Stephan Eicher
.jpg)
Stephan Eicher (born August 17, 1960 in Münchenbuchsee ) is a Swiss ( rock ) chansonnier . He sings his songs in French, German, English, Italian and Bern German , sometimes alternating within a piece. He became known in German-speaking countries in the 1980s with the band Grauzone and their NDW chart single Eisbär , and since then he has been successful in France and Switzerland with various albums, tours and number one hits.
life and work
Stephan Eicher comes from a Yenish family. He spent his childhood in Münchenbuchsee , later he attended the boarding school Ecole d'Humanité in Hasliberg . His musical training took place at the Zurich F + F School for Art and Design , where, among other things, he learned to use the computer for composing.
Stephan Eicher recorded his first sound carrier Eisbär together with his brother Martin as NDW tape Grauzone in 1980. The preference for French chansons à la Jacques Dutronc , Antoine and Serge Gainsbourg shaped his following solo publications. The LP / CD title Les Chansons Bleues refers to Eicher's melancholy mood at that time. His theme is loneliness.
Stephan Eicher established himself with the two following albums. The album I tell this night rose to number 10 in the Swiss charts in 1985 and stayed on the best list for 12 weeks. Two years later, Eicher was able to book 3rd place in the Swiss Top 10 with the album Silence and was in the charts for 14 weeks. Stephan Eicher recorded both albums almost single-handedly.
Stephan Eicher broke new ground in 1989 with My Place . The French lyrics were written by Philippe Djian , a renowned French writer with whom Eicher is also a private friend and who later wrote lyrics for Eicher's albums again and again. He also used a string quartet for the instrumentation . His greatest commercial success was the 1991 album Engelberg , which stayed in first place for 5 weeks in Switzerland alone and stayed in the album charts for a total of 46 weeks. The title Déjeuner en paix became a number two hit in France. With all of the following albums, Stephan Eicher regularly reached positions 1 to 5 on the Swiss album charts . One of the most played tracks on Swiss radio remains Eicher's 1992 version of Hemmige , Philosophy in a Nutshell by Mani Matter .
He recorded his first live album in 1994 as part of a world tour that also took him to the African continent.
In 2001 Stephan Eicher released his first best-of album entitled Hôtel'S . The Hotel Hess in Engelberg , Switzerland, was a second home for him for many years. Martin Hess, brother of the hotelier Geny Hess and his close friend, was a producer. Eicher chose the title Hôtel'S as a tribute to this grand hotel , which was demolished that same year. He let the fans vote on the selection of tracks for the album on his homepage. The Engelberg and Louanges albums were also created in the Kursaal in Engelberg .
He has always loved to turn unusual ideas into tangible projects, for example with Im Taxi from Hamburg to Palermo, a musical journey through cultures in 2003, which he realized literally and as an album. He sang the title track Taxi Europa in interplay with Herbert Grönemeyer and the Italian Max Gazzè .
In July 2006 Eicher opened the Blue Balls Festival in Lucerne and for the first time presented 2 songs that he wrote together with the Swiss author Martin Suter ( I don't know what it is and Charlie ). In April 2007 the album Eldorado was released .
On December 18, 2009, Eicher received the Art Prize of the City of Zurich , which incidentally was only awarded for the second time in the Pop / Rock category. He is the winner of the SwissAward 2013 in the “Show” category.
Eicher is a protagonist in the film "Unheard of Jenisch", which premiered at the Solothurn Film Days in 2017; In it he and his brother Erich Eicher comment in more detail on the Yenish origins of their family and their music.
Collaboration with other artists
Stephan Eicher worked with numerous musicians in the course of his career. At the major European festivals he appeared with I Muvrini , Moondog , Ismaël Lô , Axelle Red , Finland and Texas , among others .
He was accompanied live and on some of his albums by the drummer Manu Katché , the guitarists Sonny Landreth and Tommy Vetterli ( Coroner , Kreator ) as well as the bassist Pino Palladino . He also worked with the accordionist Arnaud Méthivier . With the Zurich-based songwriter Sophie Hunger , he recorded the song Spiegelbild for their album Monday's Ghost 2008 , which was only released on the Swiss version of this album.
Stephan Eicher also produced the Swiss musician Tinu Heiniger and produced, composed and wrote the album Freischwimmer with the rapper Kutti MC .
Discography
Gray area for publications with a gray area , see their discography.
