Set up in 1985 by Alexander Veljanov and Ernst Horn, Deine Lakaien can be easily considered as a phenomenon. The band has always exposed a true artistic approach in their global sound- and vocal production. Deine Lakaien can’t be compared to any other band because they’ve always created a very own sound. The style might be linked to established genres, but in the end it always remains a very unique experience in sound with the charismatic vocals of Alexander Veljanov on top. After a hiatus of seven years, Deine Lakaien this year unleashed two new albums on Chrom Records and Prophecy Productions. “Dual” and “Dual+” both reveal an interesting selection of cover songs and new songs inspired by their covers. The approach is not new and ‘great’ bands often like to release an album with cover versions one in their career. But what I especially like and deeply respect in the approach of Deine Lakaien is that their covers sound a bit like it are original Deine Lakaien songs. They put their own sound and spirit into it, which finally resulted in two great productions.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I get the feeling 2021 has been a very special year for Deine Lakaien as you released two new-,  conceptual studio albums. Tell us a bit more about what has triggered you to release both albums and especially the cover songs? And how did it progressively took shape?

Alexander: In 2019 we have been on tour with the ‘Acoustica’-line-up, combining Deine Lakaien, Helium Vola and Veljanov, each with acoustic performances. Having finished the tour in November 2019, we started recording sessions for a new Deine Lakaien-album. For the first time in our career, we decided to focus on cover versions, but we decided that it would be much more interesting to combine them with new original songs inspired by the covers we choose.

Q: You already released very special albums like acoustic works and also this phenomenal production together with Die Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, but I honestly never expected to see you releasing cover versions from a very wide range of artists; from Jacques Brel to Linkin Park to Devo to Pink Floyd etc… What do the songs and especially those artists mean to you? And how was it working on songs from others?

Ernst: We deliberately wanted to present a wide range of styles: songs that we value personally, those, that had a certain meaning for us, especially in our youth, and of course music, that Alexander likes to sing and that I can do well with my instruments. Since we rarely dealt with songs in the past, that were not written by us, it was of course an adventure. Fortunately, we soon found out that this also meant a learning process for us and, as a result, a great enrichment. The world of music is wide, it showed us that we are only a small part of it, and that is a good thing!

Q: I can imagine working on covers is somewhat different than composing your own songs. Do you notice significant differences and what has been your global approach to achieve the songs?

Ernst: That was, of course, a completely new approach. We didn’t have to look for new words, melodies, chords and sounds, we just had to listen to the songs first and try to preserve the emotions that the music gave us for our work. We also respected the structure, melodies and chords of the songs and adopted them unchanged. Of course, we had to transpose the music into the key that suits Alexander’s voice. From then on, it was a pure pleasure to introduce these very different styles of music and their poetry into our world of sound.

Q: I’ve been touched by the cover you made of Jacques Brel who according to me remains one of the most passionate, delicate and authentic artists in history, but still a great and subtle poet. In which way do you feel connected with the work of Brel and what does he –but also other artists/composers, mean in your personal development as musicians/artists?

Alexander: Jacques Brel’s music and voice touched my life when I still was a little child. I was absolutely caught by songs like “Ne Me Quitte Pas”, “Mon Dernier Repas”, “Orly” , “La Ville S’endormait”, etc. At the time when we started with Deine Lakaien, in the mid 80s, the Post-Punk movement and -music certainly had a bigger impact on my first steps into professional work, but the French postwar existentialism and Classical music from Baroque to Late-Romantic were also important influences.

Q: The diversity of the artists you covered attempt to prove you’ve a very eclectic taste when it comes to music, which I think is also a very noticeable element in the sound and genre of Deine Lakaien. What is mainly catching your attention when you’re listening to music? And how do you explain this eclecticism?

Alexander: If you love music because you need to, because you are thankful to discover and enjoy what it can give you, you don’t ask why and how. Music is and always has been the most beautiful and powerful companion of my life. Friendship and love will always be connected to music, and if it will disappear, we all will.

