Lothar Krell
Lothar Krell (* 1955 in Eppstein / Taunus ) is a German keyboardist , composer and music producer .
Life
Inspired by his father, himself a pianist, Lothar Krell actually wanted to become a conductor as a child. In order to encourage his son's career aspirations, Krell's father registered him for piano lessons at the age of five. Krell's now deceased teacher, Prof. Dr. Fleury, soon recognized the talent of his protégé and encouraged him to study music theory.
Krell, now a teenager and under the influence of rock and pop music, quickly abandoned his original career aspiration to become a conductor and began an apprenticeship as an electronics technician in Frankfurt am Main, which he also successfully completed. During this time he was already earning extra income as a pianist and keyboard player in various bands.
Today Krell lives with his partner in a southern suburb of Frankfurt am Main.
Bands
As keyboard player and organist of the Frankfurt band Paladyn , from which other well-known musicians such as Thomas Lohr (guitar | Hölderlin | The Beatles Revival Band ) as well as the brothers Thomas Schmitt (keyboards | Michael Wynn Band) and Norbert Schmitt (bass | Michael Wynn Band) emerged, Krell released his first album in 1978, although sales were modest.
In the same year he got the offer to join Supermax as a live musician. After three years of countless live performances - like most Supermax members, but with no prospect of becoming involved in the Supermax studio project - Krell founded with Ken Taylor, the bassist who later belonged to the regular line-up of the Peter Maffay Band, the one in the Frankfurt Hotline Studios of Peter Hauke, Austrian guitarist Robby Musenbichler , who also worked the drums, was his childhood friend Fritz Matzka, who also came from Austria, and the striking singer and guitarist Klaus Luley, the band Tokyo. Despite commercial successes such as the hit Tokyo of the same name and international LP chart listings, the band broke up again in 1984 because the singer Klaus Luley wanted to go his own way with his newly founded band Craaft . Craaft played a. a. in the opening act of Queen on their European tour, also in the Budapest stadium in front of over 80,000 visitors.
Since 2011 Lothar Krell has been a permanent member of one of the oldest art rock bands in Germany: "Waniyetula". After appearances in 2011 and 2012, a concept album about Hermann Sörgel's “Atlantropa” concept is currently in the works.
After the label Yesterrock had released the Tokyo 2012 albums on CD in the 80s and this CD release quickly got around in classic rock circles, inquiries from concert promoters arose in such numbers that the remaining original members - the drummer Fritz Matzka had died of leukemia in 1993 - in summer 2012 they decided to revive the band. As a replacement for Matzka, the drummer Aaron Thier, with whom we are already rehearsing, has been won. First appearances are planned for 2013, and they are already working on a new album.
Arranger, composer and music producer
Since 1982, Krell has been increasingly in demand as a studio musician and arranger, and during the following years Krell directed his musical work specifically towards the areas of studio music and productions. For 13 years he recorded more than 150 albums and various singles with different artists, including all hits by Hubert Kah and Markus , some albums with Edo Zanki and Ina Deter .
This phase was accompanied by live performances as well as various tours across Europe. a. with Marius Müller-Westernhagen and the band JoJo, founded by his former bandmate Robby Musenbichler after the dissolution of Tokyo .
In 1985 Krell composed and arranged the Europe-wide top ten hit Your Hearts Keep Burning! for "Blind Date". In 1987 he received the “Golden Europe” as producer and arranger for the single Gnadenlos Erotisch by the band Hob Goblin. The first order for film music - for the movie Singles - came in 1989, at the same time as the first excursion into instrumental and world music: Sinnfonie for Amphitrite , which premiered in Mannheim with a huge laser show in front of 35,000 spectators that same year.
The next stops were no less extraordinary. A title for Maggie Reilly sold 400,000 copies on one of her albums. This was followed by the contract to write and produce the music for the laser show at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, followed by Krell's first world music concept album Akhenaten's Return as well as numerous productions with artists such as Flatsch !, Tom Becker , Richard Sanderson, The Riverboys, Swiss, Laurie Jones and Sally Oldfield to name a few.
In 1998 he founded the label "Music Of One World" together with Andreas Schardt. The first single was Tony Baez '"Flamenco-Pop". A single with 'Tülay' (R&B) followed shortly afterwards. With the South American Calchaqui Indian Tony Osanah, Krell then recorded the first album "Amerindia" for his own label.
A cooperation with the German Handball Federation and the DSF led to the recording of "Kol el alam" with the Egyptian singer Shayma. The song was published as the anthem of the German national handball team for the 2000 World Cup.
After three years of pure studio work, he was drawn to the stage again, especially since by this time he had also completed "Achala", an Indo-Japanese project with Tony Clark. An offer from Mario Adorf to play on the Ciao tour was gratefully accepted. This was followed by further live activities with the Amerindia and Achala projects .
In 2003 he first produced software for music studios called Darbuka , which represents a collection of the most important Arabic and Turkish rhythms, recorded with masters from the respective regions. In 2004 he was awarded the “Keybuy” by the American trade magazine “keyboard” for the best product of the year.
In 2004 the label and network “The World Music Café” was founded. The first production for this was "Fayoum Blue", a mixture of world and pop music. On behalf of the Egyptian government he wrote the peace song "Feel the Paradise" in January 2007, which was produced in three languages.
In 2007 the Firedancers discovered his music and an intensive collaboration began. At the opening ceremony of the Indian Premier League (Cricket) Lothar Krell was on stage with the Firedancers in Cape Town in spring 2009. 500 million viewers worldwide followed the spectacular performance. The show “Firedancer in Concert”, which was created in 2012, is currently being performed, which combines diverse elements from fire acrobatics, dance, juggling, music, drama and variety.
Following the publication of the Italian concept album “Destinazione Sud” by the Sicilian Domenico Rubino in 2010, a book is currently being created in collaboration with the renowned and award-winning book publisher Gebrüder Kornmayer, with which the reader learns the Italian language around the Italian song texts and the stories they tell can learn a lot of interesting facts about music, cuisine and culture of different regions of Italy.
Discography (excerpts)
Year of publication: Volume / Project name: Title: Activity
Singles
- 1981: Tokyo: Tokyo: Keyboards
- 1985: Blind Date: Your Hearts Keep Burning! : Arrangement, production
- 1986: Hob Goblin: Mercilessly Erotic: arrangement, production
Albums
- 1978: Paladyn: Paladyn: keyboards, composition
- 1981: Tokyo: Tokyo: Keyboards
- 1982: Tokyo: Fasten Seat Belts: Keyboards
- 1983: Tokyo: San: Keyboards
- 1987: Ina Deter: I want half the world: keyboards
Projects
- 1992: Music for the laser show of the Barcelona Olympic Games: composition, production
Live performance (excerpts)
- 1977-1978: Paladyn
- 1978-1981: Supermax
- 1981-1984: Tokyo
- 2000: Mario Adorf's Ciao tour
- 2011–2012: Waniyetula
Awards
- 1987 "Golden Europe" as producer and arranger for the single Gnadenlos Erotisch by the band Hob Goblin
Web links
- Official home page of Tokyo
- Works by and about Lothar Krell in the catalog of the German National Library (as composer and performer)
- Works by and about Lothar Krell in the catalog of the German National Library (with Andreas Schardt)
- Lothar Krell on oneworld-media.com
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Krell, Lothar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German composer and music producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1955 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Eppstein , Taunus |