Wolfsheim
| Wolfsheim | |
|---|---|
 Wolfsheim (1992) Markus Reinhardt and Peter Heppner |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Dark wave , electronic pop music , synth |
| founding | 1987 |
| resolution | 2005 |
| Founding members | |
| Markus Reinhardt | |
| Pompejo Ricciardi | |
| Last occupation | |
Lyrics , singing |
Peter Heppner (1987-2015) |
Music, keyboard |
Markus Reinhardt (1987-2015) |
| former members | |
singing |
Pompejo Ricciardi (1987) |
music |
Oliver Reinhardt (1987) |
Wolfsheim was a German band from Hamburg . Since 1987 it has consisted of Markus Reinhardt (music) and Peter Heppner (lyrics and vocals). Their music uses elements of the synth-pop of the 1980s. It was also initially classified as Wave Pop or Dark Wave . Her best-known songs are The Sparrows and the Nightingales from 1991, Once in a Lifetime from 1998 and No Back from 2003.
Band history
Foundation and naming (1987)
Wolfsheim was founded in 1987 from the band members Markus Reinhardt and Pompejo Ricciardi. The band name did not originate from the municipality of the same name in Rhineland-Palatinate , but refers to a fictional character by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby and “unites the familiar with the fascination of silent longing for the unknown, wild beauty of a still untouched strange world”. In the meantime, the band existed as a trio shortly after they were founded , because Markus' brother Oliver Reinhardt joined the duo . After about three months and only one recorded tape , the singer Pompejo left the band. He himself suggested Peter Heppner as his successor, who in turn was quite a fan of the first compositions and who already knew the band well because they all grew up in the Hamburg district of Wilhelmsburg and belonged to a group of friends. Markus and Peter also went to the same high school, but only really got to know each other in their art class. What they had in common was their admiration for bands like Bauhaus and Kraftwerk . Shortly after Peter's entry, Oliver Reinhardt left the band again, and so the long-standing Wolfsheim duo of Peter Heppner and Markus Reinhardt was born. At first the old texts of the former singer Pompejo were still used, but that soon changed. Heppner, who had previously sung in the church and school choir and actually wanted to become a painter or writer, now wrote the texts for the compositions by Markus. On October 28, 1987 Wolfsheim gave their first concert in the Hamburger Werkstatt 3 .
The first demo recordings and discovery (1988–1991)
In 1988 Heppner and Reinhardt recorded their first demo tape Ken Manage together . The music , text and production of the eight titles came from Heppner and Reinhardt. The second demo tape Any But Pretty followed a year later . This was also an in-house production and, like its predecessor, contained eight titles. They used these two tapes to apply to various record companies, although they only received rejections. Only Lothar Gärtner (managing director of the music label Strange Ways Records) became aware of the two after hearing a few pieces. So in 1991 the debut taxisingle The Sparrows and the Nightingales was released by Strange Ways, the music label to which Wolfsheim have remained loyal to this day. The Sparrows and the Nightingales developed into a big European club hit. During this time, the two also recorded a German-language cover version of Enya's song Boadicea with the title Übergrün Wiesen . The piece was written in 1990 in collaboration with Carlos Perón , but was not published on any official album or demo tape of the duo at the time. Due to the later conflicts, the title was initially still not published after Wolfsheim's dissolution, it was not until 2014 that the piece was officially released for the first time on the sampler Der Eisenberg Sampler - Vol. 4 .
Debut album No Happy View and first tour (1992)
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On February 14, 1992, the second single from It's Not Too Late (Don't Sorrow) from the debut album was released in advance . After about two to three years of work, the debut LP No Happy View was released on May 15, 1992 with a total of eleven tracks. The album was recorded within two weeks of the studio, the compositions come from Heppner and Reinhardt, the record was produced by the 909 producer team , consisting of Carlos Perón , Jose Alvarez-Brill and Gento Navaho. Approximately 65,000 copies of the album had been sold by the end of 2001. After the album was released, many print media voted Wolfsheim among the newcomers of the year . Just five months after the album was released, the EP Thunderheart was released on October 9, 1992 with two new compositions and a remix of an old song.
After No Happy View was released , Wolfsheim, along with The Invincible Spirit , Eternal Afflict, Catastrophe Ballet and Umbra Et Imago , were part of the Zillo Festival Tour in December of the same year.
