More then shocking and extremely sad news this morning. Bruno Kramm, co-founder and keyboardist of German dark wave and gothic-industrial band Das Ich, died on September 26, 2026, hours after the band performed in Granada, Spain, the previous night. Bruno Kramm was only 58. The news was confirmed on the Das Ich Facebook page.

Bruno Kramm is survived by his wife and two children. The entire Side-Line team expresses its heartfelt condolences to Bruno’s family and friends.

Bruno Kramm dies after Das Ich concert in Granada

Das Ich played Sala Planta Baja in Granada on September 25, its first concert in southern Spain. Kramm collapsed after the show and emergency responders were unable to revive him. Spanish police classified the death as natural and opened no investigation. The exact circumstances beyond that have not been confirmed.

The Granada date followed a Spanish run that took Das Ich to Barcelona’s Sala Upload on September 11 and Madrid’s Sala Nazca on September 12, in support of the band’s 2025 album, “Fanal”, as Side-Line reported in August. Whether a previously announced November 7 appearance at Vienna’s Schattenwelt Festival will go ahead has not been addressed by the band or its label.

Tributes from musicians and collaborators

Granada promoter Distortiongirl Eventos confirmed the death in a statement: “Bruno Kramm, member of the band Das Ich, passed away after his concert in Granada. Unfortunately we could do nothing for him.”

Sven Hegewald, a close collaborator of Kramm’s through Danse Macabre Records, described the loss in a statement carried by multiple German outlets: “Last night, a big part of the scene – and a huge part of my own life story – is gone.” Hegewald asked fans and press to give Bruno Kramm’s family privacy while further details are confirmed.

Tom Shear of Assemblage 23 wrote on September 26: “Shocked and saddened to hear about the untimely passing of Das Ich’s Bruno Kramm. He was not only an extraordinarily talented guy, but also a very humble and kind-hearted one. I can’t imagine what his band-mates and loved ones must be feeling right now. 58 is too young by any metric. RIP”

VNV Nation’s Ronan Harris, in a post that drew more than 3,000 reactions, wrote: “I’m really saddened to hear of the passing of Bruno Kramm. I want to express my sincerest sympathies to his friends and family and Das Ich fans who are undoubtedly deeply upset by the news. I’ve known Bruno since the 90s, had many a universe bending conversation with him and found him to be a larger than life unique spirit who danced to his own tune and who I always looked forward to running into. He will be missed.”

Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream and Picture Palace Music wrote: “Through his music, Bruno helped shape the German music scene, particularly the darkwave and gothic scene, over several decades. He was also deeply involved in politics, with both the Green Party and the Pirate Party, serving for a time as the latter’s Berlin chairman. He was someone who spoke his mind and took an active part in the world around him. Many years ago, I even released a single on his label, Danse Macabre. I fondly remember the wonderful days during WGT 2018 in Leipzig. We spent so much time sitting on the benches outside the hotel where we were both staying. Those memories are especially close today. During the pandemic, we began working on a piece together as a YouTube collaboration. We took turns uploading videos of our musical contributions, each responding to what the other had played and developing the piece further. […] Sadly, we never finished it.”

Oberer Totpunkt, signed to Danse Macabre since 2008 and a support act on Das Ich’s 2019 and 2024 US tours, wrote in German: “In deep mourning for our friend Bruno Kramm. Since he signed us, OBERER TOTPUNKT, to his label Danse Macabre Records in 2008, a special connection has stayed with us – as a musician, companion, supporter and, above all, a friend. […] Just three days ago we spoke on the phone about our new album, music, plans, and his Spain tour and Granada. We never imagined it would be our last conversation. For us, Bruno will always be the man with the broad smile who greeted us at our first meeting, in a very Bavarian accent, with: ‘Hello, I’m Bruno.'”

Cat o’ Nine, signed to Danse Macabre in 2010 for “Butzemann,” wrote in German: “It’s incomprehensible. Above all, it’s hard to find words right now, because the shock runs deep. […] I was just telling Cat that I can still hear Bruno’s voice, that positive and likeable person we never got to meet in person, right up to today. […] Bruno always had an open ear.”

Ton:Fehler wrote in German: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Bruno Kramm. We will miss his warm, open manner and his warmth. The great enthusiasm with which he lived for music connected many of us with one another, inspired us, and left a lasting impression.”

Glass Apple Bonzai recalled being signed to Danse Macabre in the late 2000s under an earlier band name: “Back in the late 2000’s Bruno signed my old band Defence Mechanism to his label Danse Macabre and we talked through e-mail for quite some time and he actually mastered our 2010 album ‘Invasion of the Robot Brains from Planet Zero’ and it sounded amazing. At the time he tried quite hard to get Defence Mechanism some recognition in Germany and other parts of Europe as he genuinely believed our album was good. […] Thank you, Bruno. If there’s another side I’ll see you there.”

Athamay wrote: “When I first started writing songs in the early 90s that would go on to become the first Athamay album Das Ich had such an influence on the sound/songs, I listened to Satanische Verse and Die Propheten on loop. It’s hard to believe that Bruno is gone.”

