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  Christmas of 1981 Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd first appeared with the 7-headed Nelson community, a collective of artists, from which Alphaville would soon arise. Under the new band name "Forever Young" and with the new line-up Gold/Lloyd/Mertens a second concert took place (the last for the next ten years) in '82/'83. In 1984 the debut-single, "Big in Japan" was released, followed by "Sounds like a Melody" and "Forever Young" & in October the album of the same name was released. In December, Frank Mertens left the band, being replaced by guitarist and keyboarder Ricky Echolette. Alphaville then wrote the soundtrack for the film "Der Bulle und das Mädchen" and took part in the charity project "Band für Afrika". In 1986, "Dance with me" was pre-released from the second album "Afternoons in Utopia" which came out in June together with the single "Universal Daddy". In december the single "Jerusalem" was released at the same time as the Alphaville-music-project "Soundtraxx for Imaginary Movies" began triggering the upcoming co-operation with Klaus Schulze, who helped in the recording of their third album, "The Breathtaking Blue" which was released in '89. To avoid the aesthetics of common videoclips, the band decided to connect the music with a short-film. Nine producers, among them Godrey Reggio ("Koyaanisqatsi"), made a film of the songs under the name "Songlines". The contribution of Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein helped them to win an Oscar under the name 'Balance'. The cd release of 'The Breathtaking Blue' was the first enhanced cd+graphics, the forerunner of the DVD. In 1992, the best-of album "First Harvest" was released and in the band-owned Lunapark-studio they began work on the new, self-produced album "Prostitute" which became so extensive and time-consuming, the release date was deferred by more than one and a half years. In 1993 the band decided spontaneously, after 10 years stage-abstinence, to give a concert in Beirut after an invitation. In 1994, the single "Fools" was released, followed by the long-expected album "Prostitute" which was a kaleidoscope-like extract of a huge quantity of songmaterial, which arose in the course of the over two years of production work. Ricky Echolette quit in 1996 and in 1997 the single, "Wishful Thinking" was followed by the release of their fifth album, "Salvation". In 1998, continuing to tour, they prepared the release of a new album: an anthology entitled "Dreamscapes" - a set of eight cds covering the complete history from the late seventies to the late nineties, including live recordings and former unreleased songs and mixes. All the songs on "Dreamscapes" are in a format which has never been released before. Alphaville also produced both the music and the artwork themselves & it sold quite well. Emboldened by this, the band decided to release the song "Flame" in the US which included a remixed version of 'Flame', as well as an unplugged version of 'Forever Young' and a live recording of 'Big in Japan'. In July they played two big concerts in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Both concerts selling out within two weeks, even before promotion started. In 2000 Alphaville began work on a new studio album which is planned to be released in 2002 and their first official live album 'Stark Naked and Absolutely Live' was at #1 on the German alternative charts for three weeks. In October, 2001 they finished the remix album "Forever Pop" featuring remixes of many Alphaville classics created by De Phazz, Paul van Dyk, Mark Plati, F.A.F, José Alvarez Brill, Eiffel65 and others. -Mikki 3/02 More at: |