Second studio album Popkiller and the Breakthrough (1993–1995)
After the short Zillo Festival Tour in 1992 at the end of 1992, Wolfsheim went on a small tour again at the beginning of 1993. The tour was called the Strange Ways Festival Tour 1993 and took it from February 11 to February 16, 1993 through five German cities. Then the two retired for half a year to work on new songs. On August 30, 1993, the maxi single Now I Fall was released in advance . A month later, the corresponding second studio album Popkiller was released . The compositions are again by Heppner and Reinhardt. Carlos Perón took over the production, together with Heppner and Reinhardt and for two pieces again together with Jose Alvarez-Brill and Gento Navaho. The album contains twelve new Wolfsheim songs.
On April 22nd, 1994 the "non-album single" Elias (drumless mix) was released . This is a remix version of the song Elias , which was already on the demo Any but Pretty . The remix version can be found on the band's best-of album, released a year later. To further promote the album Popkiller , the duo's third tour followed in May 1994. This tour took place under the name Strange Ways Festival Tour 1994 and led from May 9th to May 14th 1994 through six German cities.
On February 20, 1995, the band's only best-of album to date, called 55578, was released . It contains songs from the first two studio albums, the two demo tapes and three new recordings. The first 55,578 copies of the album also included the EP Bruder Kosmonaut , an earlier produced but unreleased EP. Carlos Perón was back to work as a producer. With this album Wolfsheim achieved their final breakthrough, the duo were able to place in the German album Top 100 for the first time. On November 20, 1995, the single Closer Still from the 1996 third studio album was released.
Third studio album Dreaming Apes and the first live album (1996-1997)
On February 16, 1996, after around two and a half years, the third studio album Dreaming Apes was released . The album was produced within three months. The producer was Jose Alvarez-Brill, who had previously produced several titles for Wolfsheim. On April 19, 1996, the album's second single, A New System Has Been Explored, was released. It was created in cooperation with the German singer Heike Nebel and was Wolfsheim's first published collaboration with another artist. The pair's fourth tour followed in May. The tour took place under the name Dreaming Apes Tour in 1996 , took Wolfsheim through nine German cities from May 16 to 26, 1994 and was the band's first solo tour. On September 3, 1996 Wolfsheim gave a concert in the pavilion in Hanover as part of the Grenzwellen . The concert was broadcast on radio ffn and on regional television via H1 .
On October 20, 1997, the Hamburg duo's only live album to date was released , entitled Hamburg Rom Wolfsheim . The 70-minute long player contains recordings of the Dreaming Apes Tour from Halle , Hildesheim , Hamburg , Potsdam , Bremen and Dortmund . In the same year the release of an EP with the title E was planned, but nothing came of it due to Heppner's illness. Two years later, an instrumental called E appeared on the subsequent studio album.
Fourth studio album Spectators and establishment (1998–1999)
In order to shorten the time to the forthcoming fourth studio album, Wolfsheim released two pre-singles of the album. Once in a Lifetime was released on October 16, 1998 . With this, the two achieved their first placement in the German Media Control single charts. It's Hurting for the First Time was released on November 30th , and this single also hit the charts immediately after its release. It's Hurting for the First Time was used as the soundtrack for the movie Love Your Next! by Detlev Buck . Detlev Buck also directed the music video. To promote the album in advance , Wolfsheim went on the fifth tour in October 1998. The tour took place under the name Spectators Tour 1998/99 and took Wolfsheim from October 23 to March 10, 1999 through 17 German cities.
On January 29, 1999, the fourth studio album, Spectators , was released after three years . As with Dreaming Apes , the compositions are by Heppner and Reinhardt; The LP was produced by Wolfsheim and Jose Alvarez-Brill. The LP consists of eleven new songs, and a deluxe edition of the album also includes the maxi single Artificial Worlds . The album was released across Europe in the same year. In Germany position three of the album charts could be reached straight away , in the third chart week even position two, you just had to admit defeat to Cher's album Believe . For the first time, a Wolfsheim record was able to place itself in the charts outside of Germany. Spectators reached number 41 on the Swiss charts. To date, Spectators is Wolfsheim's best-selling sound carrier with over 250,000 copies sold, for which it was awarded a gold record in Germany in 2004. On March 26, 1999, the third single from Künstliche Welten took place, and this single also made it into the charts again. In May of this year the duo played for the first time at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals . On July 26, 1999, a vinyl edition of Sleep Somehow (Extended Mix) was released for collectors. In August 1999 they performed for the first time at a concert outside Germany, they were part of the Belgian Eurorock Open Air . In Munich they played as the opening act for a concert by the US band REM
Bridging time to the next album (2000–2002)
2000 Wolfsheim paused almost the entire year. No phonograms were released and no studio recordings took place. They only played two festival concerts: on June 9, 2000 at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig and at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden on August 19, 2000. In addition, a calendar was published for the first time with the most beautiful photo impressions of the two.
