Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is an ever-changing
experimental music band, originally from
West Berlin, formed in 1980. The band is often classified as
industrial or
electronica, though neither really applies well in describing what it is that Einstürzende Neubauten does or sounds like. The band is best described as creating
experimental music with their own personal stylistic sensibilities. One of the band's "trademarks" is the use of self-made instruments (usually, but not always, made out of scrap metal and building tools) and noises, in addition to standard musical instruments. Neubauten has always experimented with sounds, originally in
noise music and recently in silence (such as with the
Silence Is Sexy album).
*
Blixa Bargeld: lead vocals, guitar, keyboards. (real name: Christian Emmerich, original member)
*
Alexander Hacke: bass, guitar, vocals (also known as Alexander von Borsig, since 1980)
*
N.U. Unruh: special built instruments, percussion, vocals (real name: Andrew Chudy, original member)
*
Jochen Arbeit: guitar, vocals (since 1997)
*
Rudi Moser: special built instruments, percussion, vocals (since 1997)
Other personalities
*
Ash Wednesday: keyboards, electronics (touring member since 1997, perhaps named for the
Australian bush fires, perhaps for the holiday)
*
Boris Wilsdorf - sound engineer
*Erin Zhu - executive producer, webmaster of neubauten.org.
Previous members
*
Beate Bartel: bass (original member, only in the band for a short time in 1980)
*
Gudrun Gut: keyboards (original member, only in the band for a short time in 1980)
*
F.M. Einheit: percussion, vocals (real name: Frank Martin Strauß, 1981-1995)
*
Mark Chung: bass, vocals (1981-1994)
* Roland Wolf: keyboards, bass (replaced Mark Chung in 1995, died in a traffic accident short time later)
The band name is usually translated into
English as "Collapsing New Buildings", where "collapsing" is an
adjective, not a
verb, and
Neubauten generally carries the more specific connotation of a high-rise
tower block. Also, the term
Neubauten was associated in 1980 with the post-
World War II buildings in
Germany, which include, due to the destruction during the
war and rebuilding after, nearly all the German buildings.
1980 (the beginning)
On
April 1,
1980, Einstürzende Neubauten made their first appearance in the Moon Club in
Berlin. This date is considered to be the band's birthday. Their name was a reference to the Berlin Kongresshalle, a post-war "new building," which had collapsed earlier that year. At that time the band was just a coincidental live set-up of the
Dadaistic musical movement the
Geniale Dilettanten. This line-up featured
Beate Bartel and
Gudrun Gut,
Blixa Bargeld, and
N.U. Unruh, who later went on to record
music under the name of Einstürzende Neubauten. The two female members Bartel and Gut left the band after a short period of performing and founded the girl-band
Mania D.. A young sound technician and multi-instrumentalist Alexander von Borsig (alias
Alexander Hacke), fifteen years old at that time, joined the band and became a long-time member.
1981-1982
In 1981 the
percussionist F.M. Einheit (from the
Hamburg band
Abwärts) joined Einstürzende Neubauten and they released their first
LP Kollaps, a strange and new mixture of rough
punk tunes and industrial noises using obscure instruments such as metal plates, self-made music machines, and various electronic sounds. The live performances with FM Einheit in the 1980s included lots of metal banging and destruction on stage, which became legendary.
During their first
German tour, Mark Chung (previously the bass player with
Abwärts) joined the group of musicians. This line-up lasted for the next ten years.
1983-1984
In 1983, Einstürzende Neubauten recorded their second
album Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T.. The title comes originally from a book of the writer
Leo Navratil, which describes the drawings of
Oswald Tschirtner, O.T. 1974. Also in 1983
Blixa Bargeld joined the band
The Birthday Party (featuring
Nick Cave,
Mick Harvey). After it was disbanded a short time later, he became a long-time member of one of the bands that rose from
The Birthday Party's ashes -
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (featuring
Nick Cave and
Mick Harvey). Blixa Bargeld remained a full-time member of two bands, Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, until 2003.
1985-1989
The band's next foray,
Halber Mensch (1985), may be seen as the developmental breakthrough of their musical career. Musical structure became more evident, with Bargeld`s lyrics and singing in particular changing from shouted words and phrases into organized, poetic melodies.
The band played a show in
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Canada to kick off their third North American tour. This performance was sponsored by the German Goethe Institute as part of the German contribution to
Expo 86. Also scheduled to appear were
Test Dept and
Skinny Puppy, though not everyone was able to play.
The one-hour
film Halber Mensch (1986) by
Sogo Ishii documents Einstürzende Neubauten's visit to
Japan in 1985.
The next two albums,
Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala (1987) and
Haus der Lüge, were great successes in the
United States and Japan.
