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In Strict Confidence

Location: Höchst

Former name: Seal of Secrecy

Debut label: Zoth Ommog

Members:
Dennis Ostermann (songwriting, lyrics)
Jörg Schelte (songwriting, programing)
Stefan Vesper  (rythms, programing, drums)
Antje Schulz (vocals, lyrics)
Heidi Pulkkinen (Live Guitars)

Label: Minuswelt Musikfabrik

Side projects:
Controlled Fusion (Dennis Ostermann with Steffan Schuhrke)
Involvement in HMB (Dennis Ostermann collaborates with Daniel Myer, Victoria Lloyd from Claire Voyant, Vanessa Brigs from Haujobb)
Steve Dragon – solo project of Stefan Vesper

Special info:
– In “Spread your wings”, ISC uses at least 16 different voices that recite in as many languages the phrase: “we are angels with only one wing, in order to fly we must hold each other”, belonging to the Italian author Luciano de Crescendo.
– The picture-series in the “Holy” – artwork were disputed by some conservative groups in the US, some distributors wanting not to sell the “Holy”- album because of the bare breast on the front cover. The request to design a more neutral version of the artwork was strictly refused by the band.

Quotes:
– “People in the time of more and more industrialization are less and less receptive to art. There is a growing coldness and a growing number of people cannot see the worth of art and creativity compared to productivity. That is sad.”
– “Nicht denken – fühlen!” ( Don’t think – Feel! )

Das Ich

Location: Bavaria

Members:
Bruno Kramm
Stefan Ackermann

Bruno Kramm is founder of the German goth club Generation Gothic
Harmonia Mundi is a documentary project featuring CD compilations and the ongoing making of a full feature film about the world gothic scene; it features the gothic and alternative underground from countries that are not on the map of international underground scenes.

Label:
Danse Macabre Records

Side projects (of Bruno Kramm):
AngstFabriC
Alva Novalis
Coeur – solo album

Inspiration: Ben Gottfried, George Trakl, Baudelaire.

Info:
– Das Ich presented a lyrical approach to their art through the acclaimed album Morgue, featuring tracks set to the poems of the famous German expressionist writer Gottfried Benn. This diverse approach brought them recognition from cultural institutions across Europe. Das Ich became a vehicle for students learning the German language.
– They produced a re-mix album, Re_Laborat, featuring tracks spanning over over their nearly 10-year career. Each incantation is re-mixed by innovated bands such as And One, Funker Vogt, In Strict Confidence, :wumpscut and VNV Nation
– They made the music for the German movie “Das Ewige Licht“,

Special info:
– The name Das Ich is a reference to Freudian psychology — the fight of the primal, unconscious Es (Id) against the moral, conscious Ich (Ego).
– Das Ich are one of the founders of the early 1990s movement called Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (New German Death Art). They are celebrated as the starting spark of a new post Kraftwerk, post Neubauten era.
– The video Reanimat  was directed by Hans Helmut Hässler (from Das Ewige Licht), an underground German movie “about the isolation in the times when Berlin was caged within the East German communistic zone , and the remarkable change and growth of the two German states.”(S.A.). “This process from isolation to open freedom is drawn from the perspective of one soul. Like one particle in the quantum of physics and how it can affect the whole picture, which is the surrounding visible world.”(B.K.)

Quotes:
– “Today, everybody is in a position of egocentric super-individualism. At the same time we lose ourselves in digital networks, we start to shiver from our abandoned and lonely solitary state from which we can see this as a result of our modern lives. The networks that social systems – we are not talking about insurance – can offer are much stronger and can give us back some of the warmth we need. We have to understand ourselves as beings that are woven into this current time/space continuum for the minimal time period of a normal life span. This makes us all one family which is lost on this little time frame in the ocean of possibilities. Why not help each other together? Tomorrow we are all – one earlier, one a little later – dead, and a new continuum starts without ourselves instead with the holy individualism of our supernatural ‘Ich’s.”
– “The ‘epic’ role, in the Brechtian sense, is that the art is considered to be like a weapon for opening the mind’s eyes (especially in the regards to the society in which we live)”
– (on industrial/goth growth through years) “I think we are still not realizing that this scene will be one of history’s most remarkable genres that cares about more than just fashion or music – It is a lifestyle that connects and grows in all nations, systems, and ages. It is so wonderful to be a small part of it. It feels home wherever you go in the world“
– “In the beginning you always have these big goals but then you find that the biggest challenge is always hidden beneath your own conscious.“

Diary of Dreams

Location: Germany

Members:
Adrian Hates
Gaun:A
D.N.S.
Torben Wendt

Label: Accession Records

Side projects:
Stoned Ages (Gaun:A)
Diorama (Torben Wendt produced by Hates)

Inspiration:
– Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and German/Austrian 1909-1935 expressionists such as George Trakl
– “das rauschen in meinem kopf”
– “Literature, movies, art, noise, silence and dreams and anything else that is strong enough to leave an impact on us.”

Info:
– The lead singer and founding member Adrian Hates has produced most of the albums by himself or with minimal help from others. He rarely uses a full band, except when he is on tour. Nowadays, he works with  Gaun:A on the whole theme and musical production together.
– A.H. grew up only with classical music. The main composers influencing  him  are Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Bach –  probably his favourite. Today he is also impressed by soundtrack compositions.

Special info:
– Adrian Hates was originally a classically trained guitarist and pianist, and subsequently bassist of Garden of Delight. His biggest dream at the age of 8-9 years was to be a drummer.
– A.H. never remixes other group’s songs and doesn’t like much either to be remixed, allowing just cover versions at times, but not often
– A.H. biggest dream when very young was to work with dogs. He is a great animal lover.

Quotes:
– “Man believes what he sees and what he can not see frightens him“
– (On stealing music over the internet) “I think people are stealing my existence, they’re stealing my basis and they’re stealing my future. And they do this to everybody, so I don’t know how this is supposed to compensate at some point, I don’t know what is going to come up that will bring us the money that we use during the cds”
– “(A.H. on the definition of his music:) “I don’t give it a name, if I don’t really have to, because there is no use in building walls of limitation for something that can only survive in freedom. Anyway I prefer it if every single person has a name for it rather than having a mass definition with only a little percentage of people being able to identify with it”
– “I invest a lot of thoughts in human species and the way people think and people observe their environment. I just thought that is very remarkable, that we always try to understand everything, to give everything a name and write it all down. I think the human species lacks a lot of sensitivity, and a lot of capability to really enjoy what they see because they have to observe it and they have to categorize everything. Why in the world we have to do this, why we have to know what happens after death, why is it interesting at all, I mean why to think of death while we live? We can’t change it anyway and even if we know what happens we will not be able to change it so why not leave the unknown unknown and why not leave the other planets out there alone because we fucked up this planet already so why we should ruin another one? We should just leave the things the way they are and not interfere always and everywhere.”
– (A.H. on the self-benefits of his musical ‘psychiatry’:) “Digging in the dirt isn’t always a fun thing to do, but it does help. I think it’s like exploring a new country, a new territory. It’s inspiring even, it makes you question things, and it makes you close your eyes then open them again and see things differently than earlier. That’s definitely a benefit, it’s a blessing.”
– “‘No enemy of the creative process is bigger than routine.”
– “The concept of Diary of Dreams is not to have one, which means that we’re really trying to be as open-minded as possible.”
– “[..] How helpless and how strange human beings handle problems and how much they react and how much they overreact.”

source: Sorina