They did not go public again until September 2001. On September 4, 2001, a new edition of the song Gray in Gray appeared with the German dark wave band Girls Under Glass . The original is from 1992 by Girls Under Glass and Peter Heppner, the new version was recorded for the new Girls Under Glass album Frozen with Heppner and Reinhardt. In September 2001 the two played at three German festivals: M'era Luna Festival , Weißenfelser Schlossfest and the Woodstage Summer Open Air . On October 29th, the band's first and to date only box set was released. It was the Box Spectators trilogy . It contains a kind of best of the last album and consists of the album Spectators and the maxisingles Once in a Lifetime and Artificial Worlds . After the publication of Spectators in the United States, a tour of the United States was planned for October 2001, but this had to be canceled due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 .
On April 16, 2002, Wolfsheim's only DVD, Kompendium , was released . The video album contains a concert recording consisting of 24 titles. The recordings were made during the second part of the Spectators Tour 1998/99 . The concert recording took place on March 6, 1999 at the concert in the old slaughterhouse in Dresden . The DVD also contains seven music videos and specials such as B. a slideshow and an interview. The new album Close Enough was announced for the end of 2002 , but Heppner and Reinhardt postponed the release date to 2003.
Fifth studio album Casting Shadows and Career Highlight (2003)
On February 17, 2003, the preliminary single No Back was released . With her, Wolfsheim celebrated the greatest single success of their career in Germany. It became the only top 10 hit and was awarded a gold record for over 150,000 units sold. Detlev Buck directed the accompanying music video again. The success of the single was so great that it was able to place it at position 18 in the 2003 annual charts . For a period of eleven weeks, No Back was the most successful German-language song in the German single charts . From March 6 to 22, a promotional tour of Germany with the title Casting Shadows Tour 2003 followed , which took them eleven times to Germany and one time each to Austria and Switzerland. On April 7, 2003, after four years, the last studio album Casting Shadows , which was originally to be called Close Enough , followed. The album went straight to number 1 on the German album charts . It was the second time that an album was placed in the Swiss charts and for the first time it entered the Austrian album charts. Thus the album could be placed in all DA-CH countries. In addition, the album was able to place itself at position 21 in the album annual charts in Germany. In 2004, the album went platinum for 200,000 units sold . This is the only platinum record of her career. The album was produced by Jose Alvarez-Brill, Axel Breiten and Andreas Herbig. On November 3rd, the second single from the album was released. This is a double A-side called Find You're Here / Find You're Gone . The single was immediately able to place itself in the German single charts. For the first time this single managed to achieve a placement outside of Germany. Find You're Here / Find You're Gone was placed at number 73 on the Austrian hit parade.
Last successes and band breakup (2004-2006)
On March 1, 2004, Heppner and Reinhardt released their last maxi single, a new edition of the song Blind , which was released in 1999 on the Spectators album . This is the soundtrack to the film Peas at half past four . The single was able to place itself in the German single charts right away. On March 6, 2004 Wolfsheim performed the single Blind at the Echo and were awarded an Echo in the category artist / group National Rock / Metal / Alternative that same night , where they competed against Die Happy , Guano Apes , In Extremo and We are heroes could prevail. Two weeks after the Echo Awards, Wolfsheim went on the US tour that was planned in 2001, where they played a total of ten concerts from March 21, 2004 to April 5, 2004. This was also Wolfsheim's last tour. The two gave their last official concert on July 30, 2005 on the open-air stage in Schwerin , as part of the Thalia Open Air.
In 2005, Wolfsheim gave the approval for DJ Baby Anne, who released a cover version of Once in a Lifetime . After that, Markus Reinhardt withdrew from the music business for some time. He composed a few pieces that he did not want to implement with Wolfsheim. In December 2005, Peter Heppner signed a solo contract with the Warner Music Group music label .