Norwegian musician Frode Hindrum wrote: “I only met you a couple of times but every time you were super kind and friendly. […] Your influence in our dearly beloved dark scene has been immense; your charm and charisma was contagious because you could always lighten the mood in a room.”

Séba Dolimont of Alfa Matrix wrote: “I met Bruno so many years ago, when he handed me the very first DAS ICH tape and asked for help to get his music heard beyond Germany. From that moment on, we stayed in touch over the years, sometimes more closely, sometimes from a distance, but always with a strong mutual respect and genuine care. […] And I will always smile remembering how much he enjoyed practising his French whenever we talked.”

M’era Luna festival wrote in German: “A fixed star of the dark universe has left us. We can count ourselves fortunate to have run festivals at the same time that Bruno Kramm was helping shape the musical world around us. How much narrower would our horizon be without Das Ich, what would our record collections be without Danse Macabre Records, how much poorer our whole subculture?”

Amphi Festival, where Das Ich played seven times, wrote in German: “We were able to accompany Bruno over many years and welcome him again and again on our Amphi stage. Das Ich took the Amphi Festival stage seven times. […] Bruno was a personality: stubborn, passionate, loving, creative, and always completely himself.”

Das Ich’s most recent work: ‘Fanal’

Kramm co-founded Das Ich in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1989 with singer Stefan Ackermann, and the band released “Fanal” in October 2025 through Danse Macabre, the label the band founded the same year it formed. Side-Line’s review at the time called it the band’s first new album in almost 20 years, following 2006’s “Cabaret.” The album was preceded by the singles “Lazarus” in August 2025 and “Brutus” in September 2025. Kramm discussed the band’s approach to the album in a February 2026 interview with Side-Line.

About Bruno Kramm

Bruno Kramm was born on October 13, 1967. In 1989 he met singer Stefan Ackermann at the Bayreuth nightclub Crazy Elephant, and the two formed Das Ich the same year. Kramm took on keyboards, synthesizers, programming and backing vocals, while Ackermann wrote the German-language lyrics and sang lead. The duo became one of the founding acts of “Neue Deutsche Todeskunst” (New German Art of Death), a scene that paired electronic music with gothic, industrial and classical elements.

Das Ich’s debut EP, “Satanische Verse”, began as a 1990 demo tape before its official release in 1991. Unable to find a label willing to release the band’s debut album, Kramm founded his own label, Danse Macabre Records, that same year to put out “Die Propheten.” Danse Macabre Records went on to release records by numerous other gothic and alternative artists, many produced by Kramm himself.

Das Ich’s catalogue grew through the 1990s and 2000s with the albums “Staub” (1994), “Egodram” and “Morgue” (both 1998), the remix collection “Re-Laborat” (1999), “Anti’christ” (2002), the compilation “Relikt” (2003), “LAVA:Glut” (2004) and “Cabaret” (2006). The lineup changed repeatedly around its two founders: drummer Daniel Galda (1994-1999), Chad Blinman (1994-1996), Jakob Lang (1998-1999), Michael Schmid (1999-2000), Damian “Plague” Hrunka (2000-2008) and Kain Gabriel Simon (2000-2006, and again in 2016) all passed through the group. Stefan Siegl, known as Sissy, joined in 2006, and keyboardist and backing vocalist Martin Söffker joined in 2008; both remained with the band through its most recent lineup.

Beyond Das Ich, Kramm released the solo album “Coeur” in 2000 and, in 2023, the AI-themed “Die Schöpfung und andere Kurzgeschichten”, which paired dark wave production with spoken-word narration exploring, in his words, a machine “recognizing humanity as its creator.” He remixed other artists’ work, including a track for dark wave band The Guests, founded the German goth club night Generation Gothic, and wrote for the now-defunct music magazine Zillo.

In 2016, Kramm and Ackermann won a lawsuit against the German performing rights society GEMA. The Berlin Regional Court ruled that GEMA could not distribute royalty payments to publishers on works where the publisher held no genuine claim to them.

Das Ich did not release another studio album after “Cabaret” for nearly two decades. Work on what became “Fanal” began during the COVID-19 pandemic but stalled for years afterward, which both members have described as a turbulent period. The album finally arrived on October 28, 2025, on Danse Macabre Records, preceded by the singles “Lazarus” and “Brutus.” In a February 2026 interview, Kramm described the band’s original goal as trying to “denazify the German language” by reclaiming it for expressive, artistic use after decades of association with Schlager music and wartime propaganda.

Kramm was also active in German politics. He joined the Pirate Party of Germany around 2010. He served as the party’s federal commissioner on copyright policy and as its political director in Bavaria. He stood as a candidate in European and federal elections and led the party’s list in Berlin’s 2016 state election. After a weak result there, he stepped down as Berlin state chairman, left the Pirates and rejoined Alliance 90/The Greens, a party he had belonged to earlier in his life.

Kramm lived in Werder (Havel), near Berlin, with his German-Finnish wife and their daughter and son, in a house that also contained his recording studio. Das Ich had played three Spanish dates in September 2026, in Barcelona, Madrid and Granada, with a further date planned for Vienna’s Schattenwelt Festival on November 7. Kramm died in Granada on September 26, hours after the band’s show there.

