Intuitive Music

Faust

Faust is one of the most innovative and influential bands from the 70’s krautrock scene.

Faust (meaning “fist”) was founded in Wumme, Germany, 1971, when Zappi Diermaier (drums), Hans Joachim Irmler (keyboards), Arnulf Meifert (drums) of the band Campylognatus Citelli and Jean Hervé Péron (guitar,vocals), Rudolf Sosna (guitar, keyboards) and Gunter Wüsthoff (saxophone) of Nukleus met in Hamburg and begin casually playing together. After this union of talents, the producer and journalist Uwe Nettelbeck was so impressed that he decided to support financially the band in order to create the Faust project. Most of the personnel of the band had been members of a commune in Wumme, a small village about 40 kilometers from Hambur, since 1969. Aparently, the commune life was not as ideal as it seems, as Hans Joachim Irmler described: “Jean-Hervé and Zappi each had a dog. The other members refused to have breakfast together with the dogs. Therefore Jean-Hervé and Zappi built a hut where they lived with their dogs. As the dogs greatly reduced the number of chickens living in our vicinity we had to release the second LP.” (Klangbad, 1996).

As other krautrock artists of the time like Neu!, the spirit of the band was always forged by concepts of independence, self-sufficiency and secrecy, far from the usual marketing and publicity practices in rock business. In 1972, as part of the UK tour campaign, they issued a Faust manifesto where they left clear their philosophy: “Faust have mentioned that working as they do in the space between concept & realisation they are in fact doing nothing. Faust would like to play for you the sound of yourself listening. Then we would have consciousness. Then we could talk about altering that consciousness. Then we could forget about music.”

In 1972, Faust also started a series of collaborative works with the German avant-garde band Slapp Happy, releasing the albums “Sort Of” (1972), “Just A Conversation” (1972) and “Slapp Slappy”.

The first Faust rehearsals were held in a narrow room in Hamburg, where they recorded a demo tape for the Deutsche Grammophon. Journalist Uwe Nettelbeck was so excited about the potential of the project that not only he recruited the members but he also built a studio in an old schoolhouse in Luneburg, Wumme. Deutsche Grammophon helped the band equipping them with a recording studio and the support of the recording engineer Kurt Graupner. There, Faust worked day and night, under influences such as acid rock of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, avant-garde, and musique concrete composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. Their debut album “Faust” (1971) featured samples from The Beatles “All You Need Is Love” and the Rolling Stones “Satisfaction”, loads of synthesis, and tons of analog sounds effects and experimentation. The album was released in Britain by Polydor in clear vinyl and clear cover to unveil the X-ray image of a fist, and they catch the attention of the British press. Faust’s second album “So Far”, released in Europe in 1972 before the debut album, shown a strong influence from the Velvet Underground, which became more noticeable in their later album “Outside The Dream Syndicate” (1973) in collaboration of minimalist violinist Tony Conrad.

In 1973, as part of an outrageous but brilliant marketing campaign, “The Faust Tapes” was released at the current price for a single (49 pence). The album sold nothing less than 50.000 copies and in a few weeks and subsequently the band got extremely popular in U.K. Uwe Nettelbeck explained to the New Musical Express magazine: “We’ve always liked the idea of releasing records which lacked conventional “finish” in terms of production… the music should sound like bootlegs, as if recorded by someone who passed a group rehearsing or jamming and then cut the recorded material wildly together”.

“Faust Tapes” was followed by a legendary UK tour supported by the British progressive rock band Henry Cow, whose members were formerly from the band Slapp Happy that had recorded three albums with Faust. In 1974, Faust released their mythical “Faust IV”album, this time recorded at the Virgin Records Mannor studios in Oxfordshire. The album included a piece name “krautrock“, a minimalist piece of disorted electric guitars and synthesizers that would become part of the band’s trademark. Despite of the originality of the album, it was a big commercial failure. Consequently, Faust broke up with Uwe Nettelbec after his increasing demands to take musical decisions, and they finally dissolved in 1975 due to the refusal of Virgin records to release their following work “Faust 5″.

Faust

In 1990, Faust performed a reunion concert at the Prinzenbar in Hamburg. Three years later Werner Diermaier, Joachim Irmler and Jean-Herve Peron reformed the band, releasing their first studio album “Rien” in 1996 under the support of Jim O’ Rourke’s Table of Elements label. That same year, the band founded its own label Klangbad and in 1997 they released the album “You Know FaUSt”, which was followed by the split of Jean Hervé Péron who was replaced by Michael Stoll to record the albums “Ravvivando” (1999) and an improvisation to F.W. Murnau’s classic film “Nosferatu” -not to mistake with Popol Vuh’s soundtrack for Werner Herzog’s film “Nosferatu” from 1978-.

In 2005, the band had a come-back with a new reincarnation, including Zappi W. Diermaier (drums), Jean-Hervé Péron (guitar, vocals), Olivier Manchion (bass, guitar) and Amaury Cambuzat (vocals, guitar). At the same time, a parallel version of Faust is working with a line-up including Hans Joachim Irmler (keyboard instruments), Steven Wray Lobdell (guitar), Michael Stoll (bass), Lars Paukstat (noises) and Arnulf Meifert (drums).

Faust members have also produced different solo projects. Guitarist Steve Lobdell has released the albums “Ewige Blumenkraft” (1999) and “Blue Cloud” (2002) in collaboration with Davis Redford Triad, “Automatic Writing by the Moon” (2000), “Gronzy” (2002) with Sufi Mind Game, and “Live at Club Donut” (2005). Guitarist Jean-Hervé Péron has released the live album “Jean-Hervé Live at LMC” (2000). Keyboardist Hans Joachim Irmler released the album “Resonance Interview” in 2002.

Faust has also collaborated with several other artists including Pascal Comedale, Space Explosion, Cha-Cy, Ulan Bator and Dälek. Faust music has influenced several generation of electronic and experimental artists, including Throbbing Gristle, Farmer’s Manual, Surgeon, Kreidler, Stereolab, Julian Cope, Brian Eno, Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Test Department, Einstuerzende Neubauten, and My Bloody Valentine.