Disputes (since 2007)
Since the beginning of 2007 Reinhardt tried to exclude his long-time band colleague Heppner from the joint band project Wolfsheim and sued the Hamburg district court for this purpose . However, the action was dismissed, as was the appeal before the competent higher regional court . Heppner repeatedly emphasized in interviews that he would continue to be very interested in continuing Wolfsheim. In 2009 Reinhardt obtained an injunction against Heppner, as he neglected "the joint Wolfsheim project due to his solo activities". Above all, Reinhardt wanted to ensure that he could continue to work under the familiar name - with or without Heppner. According to a press release from Reinhardt's lawyer, the responsible regional court in Hamburg has forbidden Heppner to publicly announce that Reinhardt has been on vacation for four years or that he has emigrated to Greece and that he “lives pretty well there”. Furthermore, Heppner was no longer allowed to claim that Reinhardt had told him that the singer should record a new Wolfsheim album on his own.
Members
Timeline: band members
| member | 1987 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Markus Reinhardt (1987-2005) |
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| Pompejo Ricciardi (1987) |
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| Oliver Reinhardt (1987) |
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Peter Heppner (1987-2005) |
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Side projects
Peter Heppner
Heppner started in 2008 with the release of his debut album solo his solo career. Even during his time with Wolfsheim between 1987 and 2004, Peter Heppner was involved in numerous other music projects, including as a guest musician or in collaboration with Girls Under Glass , Umbra et Imago , Joachim Witt and Schiller .
Markus Reinhardt
Reinhardt devoted himself to other band projects after Wolfsheim, such as B. since 2010 Comfortable Cave Goodbye. Even during his time with Wolfsheim between 1987 and 2004, Markus Reinhardt was involved in numerous other music projects, including Nefkom, Neustart and Care Company.
Tours
- 1992: Zillo Festival Tour 1992
- 1993: Strange Ways Festival Tour 1993
- 1994: Strange Ways Festival Tour 1994
- 1996: Dreaming Apes Tour 1996
- 1999: Spectators Tour 1998/99
- 2003: Casting Shadows Tour 2003
- 2004: Wolfsheim US Tour 2004
For an overview of all concerts see:
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
|||
| 1992 |
No Happy View Strange Ways Records |
- | - | - |
First published: May 15, 1992
Sales: + 65,000 |
| 1993 |
Popkiller Strange Ways Records |
- | - | - |
First published: October 1, 1993
|
| 1996 |
Dreaming Apes Strange Ways Records |
DE91 (3 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: February 16, 1996
|
| 1999 |
Spectators Metropolis Records / Strange Ways Records |
DE2  (25 weeks)DE |
- |
CH41 (1 week) CH |
First published: Jan 29, 1999
Sales: + 250,000 |
| 2003 |
Casting Shadows Metropolis Records / Strange Ways Records |
DE1  (38 weeks)DE |
AT38 (10 weeks) AT |
CH56 (4 weeks) CH |
First published: April 7, 2003
Sales: + 200,000 |
Awards
-
ECHO Pop
- 2004 : in the category artist / group National Rock / Metal / Alternative ( Casting Shadows )
literature
- Dirk Horst: Synthiepop - The soulful cold: Stories of Synthiepop . Books on Demand, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-3422-9 .
Web links
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- wolfsheim.de ( Memento from February 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Wolfsheim at laut.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wolfsheim biography. laut.de, accessed on April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ 1. Wolfsheim concert at grimmfrost.de. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ↑ Various - The Eisenberg Sampler - Vol. 4 . discogs.com, accessed October 7, 2016 .
- ^ Peter Heppner, Public Group. facebook.com, accessed October 7, 2016 .
- ^ Wolfsheim - Grenzwellen Nacht on September 13th, 1996 in Hanover. youtube.com, accessed January 6, 2017 .
- ^ Wolfsheim biography. grimmfrost.de, accessed on April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Cher on position 1 in the German album charts at Charts.de. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ↑ Markus Reinhardt composes other songs at wolfsheim.de. Retrieved May 23, 2006.
- ↑ Heppner signs solo contract with Warner at mediabiz.de. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ↑ Ingo Scheel: "Suddenly we were visionaries" In: Stern , October 4th, 2008 (interview with Peter Heppner).
- ↑ Marius Meyer: Solo, but not alone - Interview with Peter Heppner. ( Memento from September 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) alternativmusik.de, October 19, 2008, accessed on May 3, 2019.
- ^ The court forbids Heppner to speak. laut.de, accessed on April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Dirk Horst: Synthiepop - The soulful cold: Stories of Synthiepop. Books on Demand, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-3422-9 .
- ↑ artist search . echopop.de, accessed on March 25, 2018 .