De/Vision’s ‘Fairyland?’ turns 30 on 9 August
Strange Ways Records released De/Vision’s “Fairyland?” on 9 August 1996. The synth-pop album became the band’s first German chart entry and turns 30 this year.
De/Vision released their synth-pop album “Fairyland?” on 9 August 1996 through Strange Ways Records. The album turns 30 this year. It became the first De/Vision album to enter the German album charts, where it reached number 87 later that month.
‘Fairyland?’, De/Vision’s first chart entry
The band recorded the album at The Factory in Belgium in April and May 1996. De/Vision produced and mixed the record together with José Alvarez-Brill, and Tom Meyer mastered it at Master & Servant in Hamburg. Strange Ways Records issued “Fairyland?” on CD, alongside a limited digipak edition of 7,777 copies that came with a 12-page booklet and a band poster. The twelve tracks are “I Regret,” “Dawn,” “Sweet Life,” “Like the Sun,” “Harvester,” “Today’s Life,” “Scars,” “Keep Your Dreams Alive,” “Wages of Sin,” “Bleed Me White,” “Take Me to the Time…” and “Daydreamin’.” The singles “I Regret” and “Sweet Life” accompanied the album in 1996.
The album entered the German album charts on 26 August 1996 and peaked at number 87, the band’s first chart placement. Asked in a Q&A on their Apple Music artist page about the most memorable moments of their career, the band pointed straight to this record: “Our first chart success with ‘Fairyland?’ in 1996!” The live album “Fairylive!” followed in 1997. The original 1996 recordings are currently not available on the major streaming services; the album circulates on CD through the secondhand market.
About De/Vision
De/Vision formed in July 1988 in Bensheim, near Darmstadt, Germany, with Steffen Keth on vocals and Thomas Adam, Markus Ganssert and Stefan Blender on synthesizers. Blender left in 1991. The band self-released the single “Your Hands on My Skin” in 1990 and issued “Boy on the Street” in 1992 through Synthetic Product Records, before the 1993 maxi single “Try to Forget” brought them to Strange Ways Records. The debut album “World Without End” followed in 1994, produced by Axel Henninger, who had previously worked with Camouflage. “Unversed in Love” and “Antiquity” both appeared in 1995, and “Fairyland?” arrived in August 1996 as the band’s first chart album. “Monosex” followed in 1998 through WEA.
Markus Ganssert left in 2000, and Keth and Adam have continued as a duo since, now based in Berlin. They founded their own label Popgefahr Records in 2009 and released later albums including “Popgefahr” (2010), “Rockets and Swords” (2012), “13” (2016) and “Citybeats” (2018). Keth also appears in Devision Redux, which went on tour in 2025 with Daniel Myer of Haujobb, while De/Vision themselves joined a 2025 tour with Lakeside X and Empathy Test. The 30th anniversary of “Fairyland?” points back to the album that opened that chart history.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
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