Pond (German band)

Pond at the concert in Eberswalde 2007 for the opening of the Paul-Wunderlich-Haus

Performance of pictures from an exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky 2010 in Börnicke

Pond (also written POND or P * O * N * D ) is a German band that specializes in electronic instrumental music. Her musical style is similar to that of Tangerine Dream , although many pieces are more pop music .

history

The band was founded around 1978 in the East Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg by drummer Wolfgang Paule Fuchs (previously with Babylon ) and keyboardist Manfred Hennig. They were reinforced by the organist Frank Gursch. Her music was initially in the realm of progressive rock and consisted in part of sophisticated adaptations of classical pieces such as pictures at an exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky . Fuchs switched to the keyboard and in 1980 directed the band to a change of music style towards electronic instrumental music , whereupon Frank Gursch (from 1986 keyboard player with Lift ) left the formation shortly afterwards .

In 1981 Hennig also got out, first switched to Gruppe Elefant and later to City . In his place, Harald Wittkowski joined Pond. The band became successful for the first time in 1982 with the piece planet wind , which landed at number 14 in the annual charts. In the following years, the Amiga record label , directed by Jürgen Lahrtz, released the most successful LPs Planet Wind and the soundtrack On the Silk Road , both of which have so far achieved six-figure sales. As the first formation in the former GDR, Pond played live electronic music, including in planetariums .

After Wittkowski left Pond in 1988, Fuchs' twin sons Frank and Sascha joined the band the following year. In 1993 the album Space Walks was released , which was commissioned by Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH and was designed primarily as background music for planetariums. During this time the musical style approached techno through the influence of his sons . In 1996 the formation split up and from then on Fuchs appeared alone as Pond.

With the studio album transPONDer , which appeared in 2003 after a long break, Pond returned to his original style of the duo Fuchs and Wittkowski. As a special feature, the album included a book that was released for the 25th anniversary of the group. At the comeback concert that also took place in 2003, Fuchs and Wittkowski played together again. From then on, Wittkowski was often present as a guest musician at Pond's live performances.

The release Hallelujah is a single that was only produced in an edition of 100 copies. It was published in 2006 on the occasion of the 1200th birthday of the Handel city of Halle . The single is not available in stores, only as a musical part of the calendar. Both titles on it can be found in slightly modified versions on the album Soundtracks . The booklet of this album also gave first glimpses of the album, which was released in 2008.

In 1993, Fuchs founded his own record label PONDerosa Records, on which Pond's albums appear. An exception is the compilation Pictures of an Exhibition - The Greatest Hits , published in 2008 and published by Sony BMG . From 1996 to 2003, Fuchs performed solo as Pond. Then he teamed up again with Harald Wittkowski. Since 2008 he has appeared again alone as POND. In 2009 he created the composition Painting at a Vernissage for paintings by Willi Sitte , which was published on CD.

In 2013, for the 35th stage anniversary, Pond toured again in the original line-up with Fuchs and Hennig.