Eden (German band)

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Eden was one of the first Christian rock groups from Germany. Her album “Perelandra” is considered to be one of the groundbreaking productions in this genre in the early 1980s.

history

The band The Starfighters became the band Taras Bulba Clan in Iserlohn at the end of the sixties . As part of the Jesus People movement, some of the members founded one of the first Christian communities in Germany in Eininghausen near Preußisch Oldendorf in December 1972 and changed the name to Truth By Christ . So the initials TBC could stay. The substantial financial support from Erika Pils was the basis for all further musical and evangelistic activities of the group.

Due to different beliefs, the municipality was given up in 1974. Some of the members moved to Lüdenscheid , where on February 23, 1976 they founded the non-denominational association Freie Christian Jugendgemeinschaft eV (FCJG), which was dedicated to the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Work began in the same year in a former Christian hospice on Bahnhofstrasse in Lüdenscheid, which was henceforth called Haus Wiedenhof .

The board members of the FCJG included three musicians from the former Eininghausen municipality. From 1977 one began to make music again. A new group called Eden was formed. The rehabilitation work was then more and more transferred to other hands. In April 1982 Walter Heidenreich officially took over the management of the FCJG from the previous founder and director, Michael Claren. He then devoted himself more intensively to building up a book and media publisher.

Between 1978 and 1982 three albums were produced. The debut album Expectation was published in 1978 by Verlag Hermann Schulte , now Gerth Medien , and presents four tracks with a playing time of 50 minutes and special guest Markus Egger . The second album Perelandra was released in 1980 - inspired by the book of the same name by the Irish writer CS Lewis . In 1980 the last album Heimkehr was released . All albums were temporarily distributed by the Michael Claren publishing house. Eden also took part in productions by well-known Christian artists such as the Wetzlar Youth Choir or Cornelia and Ruthild Eicker . The last public appearance of Eden was on December 19, 1981 at the Christmas Rock Night in Ennepetal. Dirk Schmalenbach then produced the album Pictures from Middle Earth in 1984 under the project name Yavanna . With his second wife Gertrud Schmalenbach he founded a successor group in 1997, also under the name Eden.

Michael and Anne Dierks moved with their children to Wermelskirchen in 1980 and founded a medical technology company there . In 2003 he returned to music as a part-time job and founded a label and studio DIRX Handmade Music . Here he and his son Tim produced one of the first unofficial CDs with Henrik Freischlader in 2003 and in 2008 started the reactivation of Conny Plank's legendary recording studio in Wolperath after it had been empty for two years. Since 2007 he has been leading a successful series of blues events and blues sessions in the Kattwinkel factory in Wermelskirchen.

Michael Claren produced the first medical film for spinal implants for him after selling his publisher and starting a video production company. He lived for a long time as an artist (digital artist), photographer and TV editor in Hobe Sound, Florida / USA and since 2016 again in Munich. Today he is no longer musically active.

Hans Fritzsch founded a craft business that deals with the production of medical instruments. He also worked closely with Michael Dierks and developed special instruments for spinal surgery for him. Musically he played for a long time with a new version of the Starfighters and supported his daughter Jeannine. He is still musically active and can often be found at jam sessions in the Lüdenscheid area .

Band members

  • Armin Dressler, drums
  • Hans Müller, drums
  • Michael Claren, bass, 12-string guitar, octave guitar and vocals
  • Hans Fritzsch, guitar
  • Michael Dierks, keyboards and vocals
  • Dirk Schmalenbach, violin, keyboards and vocals
  • Mario Schaub, flute and saxophone
  • Michael Wirth, percussion
  • Jolie Claren, Anne Dierks, Irene Heidenreich, Annette Schmalenbach († 1998), vocals
  • Markus Egger, vocals, was a guest on the first production "Expectation" and some live performances

Albums

  • 1978 expectation
  • 1980 Perelandra
  • 1980 homecoming

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.edenstory.de/Die_Story.html

Web links