1990-1995
In 1991, the band tried something completely new, recording the soundtrack for
Heiner Müller's play
Die Hamletmaschine (
The Hamlet Machine). The band image of Einstürzende Neubauten changed. Blixa Bargeld, formerly wearing punk/industrial style clothes, appeared at the live concerts in a suit.
In
Vienna, 1992, Einstürzende Neubauten performed at The Academy of Visual Arts' 300th aniversary in a show by
Erich Wonder,
Das Auge des Taifun.
The next album
Tabula Rasa (1993) was an important turning point in the history of Einstürzende Neubauten because their music became softer and contained more electronic sounds.
Mark Chung left the band after recording
Faustmusik and made a career in the music industry.
F.M. Einheit, who contributed much to the music and sound of the band, left the band a short time later, during the recording of
Ende Neu, at least partially because of a conflict with Blixa Bargeld. The last Einstürzende Neubauten track
F.M. Einheit worked on was "Was ist ist" (source: booklet for
Strategies Against Architecture III). After leaving Einstürzende Neubauten,
F.M. Einheit continued his work in music and theater, collaborating with various artists, such as
Andreas Ammer,
Gry and
Pan Sonic.
1996-1999
A short time later, the band released the next album
Ende Neu (1996). A song "Stella Maris" - a duet of Blixa Bargeld with the female singer and Hacke's spouse
Meret Becker - became quite famous. A world tour followed the release. During this time, Jochen Arbeit and
Rudi Moser (both were the members of
Die Haut) joined the band.
In 1997 an album
Ende Neu Remixes was released, which features the remixes of the songs from
Ende Neu by such artists as
Barry Adamson and
Pan Sonic.
2000-2001
On
April 1,
2000, Einstürzende Neubauten celebrated their 20th birthday with a "20th anniversary concert" in
Columbiahalle,
Berlin and a release of the album
Silence is sexy, followed by a world tour. The title song of
Silence is sexy is about
tinnitus.
Since 2001, Einstürzende Neubauten albums and web projects have been partially produced and supported by
Blixa Bargeld's wife Erin Zhu, who also serves as webmaster of the official Einstürzende Neubauten website.
2002-2004
In 2002, Einstürzende Neubauten began work on a new album without the backing of a
record label, relying instead upon
supporter participation in an experiment of a type of
Street Performer Protocol combined with an
internet community and touches of the
patronage system. About 2,000 supporters signed up to support what became Phase I by paying 35 US$ or EUR to participate in the experience and receive the results. Numerous sessions of the recording and creating of the next album, were translated to the supporters community via the internet, as a streaming video. An exclusive
Supporter Album #1 was sent out to them in autumn 2003. Blixa Bargeld left
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2003. In order to go on tour, the band reneged on the idea of creating a supporter-only album, and cooperated with
Mute Records to go on tour and release
Perpetuum Mobile in 2004. The air sounds, such as blowing the plastic pipes with an air compressor, were intesely explored and used for this album.
The live shows of the
Perpetuum Mobile Tour were recorded by the band's sound engineers, then burned on CDRs and sold directly after the concerts to the visitors. So, numerous "official" live albums were created during this tour. Unfortunately, these live albums include some cuts and errors.
In November of 2004, the band went on a mini-tour, which included a supporters-only performance at Berlin's
Palast der Republik. The performance was filmed and was released on the exclusive supporter's DVD at the end of Phase II.
2005
The band also started a new project called
Musterhaus in early 2005. The first CD
Anarchitektur was sent out in May of 2005, and was also available for download to Musterhaus subscribers. The Musterhaus project is a "line of releases intended to give the band an outlet for more experimental impulses and exploration." Musterhaus releases are released roughly every 3 months.
The second Musterhaus CD
Unglaublicher Lärm was finished on August 15th of 2005 and shipped out (as well as posted for download) shortly after.
Phase II of the Neubauten Supporter's project finished in August of 2005, and the official site was taken down on the 20th of September. The supporter's album (titled
Grundstück) and DVD (containing footage from the November 2004
Grundstück performance in Berlin) was shipped in early October of 2005.
Musterhaus #3, released 8 December,
Solo Bassfeder is a collection of bass spring compositions by the individual members of Einstürzende Neubauten.