Q: I noticed there’re already numerous live shows planned for 2022. What do you expect from these shows in pandemic-times? And what might we expect from the shows properly speaking?

Ernst: We can’t ‘speak properly’ about this matter, because the virus is driving us. We can only hope that we might be able to organize our concerts with our band like before the pandemic. This year we performed three gigs ‘acoustic’, with a reduced number of visitors, which worked well, but of course we also have to make sure that we cover our costs in this way and that our listeners can get involved in the music as a collective and will not be distracted from it through the Corona rules. Fortunately, our audience is more interested in feeling the music than in partying.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Genre/Influences: Dark Wave-Pop, Cinematographic-Pop. 

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Set up in 1985, Deine Lakaien rapidly became a renowned name in the wider fields of Dark Wave-Pop and Gothic music. Alexander Veljanov and
Ernst Horn are a totally complementary duo. They released multiple albums and songs, which became history. Early this year they struck back with the “Dual” album, which was the first new studio work in seven years. A special album on which Deine Lakaien presented cover versions. By the end of this year we now get “Dual+” featuring ten new songs and more cover versions. 

Content: The album is not just a ‘classic’ cover album, but also a way to adapt some of the band’s influences into their own songs. Cover versions have been made of Pink Floyd, REM and DEVO while there’s also a personal interpretation/adaptation of Michail Iwanowitsch Glinka. Just listen to “Losing My Religion” –originally written by REM, to realize the work the duo accomplished. “Dual+” is a very personal and intimate work, moving from reverie and delicate sound arrangements to more bombastic and harder passages. The album features Neo-Classic piano arrangements, but still more nervous passages with on top of the creation, the charismatic vocals of Veljanov. 

+ + + : “Dual+” sounds to me like a true intimate work and also a very personal interpretation of some influential artists and covers. “Run 2^nd Version” is a really beautiful piece; an artistic exposure transposed into sonic reverie. I also want to mention the brilliant transformation of “Losing My Religion”, which sounds just like Deine Lakaien would have been the original composers. I also like the delicacy emerging from the opening track “Cradle Song” and the cover version of Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, which reveals less sound layers to reach a maximum effect. A last cut I want to mention is the more bombastic “Fork”.  

– – – : “Dual+” is maybe not the most accessible album of Deine Lakaien, but it has to be seen as an album, which means a lot to the artists.

Conclusion: I think I might say that I missed Deine Lakaien, this band remains a very unique experience in sound and impossible to compare with another formation. 

Best songs: . “Run 2^nd Version”,  “Losing My Religion”, “Cradle Song”, “Set the Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, “Fork”, “Wiegenlied”.  

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.deine-lakaien.com / www.facebook.com/DeineLakaien 

Labels: https://www.chrom.de/en  / https://en.prophecy.de /  www.facebook.com/prophecyproductions  Read the news on ‘Dual+’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The German darkwave act Deine Lakaien (Alexander Veljanov and Ernst Horn) have released a lyric video for their take on the Pink Floyd classic “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” as the second single taken from their forthcoming new album “Dual +”. “Dual +” is scheduled for release on November 26, 2021.

“When I was 18 years old, I got very much hooked on psychedelic music”, recalls Ernst Horn. “The rage of the day was beat, which was quite tame and still very much influenced by rock and roll. Along came young acts such as Pink Floyd, Cream, and of course Jimi Hendrix that opened the gates wide. They all had been influenced by the experiments of The Beatles producer George Martin. ‘Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun’ is a very psychedelic song and forever a part of my world. It was a great experience for me to work with these sounds that have always been with me and to bring them to the environment of my studio. As I see, this song is a subtle ode to the sun gifting life and most of all love to this planet. We should recognize and turn towards it.”

You can watch the video below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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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Deine Lakaien (Alexander Veljanov and Ernst Horn) have released the lyric video “Nightfall” as the first single taken from their forthcoming new album “Dual +”. “Dual +” is scheduled for release on November 26, 2021.

The previous album “Dual” was strictly following a principle of one cover version on the first album with a new song that was inspired by it on the second record, on “Dual +” the band keeps the basic formula.