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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When Stefan Ackermann (vocals, lyrics) and Bruno Kramm (music, backing vocals, production) formed Das Ich in 1989, they were starting an artistic experiment that later became closely associated with the German movement described as “Neue Deutsche Todeskunst” (New German Art of Death). Das Ich developed a confrontational sound built on Obscure Electro, layered with symphonic structures and, at times, industrial abrasion. Heavy drum sequences pushed German lyrics that were delivered as much as performed – Ackermann’s vocals drawing on theatre and dramatic phrasing. The Das Ich songs were – to put it very mildly – not really considered light entertainment. On stage, Das Ich translated the material into a physical and visual performance language where gesture, posture, and sound worked as one. What began as a self-imposed trial expanded into an international presence.

The Das Ich albums that followed became reference points in the genre, with songs that built long-term status among listeners. After years of silence, Das Ich (finally!) re-emerged at the end of 2025 with their first studio album in nineteen years. “Fanal”, released via Bruno Kramm’s Danse Macabre Records, presents a direct, tightly focused release. Das Ich does not appear frequently in interview settings, and the work often invites interpretation rather than quick summaries. This Das Ich interview therefore aims to narrow the scope to a small set of core questions, answered here by Bruno Kramm. What remains is respect for the artists and for a catalogue that continues to provoke, challenge, and stay with its audience.(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Das Ich interview with Bruno Kramm

Q: The Das Ich album “Fanal” was released 19 years after your last studio album. You have both gone through profound personal experiences during that time—illness, political engagement, and, inevitably, getting older. To what extent did these experiences shape “Fanal”? And when did work on this Das Ich album actually begin?

Bruno Kramm: Well, I think all experiences you’re making as a human being will automatically be an experience that inspires the musical work you do. So actually, of course, everything that happened in this time to us was getting into this album. But when thinking about the album, we were always writing songs, but then we threw them away again and weren’t finalizing them. And if you want to see what we were doing constantly, you can check out my Instagram account where I always record some little parts of songs which have never been released.

So basically for “Fanal”, we started really from scratch about one year ago and then worked consequently just this one year. There was one song, “Lazarus,” which had already been done earlier, but was also heavily reworked then. But yes, 19 years when you read it seems to be really long. But when looking at these 19 years, it sometimes feels like it has been just yesterday. So actually the number of time doesn’t mean anything.

Q: Das Ich‘s “Fanal” presents an extremely critical view of the contemporary world—a system marked by decay, corruption, the erosion of moral values, self-destruction etc. Could you expand on these themes, and to what extent do you see yourselves as both part of—and victims within—this system?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, of course, the album is a critical view on this post-factual world, which is getting more and more crazy. We all were hoping that with the idea of globalism, everything becomes one democratic world. I think we all had this idea that one day we have this federation like in Star Trek where the whole world is a peaceful place with a basic universal income and stuff like this. But since a long time we know this will not happen.

So the bigger question is: how long will society, how long will humanity survive on this planet? And if you see how a few people get richer and richer, while others get more and more poor, then you sometimes have the feeling it’s just going backwards into the darkest times.

On the other hand, it’s always so that a society goes many steps forward and then goes a few steps backwards. And as you live in a quite small time frame as a human being, as an individual, it always feels like there is just a backdraft. But at the end, I always hope that it goes forward for society.

And yes, we as a part of this system—I would say we’re not so much victims, we are more part of the world which is the opposite. But at the end, when you see how everything politically changes, then I think we are all victims, especially thinking about us being members of an underground scene.

Q: As I understand it, the title “Fanal” functions both as a warning signal and as a testament to a world in decline. Do you believe there is still room for hope, or does the album ultimately embrace nihilism in its most philosophical sense?

Bruno Kramm: The “Fanal” album is a warning signal and at the same time some kind of testament for a world which is going down. Albert Einstein once said he doesn’t know with what weapons people will fight the Third World War, but he knows that in the fourth, they will again have simple Stone Age weapons.

Of course, as an individual, especially having children, you always hope that something gets better. But when you start to think as an artist about the world, then the nihilist look, which had been perhaps in the past more like a romantic nihilism, became a real—I would say—realistic nihilism. And that’s a painful thing.

Therefore music starts to have this function that it takes away fears from you when you express all these fears in the music. Whereas in the past, when it was sometimes some kind of romantic nihilism, it was more like playing with the idea of darkness—so to say. But now it became the bitter reality.

Q: “Fanal” strikes me as one of your most imagery-driven works, with (again) strong references to biblical figures and symbolic scenes that mirror the present day. Why do these images continue to fascinate you, and what do you think they can still teach us?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, why do biblical figures really interest us? It’s not only biblical figures on this album. It’s a lot of historic figures like from the Roman Empire, from all decades. And we really like the idea also to work with the antagonistic view—for example, on “Brutus” about betrayal and these things—and to see how they stand with their negative effects as symbols for the whole society.

So we always liked a lot on this album to work with these kind of figures, for example religious figures, and use them to put them in a context of the modern world and giving it with this still kind of Gothic expression, because it refers more to these old figures while talking about something really modern. And yes, we can always learn from history, especially from history. And therefore it’s really important that we sometimes think about these figures.

