was described by the band themselves as "by far the most elaborate studio album" in the band's history.
Style
Name of the band
The name Deine Lakaien (which translates to "Your
Lackeys") was suggested by Alexander Veljanov. It is a reference to a line of the song "Die Genaue Zeit" by
Einstürzende Neubauten
(, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The group is currently composed of founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard) and N.U. Unruh ( custom-made instruments; p ...
. Deine Lakaien was supposed to be an electronic project from the very beginning. However, both musicians thought that the
Dark Wave
Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...
movement had reached a dead end. Thus, they wanted a name without any connection to the scene. On the other hand, they wanted a German name, though it was clear at that time that the lyrics would be mainly English.
Music
The style of Deine Lakaien is mainly classified as
Dark Wave
Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...
. The majority of their studio albums are produced electronically, but there are exceptions: In ''Kasmodiah'' (1999) the musicians Michael Popp and Christian Komorowski join Deine Lakaien. ''White Lies'' (2002) was recorded with Patrizia Düringer (violin), Jost Hecker (cello), Uli Widenhorn (guitar), Riccardo Delfino (hurdy-gurdy) and Sabine Lutzenberger (vocals).
[elektrolurch.com: ]
ELEKTROLURCH BANDSPECIAL - DEINE LAKAIEN
' (German, accessed 25. February 2008) In ''April Skies'' (2005) the actual live musicians take part.
The music is influenced by classical music and several artists of the 1970s and 1980s like
Ultravox
Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...
,
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
,
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
and
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris.
Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...
. Stylistic diversity is an important characteristic of their music. On the early album ''Forest enter Exit'', are collected such different pieces like ''Walk to the Moon'' – a quiet, emotional, mainly piano accompanied ballad, ''Nightmare'' – a mixture of slow passages and dissonant avant-garde parts, ''Resurrection Machine'' and ''Brain Fic'' – two technoid songs. Later albums are more uniform in character. ''Kasmodiah'' and ''White Lies'' are relatively calm; the newest album ''April Skies'' is livelier. This character is supported by the use of an electric guitar and influences of rock music.
Lyrics
Both musicians of Deine Lakaien contribute about half of the lyrics. At the beginning, mainly Ernst Horn was responsible for the lyrics, but for ''Winter Fish Testosterone'' the main part was written by Alexander Veljanov . Later, Ernst Horn's contribution to the lyrics increased again. He commented in an interview: ''Dark Star'' from 1991 is a concept album about love,
[Kussi]
'' Pop? oder Wahnsinn?''
in ''Popnoise 2/92'' (German, accessed 14. September 2007) while the ''Silver Tape'' from 1987 deals with death.
The debut from 1986 is about someone, who moves from the country side into the city and fails.
Later albums do not have a concept anymore. The lyrics contain a lot self-mockery,
and dark humor.
[Zillo 05/2003: ]
'' (German, accessed 25. February 2008)
Most of the songs of Deine Lakaien have English lyrics. There are only few exceptions of German (''Lass Mich'', Album: ''Kasmodiah''; ''Bei Nacht'', Single: ''One Night'') or French (''Vivre'', Album: ''April Skies''; ''Europe'', Album: ''Indicator'') lyrics. Though they have German titles, the songs ''Frühlingstraum'' (Album: ''Dark Star'') and ''Wunderbar'' (Album: ''White Lies'') are in English (the German word „wunderbar“ in the mentioned song is used in the chorus). The song ''The old man is dead'' of the album ''Indicator'' contains German text fragments.
Concerts
Through the years, Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov developed different ways of presenting their music live. The guiding idea was to differ significantly from the typical "Synth-Duo" with
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
,
DAT, and vocals.
The first concept presenting the music of Deine Lakaien included Ernst Horn with his synthesizers (later a piano was added), Christian „Komo“ Komorowski with
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, and
Michael Popp with
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
and various medieval instruments in addition to the vocals by Alexander Veljanov. This was the lineup of most of the concerts between 1991 and 2001. Concerts of this decade are recorded on the album ''Dark Star-Tour '92'' as well as on the video cassettes ''First Decade'' and ''Forest Enter Exit''. After the breakup with their live musicians, Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov found a new lineup in 2002 with Tobias „B. Deutung“ Unterberg on the
violoncello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D ...