“While creating ‘Dual’, we had already considered to have each new track directly following or preceding the cover version that it relates too”, explains Ernst Horn. “This idea was dropped when we recorded more and more songs, which finally led us to create a double album. Now we saw a good opportunity to bring the immediate contrast back on “Dual +” as ‘Nightfall’ is musically clearly connected to Pink Floyd’s classic “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”. Lyrically, there is a different type of contrast as “Nightfall” represents the beginning of a journey into the night, to travel through the infinite expanse of space to the stars, which symbolises our longing for home far away.”

Here’s the first track, “Nightfall”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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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(Photo by Joerg Grosse-Geldermann) Deine Lakaien, aka pianist Ernst Horn and vocalist Alexander Veljanov, have released a lyric video for their Kansas cover “Dust in the Wind” as the fifth single taken from their forthcoming double album, their 10th studio full-length, entitled “Dual”. “Dual” is slated for release on April 16, 2021.

The cover of “Dust in the Wind” has sounds inspired by dulcimer and bodhrán instead of the original’s violin as you can hear in the video below.

Regarding “Dual”, half of the double album consists of 10 new songs that the band have crafted with particular artists or songs in mind that have been important for the duo’s musical evolution. These sources of inspiration are made clear on the second album of “Dual”, which features 10 cover tracks that range from Cat Stevens’ classic “Lady D’Arbanville” via Jacques Brels melancholic “La chanson des vieux amants” to Kate Bush’s “Suspended in Gaffa” and the Linkin Park song “My December”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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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It has been since 2014 that we heard new studio material from the German dark wave act Deine Lakaien when they released “Crystal Palace”. Two years later the duo released “The 30 Years Retrospective”, and in 2018 “The 30 Years Retrospective (Live)”, but no new material was released. That’s until now, or better, next year in April when we’ll see the release of ‘Dual”.

With their 10th studio full-length, “Dual”, Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov present a conceptual double album, which connects both full-lengths by a double reference. Half of the double album consists of 10 new songs that the duo have crafted with particular artists or songs in mind that have been important for the duo’s musical evolution.

These sources of inspiration are made clear on the second album of “Dual”, which features 10 cover tracks that range from Cat Stevens’ classic “Lady d’Arbanville” via Jacques Brels melancholic “La chanson des vieux amants” to Kate Bush’s “Suspended in Gaffa” and a cover of the Linkin Park song “My December”.

Here’s the band’s version of “Because The Night”, originally by Patti Smith, which is out now as a single as well.

Deine Lakaien will release “Dual” on April 16, 2021 in various versions.

• Digi book 2CD
• Hard over book 3CD (with bonus single with the tracks “Because of Because (2nd Version)” and “Am Fenster (Acoustic Cover)”)
• Coloured 2LP
• Deluxe box-set (with the 3CD hardcover artbook, gatefold 2LP on clear vinyl, bonus 7” single, live DVD “The Concert from an empty Hall”, Song Book and some extra goodies)

Below are some of the visuals. Read the review of ‘Dual+’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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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“XXX – The 30 years retrospective” is the name of a brand new Deine Lakaien best of featuring 30 tracks by one of the most successful German Darkwave bands of all times. This set will be released in a couple of weeks and can be ordered right now. The whole is packaged in a digipak with an 8 pages booklet.

While CD1 features 15 of the most successful songs of the bands in chronological order, CD2 features (also in chronological order) the ‘secret hits’ of the duo plus 3 remixes of “Colour’ize” (the very first song the band ever recorded), “Love Me to the End” and “Kasmodiah”.

The German act Deine Lakaien was formed in 1985 by the vocalist Alexander Veljanov and by the composer and multi-instrumentalist Ernst Horn. Ernst Horn had just quit his position as a conductor at the Statestheater of Baden in Karlsruhe, and Alexander Veljanov was enrolled for film and theatre studies in Munich in 1985 and was part of the gothic subculture and mainly interested in dark wave. The rest is history.

Below are 2 tracks featured on this set.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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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