But of course, this has also changed. While when we started, religion and biblical figures always had been some threat to us because society was much more religious at that time. Today, the Christian religion is not really being so important anymore and not a threat at all. So it is much nicer actually today to play with these kind of figures from the Bible because they become more like an example than a threat.

Q: To what extent is the release date of the Das Ich album”Fanal” important or symbolic to you? On your Bandcamp page, October 28th is listed—coinciding with the feast day of Saint Jude in the Christian calendar, which could be read as a reference to betrayal—while November 2nd, All Souls’ Day, might also have been an obvious choice. How much attention do you pay to such symbolic details?

Bruno Kramm: Well, yeah, to be honest, we didn’t think so much about this. We then sometimes see coincidences and then we’re really happy about it. So therefore, yes, I saw that also in the Christian calendar and was then a bit smiling. Then I was thinking, should I write something like this in the release info? But then we thought we don’t do it because it was not our original intention.

But yes, it’s really beautiful. And sometimes it just happens as a coincidence that things just work. And sometimes you don’t know if it’s perhaps some kind of subconscious thing. But symbolism is of course for us a really important thing.

Q: Art—and music in particular—has long served as a source of comfort or hope in times of crisis. Do you believe Art still has the power to effect real change, or has it become more of a form of temporary emotional regulation? And how do you see Art evolving in a world you perceive as being in decline?

Bruno Kramm: I’m unfortunately a little bit pessimistic that art is still as important as in the past, because art and artists have really lost their function in society on a huge level. I mean, today everybody is expressing himself or herself through social media.

If you think of our youth time, art and music was the way how you could shape your growing up by listening to certain kinds of music and using it as the—I would say—the cocoon from which you were making the next steps in your development. Today nobody needs that anymore because everybody expresses himself in totally individualistic, overpainted, egoistic ways on social media. And at the same time, art is becoming more and more replaced even with artificial intelligence.

Of course, artists who had been a long time around like us and many of our colleagues, we can be lucky that we had been important for many people who became older to conserve their memories with our music. That makes it possible for us to still go on as artists.

But I can see it as an owner of a record label: for young artists, it is really hard to make somehow a way where you can make a living from your art or can call yourself an active artist, at least for some kind of short time period until the existentialism of surviving in this world affects you hard. And from the moment you have a family, you cannot afford anymore being an artist.

So basically, this was always a problem for artists, but I think we were growing up in a time like in the 80s and 90s where it was a perfect situation for you as an artist, especially because the channels of distribution were opening to everybody with this whole new independent and alternative revolution. So it felt really like steps forward in society that everybody finds a way to express with art. But as I was telling in the beginning of this interview, we are in a constantly going forward, going backward situation.

Q: Time has always been a central concern of philosophers. Yet listening to “Fanal”, it feels as though time has had little impact on your musical language—the album sounds as if Das Ich had never been away. How do you view this continuity, and what was your artistic approach when creating this new work?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, it might sound like the whole album sounds like there was no break in between, and you could see that positively or negatively. Some could say, ‘Hey, these guys in 19 years were not developing forward’. Or you could say that we really found quite early our language—our personal language—and we just go with it.

It’s never the intention to copy ourselves. It is just the way how we work, and it might be—as we are just two people—it is much easier to keep a consistency than if it would be a whole band in a process of composing with changing members. So I think that makes it really easier to stay consistent. And let’s say other duos from our time also sound still quite consistent. Take for example bands like Clan Of Xymox or so. They are still consistently doing what they always did.

And this might be a reason: in your young years—that’s how I believe—in your young years when you try to find your expression, you will find your own language. And of course you do lots of experiments, but you always have this idea of an artistic approach, of vision. And therefore we were just going on with it. And honestly, time doesn’t mean anything.

Q: One of the notable new elements on Das Ich’s “Fanal” is that you, Bruno, recorded cello parts. How did this come about, and what kind of atmosphere or emotional depth were you hoping to capture through this instrument?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, the cello became really important for me, and it is the instrument which I started heavily to train in the times of Corona because there was no chance to do anything—no tours, nothing else. Of course I was starting then a company, an AI company, and finding some funding from investors. But artistically at that time I really every day started to train at least one to two hours cello.

Why? Basically because when I was really young I was starting piano and violin, and I stopped violin because I had a quite aggressive violin teacher who was hitting you when you played somehow wrong. But I always had a love for string instruments, and I think you can tell it from the music what we do that I just have a love for symphonic instruments and specially for strings. And therefore it was a quite consequent step to then start with the cello.

And basically it became the instrument with which I was also writing a lot of music parts instead of clicking on my keyboard. My keyboards—it was much more fun playing parts with the cello and then using some converters which helped me to put this automatically into a sequenced part.

So I’m basically doing today a lot with the cello because for me it’s an instrument where you also can put so much expression into the shaping of sound. When you play a piano of course you can hit it stronger or softer, you can be faster or slower, but you cannot shape the sound itself so strongly like you can do it with stringed instruments. Therefore I love cello so much because you can do so much with it. And therefore I was also recording all the cellos on the album and also some violins on the album were played by myself.