2006
Phase III of the Supporter's project started on February 10th. On February the 25th, the fourth part of the
Musterhaus series, called
Redux Orchestra vs. Einstürzende Neubauten was completed. One of the new additions to Phase III was a piece-by-piece album available only to supporters, consisting of 12
jewels as the band calls them. Starting in March, these downloadable tracks were released on or around the 15th of the month and are drawn from singer Bargelds' dreams. Available so far;
#
Ich komme davon (March 15th 2006)#
Mei Ro (April 15th 2006)#
26 Riesen (May 15th 2006)#
Hawcubite (June 15th 2006)#
Die Libellen (July 15th 2006)
Musterhaus #5,
Kassetten finished May 15 with release scheduled for May 31. At the same time,
Alles Was Irgendwie Nützt, an album that had been in the work since Phase 2, were completed. The album consists of rare live tracks, handpicked by 6 Supporters of Phase 2 and mixed by Boris Wilsdorf.
Albums
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Kollaps (re-released including STAHLDUBVERSIONS) (1981)
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Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T. (1983)
*
Halber Mensch (1985)
*
Fünf Auf der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala (1987)
*
Haus der Lüge (1989)
*
Tabula Rasa (1993)
*
Ende Neu (1996)
*
Silence Is Sexy (2000)
*
Perpetuum Mobile (2004)
Other albums
These are compilations, live albums, limited, soundtracks and other full length releases
*
Stahlmusik (1980)
*
Stahldubversions (1982)
*
1981/1982 Livematerial alias
Liveaufnahmen 07/81 bis 02/82 (1982)
*
Strategies Against Architecture 80-83 (Strategien gegen Architekturen 80-83) (1984)
*
2X4 (1984) (live album)
*
Die Hamletmaschine (1991) (music for a radio play)
*
Strategies Against Architecture II (1991) (double album)
*
Faustmusik (1996) (music for a radio play)
*
Ende Neu Remixes (1997)
*
Berlin Babylon (2001)
*
Strategies Against Architecture III (2001) (double album)
*
09-15-2000, Brussels (2001) (double live album)
*
Gemini (2003) (download-only release, double live album)
*
Supporter Album No. 1 (2003) (limited album for the supporters of phase 1 only)
* Numerous live albums from the
Perpetuum Mobile Tour
*
Kalte Sterne -early recordings- (2004) (re-issue of the early singles)
*
Grundstück (2005) (limited album for the supporters of phase 2 only)
*
musterhaus:Anarchitektur (2005) (subscription-only; also available on tour)
*
musterhaus:Unglaublicher Lärm (2005) (subscription-only)
*
musterhaus:Solo Bassfeder (2005) (subscription-only)
*
musterhaus:Redux Orchestra vs. Einstürzende Neubauten (2006) (subscription-only)
*
musterhaus:Kassetten (2006) (subscription-only)
*
Alles Was Irgendwie Nützt (2006) (available only through neubauten.org)
*
Jewels(album) (2006-2007) (download-only album for supporters of phase 3)
Singles
* "Für den Untergang" (1980)
* "Kalte Sterne" (1981)
* "Thirsty Animal" (1982) (with
Lydia Lunch &
Rowland S. Howard)
* "Yü-Gung" (1985)
* "Das Schaben" (1985)
* "Feurio!" (1989) (3-inch disc)
* "Stella Maris" (1996)
* "NNNAAAMMM" (1996)
* "Perpetuum Mobile" (2004) (download-only release)
EPs
*
Interim (1993) (part of
Tabula Rasa triptych)
*
Malediction (1993) (part of
Tabula Rasa triptych)
*
Total Eclipse Of The Sun (1999)
*
Airplane Miniatures (2003) (supporters-only download,
Christmas present)
Videos
*
Halber Mensch (film) (1985)
*
Liebeslieder (1993)
*
Stella Maris (1996)
*
20th anniversary concert (2000)
*
Grundstück DVD (2005)
* M. Bullynck and I. Goerlandt: "The
Semiotics of Einstürzende Neubauten's 'X'". In:
Philament 7 (2005), pp. 1-8. [
1]
* A. Spencer: "Einstürzende Neubauten und Heiner Müller: 'Kopfarbeit' or The Theatre in Your Head". In:
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik 48 (2000), pp. 203â€"222.
*
Official Einstürzende Neubauten webpage*
Official Blixa Bargeld webpage*
Official Alex Hacke webpage*
Official F.M. Einheit webpage*
Official Ash Wednesday webpage*
From The Archives: a site with discography, concert history, videography, bibliography, etc. Also features
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,
The Birthday Party and related artists.
*
Einstürzende Neubauten Lyrics*
Einstürzende Neubauten Discography webpage*
Doing the unspeakable On the 25th anniversary of the legendary German band, Max Dax interviewed its co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Alexander Hacke on Berlin in the eighties and the End Time aesthetics of Berlin's Kreuzberg district at signandsight.com.
*
Battery 9*
Henry Rollins has the Einstürzende Neubauten logo
tattooed on his right shoulder.
*
Schweinefleischdummkopf
