Persephone (band)

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Persephone
General information
Genre (s) Neoclassical
founding 2000
Website www.persephone-home.de
Founding members
Sonja Kraushofer
Wim Leydes
Martin Höfert
Current occupation
singing
Sonja Kraushofer
cello
Martin Höfert
cello
Holger Wilhelmi (since 2002)
Franz Heinrich Lirsch (since 2010)
Benedikt Kuhn (since 2011)
John Abdelsayed (since 2004)
percussion
Tim Warweg (since 2008)
former members
Double bass, cello
Johannes Kramer (2003-2011)
guitar
Frederik A. Behrens (2003-2004)
Sonja Kraushofer at the Nocturnal Culture Night Festival 2016

Persephone is a German-Austrian band that was founded in 2000 and belongs to the neoclassical genre. It is a side project of L'Âme-Immortelle - singer Sonja Kraushofer . The second head of the formation is the cellist Martin Höfert (ex- Janus ). Wim Leydes (ex- Christian Death ) also played a key role in founding the group.

history

In 1999, Sonja Kraushofer met Wim Leydes during the Christian Death tour, who played her some self-composed pieces. A year later, the idea arose to set up their own project together with producer Tobias Hahn ( Janus ).

In 2001 the project slowly took on a solid form: the first album “Home” was produced in the Rödermark night shift studio. The artwork was done by Joachim Luetke. The CD was presented in old castles and palaces in accordance with the flair and received positive feedback from the press. A short time later, Persephone joined Janus on the “Winterreise” tour, which turned out to be a complete success. In the same year Persephone played at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and received support from Holger Wilhelmi, who is still part of the band today.

In 2003 the EP "Still ..." was released in a limited edition. "Still ..." is the only Persephone release to date that contains live recordings. Tobias Hahn left the band for professional reasons. During the production of the new album, two new members also joined the band. In 2003 and 2004 Frederik A. Behrens worked as a guitarist as can be heard on the EP.

With the release of the second album "Atma Gyan" a new concept was created, which says that one concert should take place per month. With John Abdelsayed on drums, the band was completed. In the winter of the same year the third album "Mera Sangeet Kho Gaya" was released. In addition to John on the percussions, Frederik was also the guitarist on the third album. The third album is the continuation of the predecessor "Atma Gyan" and thus the end of the concept around the mystical figure Persephone .

The album "Letters to a Stranger", which was released in November 2007, addresses a tragic love. A woman gets to know a stranger, they both fall madly in love and never see each other again. She then writes letters to those strangers, but with the certainty that they will never arrive. Every song on the album represents a letter, so to speak. This has been conceptually taken into account in the artwork, because each song text is printed on its own leaflet, modeled on a letterhead, with ancient cursive script. For the release of the fourth album, Persephone toured Prague, Zurich, Vienna and Hanover, among others.

Since then it has been quieter around Persephone, here and there there have been concerts and festival appearances (e.g. at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig). In 2010 the second and third albums were re-released - as was the re-release of the debut “Home” on the old Trisol label . The CDs were released in time for the “Labyrinth of Longings” tour, which took place as part of a great reading trip by German fantasy author Markus Heitz . The special feature here was the content-related connection of the book passages from "Judassohn" and the pieces of music by Persephone.

Discography

Albums

  • 2002: Home
  • 2004: Atma Gyan
  • 2004: Mera Sangeet Kho Gaya
  • 2007: Letters to a Stranger
  • 2018: pearl

EPs

  • 2003: Still ... (limited to 999 copies)

Web links