I think it also helps to make the sound more natural and more human by little mistakes what happened. And also it’s always not the perfect tune, and therefore when you record many of these tracks you always get automatically this beautiful chorus effect.

Q: In recent years, technological and societal modernization has accelerated dramatically—not always in a positive direction. Were there any significant innovations or changes in your compositional or production process for Das Ich’s “Fanal”, and how did they influence the final result?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, about technological acceleration. Of course on one hand it became really easy to record music today, to mix a complete album on one laptop actually. That’s a beautiful thing. On the other hand, it also became so easy that everybody is nowadays doing Electronic music, and Electronic music itself lost its magic where you always had to be also an engineer to be able to set everything up.

I mean, I just remember times when we recorded the “Propheten” album—at that time you needed to be a real nerd to make this Commodore 64 sequencer not crash, to synchronize all these synthesizers with tape machines, and it was a really complicated time. Also during the mixdown you had a list of events when you have to put which reverb on which part, and sometimes with three people at the same time during the mixdown and everybody had to take care of some faders. Today you can automate everything, and even you can go further—you can use AI to help you with mixing.

Yes, I use also AI sometimes for equalizing things or for mastering things, but it goes even further. And I was also doing experiments with that, but not using it for my own music because I was also programming with a friend some AI tools and realized how much you can even replace the whole creative process with AI.

This is for me sometimes a bit frightening, also frustrating. I also see it quite critically because expressing ourselves as human beings with music is something so fundamentally important, and replacing this with AI is really weird. Why not replace things which are not fun—like stuff which is bothering and making no fun and is hard to do—instead of replacing those things which are so important for your soul, for your development as a human being?

And also the problem is: the more AI slop is released, the more the next generation gets used to it. The problem with AI music is that it is always some kind of average of everything what already exists, so you will never reach a level where you can create something completely new, because AI is always—let’s say—a statistic. Yeah, a statistical element that combines things that exist. But breaking with rules is something what only real artists can do.

My fear is that the more we are getting used to it and the next generation is getting used to art from AI, the more nobody likes anymore breaking with the rules. So music becomes more and more standardized, and that’s really sad about it.

Q: What were the greatest challenges and difficulties throughout the creation of “Fanal”, and how did you manage to overcome them?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, I mean, the difficulty is of course when you’re having little children and doing then this realistic music, you need really to find spaces and time when you can do your stuff because you don’t want to project that all on your kids. You want that they have a happy life. And of course they start to ask you, ‘What is wrong with you, Daddy? Why are you so sad? Why do you do this sad music?’ So this is only one difficulty of many difficulties.

But honestly, the biggest difficulty today is getting dragged away because there is constantly so much input coming on you through social media, through all kinds of channels, and all the art which is presented constantly to you. It’s really hard there to find a way to filter all that and to find the silence in your head that you can create the music in your head, because you always need first—like a clean canvas for painting—the silence in your mind that you can create music.

Q: To what extent do the themes addressed on “Fanal” also manifest within the music scene itself, even at an underground level? After all, every scene is still part of the larger system. What are your personal experiences in this regard?

Bruno Kramm: That’s an extremely good question. Yes, I mean, I was telling in interviews before: the 80s and 90s were really somehow a revolutionary time when we were able to suddenly use channels of distribution also for alternative music, and suddenly really individual things came up which were not shaped by some marketing people.

And we had then this extremely growing Gothic and alternative scene. I can at the moment just speak for Germany, because I remember when we started in West Germany, it already looked like it was going slowly down again. And then suddenly came this reunification of Germany, and there were so many super hungry individualists with interest for dark music from East Germany that suddenly it became something really big.

And honestly, without this unification of Germany, there would have never been a Wave-Gotik-Treffen or something like this. I mean, basically without East Germany, I think the scene—or let’s say at least in Germany—would have not become as big as it became. So you can see that always political things and society’s paradigm changes play a big role, especially in the so-called alternative music. And I think that’s really interesting how much the current situation also addresses the underground scene.

And I think that’s also something what we’re carrying out a bit with the “Fanal” album, because it is this guiding light. You can see this kind of torch as something what helps you finding your way through these massive floods of information which are constantly flooding over you and taking away your direction. So it might be a light that guides you, but it also can be a light that warns you and shows you the past. So it’s basically both. And therefore I think we quite nicely found for us the definition of what we think we are right now.

Q: Das Ich, along with several contemporaries, was closely associated with the ‘Neue Deutsche Todeskunst’ movement of the 1990s. What remains of that movement today, and what do you see as its legacy for younger and future generations?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, well, it seems to be perhaps the next thing what will be a revival. So it will be then the ‘new old New German Death Art’. And I can see that a lot of young people are suddenly really interested in this kind of expression.

I mean, for Das Ich—and therefore we were creating this term—we started doing the music. Most of the German song music had been like this Schlager music, this really horrible, idiotic music and folkloristic music. And we also saw a little bit our vision, especially as children of this Third Reich times, to denazify the German language and give it again expression like the Expressionists, showing how beautiful this language can be also in expression and not only used for propagandistic things.