, Robert Wilcocks with electric guitar, as well as the violinists Yvonne „Ivee Leon“ Fechner and „Sharifa“, who are also vocalists.
The first "Acoustic"-concert, where Alexander Veljanov was accompanied by Ernst Horn on the grand piano alone, happened in 1992. The piano was prepared as by
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
to mimic the usually electronic sounds. Extensive "Acoustic"-Tours followed in 1992 and 1995. The Live-CD ''Acoustic'' was recorded on the latter. Every now and then, Deine Lakaien give "Acoustic"-concerts until today.
The ''Concert That never Happened Before'' in January 2005 was the only concert with vocals and pure electronics. The concert was released on DVD with the same title.
Deine Lakaien did a tour with orchestra for the first time in 2007. The live-band played together with 40 musicians of the ''
Neuen Philharmonie Frankfurt'' in different concert venues and concert halls throughout Germany. It was very important for the band to differ from bands like
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
, who had their songs just rearranged for the ''
S&M'' concerts:
Ernst Horn was able to rewrite the pieces for orchestra due to his background in classical music. The orchestra did not play every piece, there were in fact also pure electronic songs.
[TekNoir]
''Deine Lakaien: 20 years of Electronic Avantgarde''
on Gothtronic.com (accessed 17. August 2007) Ernst Horn was mainly inspired by
20th-century classical music
20th-century classical music describes art music that was written nominally from 1901 to 2000, inclusive. Musical style diverged during the 20th century as it never had previously. So this century was without a dominant style. Modernism, impressio ...
after the second world war, including unusual use of the instruments like knocking on them or playing
col legno
In music for bowed string instruments, , or more precisely (, ), is an instruction to strike the string with the stick of the bow across the strings.
History
The earliest known use of in Western music is to be found in a piece entitled "Har ...
.
Ernst Horn was mainly conducting, but played piano and keyboard as well.
These different live-instrumentations are important for the band to elaborate the theme of a song:
Discography
Albums
* ''
Deine Lakaien
Deine Lakaien is a German band project active since 1985. It is formed by the vocalist Alexander Veljanov and by the composer and multi-instrumentalist Ernst Horn. The group unites influences from dark wave with pop music and elements of avant- ...
'', 1986
* ''
Dark Star'', 1991 (reissued in 2005 combined with '2nd Star' EP)
* ''
Dark Star Live'', 1992
* ''
Forest Enter Exit'', 1993
* ''
Winter Fish Testosterone'', 1996
* ''
Kasmodiah'', 1999
* ''
White Lies'', 2002
* ''
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
'', 2003 (Early material)
* ''
Live in Concert'', 2003
* ''
April Skies
"April Skies" is a song by Scottish alternative rock group the Jesus and Mary Chain and the first single from the group's second studio album, '' Darklands'' (1987). The song was released by Blanco y Negro Records in April 1987, reaching 8 on ...
'', 2005
* ''
Acoustic'', 2007 (1995 Live Recording)
* ''20 Years of Electronic Avantgarde'', 2009 (Orchestral recordings)
* ''
Indicator
Indicator may refer to:
Biology
* Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses)
* Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes)
* Health indicator, which is used to describe the health ...
'', 2010
* ''Acoustic II'', 2013
* ''Crystal Palace'', 2014
* ''XXX. The 30 Years Retrospective'', 2016
* ''Dual'', 2021
* ''Dual+'', 2021
Singles and EPs
Video/DVD
*''Mindmachine'', 1994 (Video Single)
*''Forest Enter Exit'', 1994 (Live Video)
*''First Decade'', 1996 (Video Compilation)
*''Live In Concert'', 2003 (Live DVD)
*''The concert that never happened before''. (2006) (Live DVD)
*''20 Years Of Electronic Avantgarde'', 2009 (2 DVDs of orchestral recordings - also available as 3-DVD + 2-CD box set)
Notes
External links
Official homepageDeine Lakaien - "20 Years of Electronic Avantgarde" - interviewColour-ize.de (Official Fanbase of ''Deine Lakaien'')Deine Lakaien at Chrom Records
{{Authority control
German dark wave musical groups
German electronic musicians
Musical groups established in 1985
1985 establishments in West Germany