Earth furniture (tape)

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Earth furniture
Erdmöbel 2005
Erdmöbel 2005
General information
Genre (s) Indie pop
founding 1993
Website www.erdmoebel.de
Current occupation
Markus Berges
Bass , guitar, trombone , electronics
 Ekki Maas (Ekimas)
Keyboard , electronics
 Wolfgang Proppe
Drums , electronics
 Christian Wübben (deWueb)
former members
bass
 Jürgen Diehle (1995–1997)
bass
 Maf Rescuer (1997-2001)
Gregor Kerkmann

Erdmöbel are in Münster , founded and now in Cologne -based band consisting of singer and songwriter Markus Berges , multi-instrumentalist and music producer Ekimas , the keyboardist Wolfgang Proppe and drummer Christian Wübben.

history

Erdmöbel (based on an alleged GDR word for coffins) were founded in 1993. With Markus Berges' lyrical lyrics, his expressive, relaxed singing style and the multi-layered arrangements by producer Ekimas, the band is part of an Anglo-American songwriting and music tradition.

Their debut album, The End of the Diet (1996) - between rock and experiment and in traditional line-up (guitars, bass, drums) - already delivered a classic of the band with “Dreierbahn”.

First Words after Bad mit Delfinen (1999) then relied more on electronic elements and, in terms of text, on more subjective images and poetry. It remains the most melancholy album.

The following year Ekimas produced the electronic album Erdmöbel versus Ekimas from songs from the first two albums . With an arrangement of “Dreierbahn” it contains the band's first indie radio hit. Electronic influences remain an element of the earth furniture style longer.

With the album Altes Gasthaus Love (2003), the band clearly went in the direction of lightness and pop. The songs are particularly dedicated to everyday poetry. In “Busfahrt” a narrative text is recited for six minutes. On this album, the band presented a duet for the first time, “Amusement pub with wine compulsion” with Suzie Kerstgens von Klee . The instruments at Altes Gasthaus Love consist of the classic guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, but have been expanded to include electronics. Wind instruments are also increasingly being used.

In 2004, Erdmöbel delivered an early best-of with the purely acoustic and live photo album .

For those who don't know how (2005) is clearly influenced by the easy listening pop of the 1960s. “Song about nothing” can be understood as the motto of the record, many songs are thematically about supposed trivialities. For the first time the band released cover versions of “Nah bei dir” and “Nothing to lose”.

At the end of 2006 the Erdmöbel single "Christmas doesn't matter to me" was released, a German cover version of Whams " Last Christmas ". It became the first in a series of year-end songs. To this day, Erdmöbel publish a song every year at Christmas time.

In May 2007 the concept album was released with the title No. 1 hits . Erdmöbel interpret international hits from artists who were at the top of the charts at some point, including Kurt Cobain with Nirvana , Kylie Minogue , Gilbert O'Sullivan , Bee Gees , Vengaboys , Procol Harum , Crash Test Dummies , Robbie Williams . Markus Berges translated the texts musically into German, albeit with a heterogeneous content - from literal to freely associative. The earth furniture version of "One of Us" by Joan Osborne and Eric Bazilian was taken over by the Hooters on their German tours.

On the album Krokus (2010) the band made increasing use of wind instruments such as horns, trombone and flute, and the piano also gained in importance. Ekimas, who already switched from guitar to bass on No.1 hits , developed a strikingly melodic bass game that is typical for Erdmöbel afterwards. On Krokus , Erdmöbel experiment with bossa nova rhythms, Motown soul and late 60s pop. The texts remain lyrical, but become more time and society related (“work”). With “Fremdes”, Erdmöbel commented directly on the collapse of Cologne's city archive in 2009. The last piece, “September Nowak” , is instrumental and is reminiscent of film music. The title alludes to the debut novel by Markus Berges, which appeared at the same time as the album: A long letter to September Nowak . The album Krokus received very positive reviews in many national newspapers and magazines ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Die Zeit , Stern ) and music magazines ( Rolling Stone , Musikexpress ). The Today Journal broadcast a feature. The Süddeutsche Zeitung called Erdmöbel "the biggest German band of our day".