Today, it is so normal to sing in German that it is not important to call it anymore something special ‘German’. But when we started, it was also a bit about revolutionizing this language and also emancipating this language for different kinds of music.

Q: This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Das Ich debut album, “Die Propheten”, which has since become legendary. How much of the ‘young’ Stefan and Bruno do you still recognize in yourselves today? And what advice would you give those younger versions of yourselves, based on what you know now?

Bruno Kramm: Oh yeah, 35 years. Crazy. Yeah, I think actually we are quite true still to ourselves. Of course, we have seen a lot of things, but when it comes to how we see the world—for example, you always hear that people become more conservative when they become old, also politically conservative—and this has not affected us.

So yeah, it might be that we are just not really becoming older, but that might be also because of music, because it keeps you really young. And for me, doing music or playing with synthesizers or whatever, it is for me still like being in Legoland.

For example, we just had a concert in Gothenburg and on the other side of the hotel was an amazing music store with all the old synthesizers and samplers—like Emulator II, the Fairlight, some Prophet-5 and really great old stuff. And yeah, I felt like a little child again because there’s nothing more beautiful than playing with these tools.

And today what’s really beautiful about today is that there’s so many mobile synthesizers, little ones—if it’s Teenage Engineering stuff or other brands—it’s amazing. You can take them with you, and I really enjoyed it a lot to do music with that stuff when my kids were playing in the sandbox and I was still being able then to do music.

Q: Das Ich has been an active live band for decades, and live performance seems crucial to your artistic identity. How have you evolved as a live act over the years, and how essential is the stage for an artist like Das Ich?

Bruno Kramm: Yeah, live performance is for us the most important, because when we create songs it’s for us always important that they are in a similar way moving the people like they move ourselves. And the only way how you can find out that is with a live show. So for us it’s always so beautiful to see when people react in a similar way to the music like us.

And we are really happy to have with Stefan someone who is so much into expressing himself with his face and with the way how he acts on stage. And of course with the swing and me, we have really big fun to always have a lot of action on the stage, and therefore we have these movable keyboards and love to be just not like normal Electronic bands.

Q: For my final question, I asked AI which philosophical statement it felt would best resonate with Das Ich. Its response was: ‘Man did not kill God—he replaced Him with a mirror and never left it again’. Do you find this thought inspiring or problematic—especially considering that AI itself is part of the same transient reality you critique?

Bruno Kramm: ‘Man did not kill God—he replaced him with a mirror and never left it again’. Actually that would be nice, especially when thinking about artificial intelligence, if it would be just a mirror, because a mirror can help you to see all the scars which had been painted by life into your face and your body and all the wrinkles which made you older but which are also showing how time was carving into your face. Perhaps an ugly one, perhaps also things which you think are beautiful. It’s always in the eye of the watcher.

But the sad thing is that AI even drags us away from those things which are really important for humans going further. I mean, technology is always having different aspects. One is, for example, we can live much longer. Perhaps one day we can all put our consciousness into some kind of hive and live then forever. This is really fascinating and great.

But on the other hand, you realize today that the technology—I mean the AI—will be the death of the internet, for example. With AI you can, with no other technology, so perfectly control people with fake news, the way how you train systems, how you use the bias of the data, the datasets on which the AI was trained. This is really scary.

But I think it’s really cool that you ask a philosophical statement about ‘Das Ich’ in that way. Yes, it was not man who killed God in an individual way, like stabbing him with a knife or so. But science was at least making God like a nice little old man in the corner which lost its power over us. And that is a great thing on one hand, but on the other hand it’s also the problem that we have no one anymore who controls our morals and humanistic ideas.

So just being free is bringing new risks, and I think at the moment we are not really well in handling these risks.

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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Alfred Kaenders, founder of the Geldern (DE) based electro-industrial label Celtic Circle Productions is no more. He died a few days ago.

The sad news was announced by Bruno Kramm (Das Ich) on his Facebook page.

Bruno: “Today, I learned about the far too early death of one of the scene’s originals, Alfred Kaenders. As the founder of the Celtic Circle Productions label in the nineties, in recent years he was especially ubiquitous at festivals with his perfume and jewelry stands. Alfred had a very eventful life story with many highs and lows, many legendary tales and incidents, but always with his mischievous smile that I will never forget. My thoughts are with his family. Farewell, old friend.”

In a reaction Seba Dolimont, who worked with Alfred when he ran the printed version of Side-Line, says: “This is shocking news. Definitely too young to die… Alfred was a true passionate man for our dark scene and he had a strong and active contribution to it in the 90’s through concerts, the labels and magazine publishing. Professionally, I learnt a lot from him and he gave me his trust back in the days for releasing my own music as Aiboforcen and bringing Side-Line Magazine on the map as leading print mag in English with attached CD. He definitely somehow contributed to the foundations of what Side-Line Magazine and Alfa Matrix/Spleen+ would become later. Sadly enough, some major mismanagement mistakes brought his activities to collapse. But i will never forget his unlimited devotion to the dark underground music scene, his countless stories he was telling with ultimate passion, his big heart for the people and artists he was supporting and bringing together. We spent unforgettable moments together during these years between Belgium, Geldern & Krefeld (Germany) and his unique laughter is still echoing in my ears… Merci for all the positive things and moments you brought and all these nice people i learnt to know thanks to your impressive networking. I hope you find some nice dark tunes out there. RIP my “un-be liev-able” old bro…”

The label which launched its first productions in 1992 originally was the home to Inertia, Yelworc, AmGod and many other groups of the early and mid-nineties. The label also had a sub-label, Khazad-Dûm, and produced compilation releases for Side-Line, Gothic Grimoire and Vertigo. The label ceased operations in 1998 after experiencing financial difficulties.