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 FR
|
 CH
|
|||
| 1983 | Les Chansons Bleues | - | - |
CH21st  (4 weeks)CH |
2003 re-release with new versions
|
| 1985 | I tell this night | - | - |
CH10 (12 weeks) CH |
|
| 1987 | Silence | - | - |
CH3 (14 weeks) CH |
|
| 1989 | My place | - | - |
CH4th (11 weeks)CH |
|
| 1991 | Engelberg | - |
FR-  × 2
|
CH1 × 3
(46 weeks)CH |
|
| 1993 | Carcassonne |
DE68 (8 weeks) DE |
FR- × 2
|
CH1 × 2
(20 weeks)CH |
|
| 1994 | Non ci badar - guarda e passa | - | - |
CH5 (13 weeks)CH |
Concert album
|
| 1996 | 1000 Vies | - |
FR18th (9 weeks)FR |
CH1 (14 weeks)CH |
|
| 1999 | Louanges | - |
FR6th (12 weeks)FR |
CH4th (19 weeks)CH |
|
| 2001 | Hotel * s | - |
FR- |
CH2 (10 weeks)CH |
Best of album
|
| 2003 | Monsieur N. | - | - | - |
Film music for the film of the same name
|
| Taxi Europe | - |
FR22 (16 weeks) FR |
CH2 (20 weeks) CH |
||
| 2004 | Tour Taxi Europe | - |
FR104 (4 weeks) FR |
CH51 (3 weeks) CH |
|
| 2007 | Eldorado | - |
FR5 (34 weeks)FR |
CH1 (31 weeks)CH |
|
| 2009 | Traces | - | - | - |
Box set
|
| 2010 | Plays Noise Boys | - | - | - |
Re-release with new versions
|
| 2012 | L'envolée | - |
FR6 (3 weeks) FR |
CH1 (4 weeks)CH |
|
| 2017 | Song book | - | - |
CH1 (29 weeks)CH |
CD + book with texts by Martin Suter
|
| 2019 | Huh! | - |
FR17 (9 weeks) FR |
CH2 (22 weeks) CH |
with the Bern band Traktorkestar
|
| Homeless songs | - |
FR10 (20 weeks) FR |
CH1 (23 weeks) CH |
Texts in Bern language by Martin Suter and in French by Philippe Djian
|
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
Singles and EPs
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
FR
|
CH
|
|||
| 1980 | Noise boys | - | - | - | |
| Stephan Eicher plays Noise Boys | - | - | - |
EP
|
|
| 1982 | Les filles du Limmatquai | - | - | - |
EP
|
| souvenir | - | - | - |
EP
|
|
| 1986 | Two people in a room | - |
FR27 (12 weeks) FR |
- | |
| 1987 | Combine de temps | - |
FR14 (14 weeks) FR |
CH19 (5 weeks) CH |
|
| 1989 | Guggisber link | - | - |
CH13 (9 weeks) CH |
|
| 1991 | Déjeuner en paix | - |
FR2 (22 weeks) FR |
- | |
| Pas d'ami (comme toi) | - |
FR7 (14 weeks) FR |
- | ||
| 1992 | Inhibited ones | - |
FR27 (10 weeks) FR |
CH15 (6 weeks) CH |
|
| Tu ne me dois rien | - |
FR25 (15 weeks) FR |
- | ||
| 1993 | Of the skin, of the bas | - |
FR12 (13 weeks) FR |
CH19 (10 weeks) CH |
|
| Ni remords, ni regrets | - |
FR49 (1 week) FR |
- | ||
| 1996 | Oh irony | - |
FR23 (4 weeks) FR |
CH34 (4 weeks) CH |
|
| 2003 | Taxi Europe | - | - |
CH53 (4 weeks) CH |
feat. Gazzè & Grönemeyer
|
| L'hymne à l'amour | - |
FR50 (12 weeks) FR |
- |
with Aznavour, Boulay, Biolay, Macias, Maurane, Foly,
Fontaine, Mami, Leroy, Pagny & Badi |
|
| 2007 | Don't know what it is | - | - |
CH19 (10 weeks) CH |
|
| Date | - | - |
CH36 (8 weeks) CH |
||
| Eldorado | - | - |
CH24 (1 week) CH |
||
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
Video albums
- 1994 Guarda e passa , VHS
- 2003 film * s , DVD
- 2004 Tour Taxi Europe , DVD
- 2009 Eldorado Trio Live , DVD
Web links
- Stephan Eicher's sound carrier in the catalog of the German National Library .
- Stephan Eicher's website
- Stephan Eicher at laut.de
- Stephan Eicher at Allmusic (English)
- Stephan Eicher at Discogs (English)
swell
- ↑ NZZ June 22, 2003 and Voice, Zeitschrift der GfbV Schweiz, 2/2016 ( Memento of the original from May 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 19, 2009: Stephan Eicher is also from Zurich
- ↑ Manuela Donati, Markus Krucker: “SwissAward”: an overview of the winners. In: SRF 1 from January 12, 2014
- ↑ Swiss television on January 23, 2017, "Before I was just Swiss, now I'm also a Yenish." [2]
- ↑ finn. & Eicher at the Montreux Jazz Festival ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article on archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. July 5, 2009
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE1 DE2 FR CH BE (Wallonia)
- ↑ Awards for music sales: CH1 CH2 FR
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eicher, Stephan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th August 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Münchenbuchsee , Switzerland |