The 2011 Erdmöbel best-of album was called retrospective . It contained a new title: "The Crows".

In 2013 Erdmöbel founded the label jippie! industry . Her new studio album was released there in the same year: Kung Fu Fighting . The combination of musical catchiness with textually associative freedom is characteristic here. The Musikexpress put it: “Because this miracle can once again be admired: How earth furniture can produce a feather-light swinging, harmoniously enchanting and devilishly tasteful pop hit from the most unwieldy rhyme, from the strangest idea and from the most unruly subject.” Sings in “Every Night” Markus Berges in a duet with Desirée Nosbusch . Musically, Kung Fu Fighting bows stretch from modern classical music to reggae to Steely Dan references.

The tradition of presenting a new song every December led to Gift in 2014 . With this compilation Erdmöbel summarized all their previous year-end and Christmas carols. The band went on a Christmas tour for the first time - and every year since then. In 2015 this compilation was expanded and Gift + 3 was released, followed by duets with Maren Eggert , Ulrich Matthes and Jemma Endersby. In 2016, the band published a songbook containing, in addition to a new song, all of their Christmas and end-of-year songs.

In December 2017 Erdmöbel replaced the usual Christmas carol with the first single from the new album: "Hoffnungsmaschine", a duet with Judith Holofernes . As part of the discussion about Cologne's Ebertplatz as a supposed “no-go zone”, the band shot the video for “Machine of Hope” on Ebertplatz.

Erd Möbel's thirteenth album was released on February 23, 2018 under the title Notes on Use . The band called this album their most political work to date. The use of found texts in the lyrics is striking. The FAZ wrote: "This is how beautiful you can sing instructions for use: The new album by the band Erdmöbel shines with lyrical ready-made works of art and catchy refrains." The magazine Brigitte reviewed: "as extraordinary as it is fantastic, for 24 years, and more than ever" .

In February 2020 Erdmöbel released a Persian-German and a Persian-English version of their song Machine of Hope together with the Iranian director and singer Niloufar Taghizadeh .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
No. 1 hits
  DE 52 06/08/2007 (2 weeks)
crocus
  DE 61 10/01/2010 (1 week)
Kung Fu Fighting
  DE 86 10/11/2013 (1 week)
Instructions for use
  DE 59 02.03.2018 (1 week)
Singles
Christmas (Last Christmas)
  DE 84 12/22/2006 (3 weeks)

Albums

  • The End of the Diet (1996)
  • First words after bathing with dolphins (1999)
  • Erdmöbel versus Ekimas (2000)
  • Old Inn Love (2003)
  • Photo album (2004)
  • For who don't know how (2005)
  • No. 1 hits (2007)
  • Krokus (2010) (also with an extra live CD as Krokus & Krokuslive )
  • Retrospective (compilation, 2011)
  • Kung Fu Fighting (2013)
  • Present (2014)
  • Gift + 3 (2015)
  • Instructions for use (2018)

Singles

  • The Best of the East (1999)
  • Bet Among Models (1999)
  • Just As I Wish (1999)
  • Dreierbahn (Erdmöbel vs. Ekimas, 2000)
  • The blue sky (2003)
  • In the shoes of Audrey Hepburn (2003)
  • Near You (2005)
  • Song About Nothing (2006)
  • Last Christmas (2006)
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit (2007)
  • Stranger (2010)
  • Kung Fu Fighting (2013)
  • Hope Machine (2017)
  • They Called Him Putte (2018)
  • It was broad night (2019)
  • Mashine Omid - Hoping Machine (2020)

Video albums

  • On Film (2003)

Song book

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Alex Rühle: Everything glitters . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2010, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on January 21, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Review: Erdmöbel - Kung Fu Fighting . In: Musikexpress . ( musikexpress.de [accessed on January 21, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Jan Wiele: Album of the week: Hope machine: Runs for me . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 7, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Chart sources: DE
  5. ↑ The summer was nice to cry in: FAZ of September 20, 2013, page 38.

Web links

Commons : Earth furniture  - collection of images, videos and audio files