We offer our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

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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Das Ich musician Bruno Kramm offers a tapestry of sound and narrative, as shown in his latest work, “Die Schöpfung und andere Kurzgeschichten”. The collection is a blend of dystopian melodies paired with short stories, each piece a window into Kramm’s expansive creative realm.

Within the anthology, “Eight Oscillations from the Latent Space” are stories crafted during Kramm’s tenure with the now-defunct Zillo music magazine. These narratives are a testament to his enduring connection to the music world. Meanwhile, “Seven Nightmares From A Random Forest” is a product of the isolation and global upheaval brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Conceived amidst the grip of feverish illness, these stories delve into the eerie and uncanny, underscored by soundscapes that evoke the modern zeitgeist.

In “Die Schöpfung”, Kramm explores themes of creation and perception through the lens of a machine recognizing humanity as its creator. This story, unique in its German narration, resonates with the motifs of “Der Achte Tag” from the Das Ich album “Antichrist”, linking his literary work to his musical legacy.

Kramm’s literary influences are eclectic, drawing inspiration from the likes of Stanislaw Lem, Sabine Hossenfelder, and H.P. Lovecraft. His stories, according to Kramm, are the perfect companion to the restless and the insomniac, for times when the veil between reality and fiction thins, revealing a world charged with mystery.

The album is out now via the Danse Macabre label.

Das Ich: The Dark Wave Legacy of Bruno Kramm

Bruno Kramm’s involvement in Das Ich has been pivotal to the band’s influence on the German dark wave movement. Since its inception in 1989, Das Ich has been at the forefront of a genre that marries the gothic aesthetic with electronic music’s visceral punch. Kramm, along with vocalist Stefan Ackermann, has crafted a sound that is both avant-garde and accessible, marked by theatrical live performances and deeply philosophical lyrics.

Das Ich’s music often grapples with the complex relationship between humanity and technology, a theme that Kramm further explores in his literary work. The band’s influence has been profound, shaping the direction of dark wave music.

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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The synthpop/industrial band Distorted Reality is back with an all new single, “I Can’t Imagine”. “I Can’t Imagine” addresses the idea of being in a relationship with someone for a long time while realizing the relationship is essentially over. No one wants to make the scary move of ending it. It’s a difficult and heartbreaking split because you both still love each other. In this case, however, love is not enough.

“I Can’t Imagine” is available on all major digital platforms including Bandcamp.

Below you can see a video for the new single.

Distorted Reality was formed by Martha A. Hoffmann from Miami, USA and Christian Kobusch from Berlin, Germany, the creator of musical project Berlin Banter. Martha is the lead singer of Deep Red, the American Electro-Goth formation. Deep Red was touring in support of Project Pitchfork when a chance meeting between Marttha and Christian happened at a tour stop in Germany, Martha and Christian began to discuss their ideas.

Subsequently, Distorted Reality was formed after the two kept in touch over the course of a year during which, a collection of songs were created. Distorted Reality’s debut album “The Fine Line Between Love and Hate” was produced together with Bruno Kramm (Das Ich) and released on May 17, 2002 on Accession Records and re-released on the American record label Nilaihah Records. The North American version contained additional remixes by Assemblage 23, Forma Tadre, cut.rate.box and Null Device.

In 2004/2005 Martha and Christian worked on their second album “Daydreams and Nightmares” together with Andreas Meyer (Forma Tadre, Newt). Artists like Bruno Kramm, Daniel Myer (Haujobb), In Strict Confidence, Dust of Basement and Chris L. (Agonoize) contributed remixes to this album.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the band decided to put out a new single (performed live), “I Knew it Was Wrong”, in January 2021. 2022 then saw another collaboration with Solitary Experiments where Martha was part of a special bonus CD, “La Voix de La Femme”, with her interpretation of their song “I am”. Most recently, Christian and Berlin Banter collaborated on a single with Tricky.

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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The German industrial gothic band Das Ich is celebrating more than 30 years of music with a special jubilee tour for their cult album “Die Propheten”. The band has been touring around the world since their formation and this year marks their 7th time touring South America.

The tour kicks off on March 18th in Sao Paulo, Brazil, followed by shows in Mexico City on March 21st and Tijuana on March 22nd. The band will then head to Santiago de Chile for a performance on March 24th before concluding the tour in Lima, Peru on March 26th.

Tickets for the South American tour are on sale now, and fans are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. For more information on Das Ich and their upcoming tour, visit their official website and social media channels.

