1984 was the year when I had to decide what to do with my life and in the spur of a moment, instead of pursuing a university degree, I decided to pick up a trade and started an apprenticeship as hairdresser in the town I’ve lived all my life. A small[…]
2002 was a tough year for us: New York City was still reeling from 9/11, the economy was depressed and we had difficulties to find jobs. And, to make this all very visible, an official drought caused all fountains of the city to be shut down. My soundtrack for in[…]
I saw this video first and last on TV in 1984 during the German show Formel Eins, a watercooler-talk inspiring video chart presentation in the 80s. Somewhat later, when we discovered “alternative” music, I learned about about SPK’s earlier work: as an Australian art collective they did industrial punk out[…]
The year 2015 is still young and the holidays, together with what they’ve brought us, are still lingering around. Almost 25 years ago, Christmas 1990, I received my first CD player and with it one CD. My back then boyfriend surprised me with this special gift. While I no longer[…]
When I was thinking about which Depeche Mode album to chose for a life soundtrack post, I realized that some eight albums of theirs played a role in different phases of my life. And since it’s New Year’s Day, this is about all of them. Construction Time Again was their[…]
The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the most successful rock bands of the 90s, so it is odd that I discovered them only by the end of the decade. To be precise: Elke discovered them via the Depeche Mode tribute album For The Masses and then then went out to[…]
Frank Tovey became famous under the name Fad Gadget in the 80s as a pioneer of experimental electronic music, who as one of the first used industrial noises to augment his sound. I discovered him through his ’83 single Collapsing New People off the album Gag, which features some great[…]
Rock Christmas was a multi-volume sampler CD in Germany in the 90s, meant to mix up the predominantly traditional Christmas music in Germany. The first volume came out in 1991 and while the word “Rock” is used very loosely, it has been our go-to record for the holidays and many[…]
There’s nothing I can tell you about Depeche Mode that you wouldn’t know already or that you couldn’t read somewhere else in more detail and precision. However, this is also not what the Thursday segment Life Soundtrack is about. It is about music and its very personal influence, own memories and significance[…]
This is an obscure one: Foyer Des Arts swept in to the public consciousness of Germany together with the Neue Deutsche Welle, a relatively short, but exciting musical movement based on kraut rock and punk. They consisted of Max Gold on vocals and Gerd Pasemann doing the instruments and had[…]
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