About Das Ich

Das Ich is a German band that has gained a reputation for their unique sound that blends electronic, industrial, and neoclassical music with poetic lyrics that explore themes of existentialism, mythology, and the human condition. Stefan Ackermann and Bruno Kramm founded the band in Berlin in 1989, and since then, they have become a cornerstone of the German darkwave scene, inspiring countless other artists and musicians.

Throughout their career, Das Ich has experimented with and incorporated elements of metal, folk, and classical music into their work. Their use of mythological and literary themes, drawing on the works of German Romantic poets and classical mythology, has become a hallmark of their music.

The band’s debut album, “Die Propheten,” released in 1991, established their reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting bands in the German gothic scene. Their subsequent albums, “Staub” (1994) and “Egodram” (1998), further solidified their status, with tracks like “Destillat” and “Reamin’ in Light” becoming gothic club classics.

Das Ich has continued to experiment and push the boundaries of their sound throughout their career, incorporating elements of metal, folk, and classical music into their work. Their 2002 album, “Anti’Christ,” for example, features heavy guitar riffs and pounding drums alongside Ackermann’s trademark vocals and poetic lyrics.

One of the defining characteristics of Das Ich’s music is its use of mythological and literary themes. The band often draws on the works of German Romantic poets like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, as well as classical mythology, to create a dark and mystical world that reflects the human experience. Their 2004 album, “Cabaret,” for example, is inspired by the writings of German playwright Bertolt Brecht and explores themes of decadence, despair, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world.

Das Ich is also known for their theatrical live shows, which often feature elaborate costumes, props, and visuals. Ackermann’s stage presence and powerful vocals are a highlight of the band’s live performances, which often feature theatrical lighting and video projections to create a unique atmosphere.

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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Internet is getting artists closer, giving birth to new bands. Before the new millennium it was nearly impossible to imagine a duo featuring the singer living in Germany and the musician living in Brazil. Wintry was the daylight thanks to the internet. Anne Goldacker (ex-Obsyre) and Alex Twin (3 Cold Men, Individual Industry, and still owner of Wave Records) joined hands together. They released a debut album “Atmosphere Around Us” in 2009 and struck back in 2017 with the single “Ausweg”. “Timeline” has been released as a collaboration between Wave Records and Young And Cold Records, but also got released in the US by Cleopatra Records. Their music reminds the golden years of 4AD and will appeal for lovers of X-Mal Deutschland, Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus and others. I got in touch with Anne and Alex. (Picture credits by Falk Scheuring).

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Wintry has been set up in the 90s as a solo-project and became a duo when Anne Goldacker joined in for the debut album “Atmosphere Around Us”. How did this meeting happened and what did Anne brought to Wintry expect her beautiful timbre of voice?

Anne: Alex and I met thanks to Bruno Kramm. Alex was looking for a singer and Bruno recommend me. The main part is my voice, the second part are the lyrics, which I write myself.

Q: The single “Ausweg” has been released in 2017, but it took you ten years to release a successor to the album “Atmopshere Around Us “. How do you explain this long absence and what motivated you to start again?

Anne: For me, music is an important part of my life. But first of all I have a demanding profession, which takes me lot of my attention. As a dentist you certainly need to get a balance and I found it in music. But time goes fast and it takes a little longer to finish an album.

Alex: I’m involved with many others projects, so I can write new music when there is some free time. But I also have to take care of the label and the e-shop. It’s not that easy when you’re doing this all alone while it takes much time.

Q: When did the writing of the new album “Timeline” started and what kind of album did you try to accomplish?

Anne: I don’t know exactly when. For me the work started with the musical basis from Alex. I got my ideas for singing when writing the lyrics. And the result is an album giving us satisfaction after a long period of creation.

Q: How did the writing-, recording- and production of the album happened? And how did it happened for the vocals as you don’t live in the same country? And what has been the real input of both guest artists?

Anne: In times of internet, the distance is no problem. I went to a friend‘s studio to record my vocals and send it to Brazil. Alex did the rest.

Alex: I compose the songs and send them to Anne. After getting back the vocals, I sent it all to our guest musicians, Franck from Opera Multi Steel on bass and Audret from Scarlet Leaves to play guitars. The final production has been done by Marclo Gallo (Pitch Yarn Of Matter), who’ s doing mixing, production and mastering for years now here in São Paulo.

Q: Wintry is often linked to some bands from the legendary 4AD roster. What did this label mean to you and what do you consider as the real sources of inspiration?

Alex: I think the main bands active in the dark scene and dealing with post-punk, dark-wave, ethereal and related genres are influenced by the 4AD era. These bands were the pioneers of dark music.

Things are a bit different today. Bands no longer  compose music like 4AD artists did. We have these bands in mind, but there also is the influence from ‘new’ bands. We must move ahead and listen more to new music than only to the ‘old ones’, at least that’s how it works for me. Actually I listen much more to new stuff than old work. Wave Records get many demos every week and trust me, I have heard numerous great new bands since 2010.

Q: “Timeline” has been of course released on your own label, Wave Records, but still here in Europe on Young & Cold Records and in the US on Cleopatra. Why releasing an album on three labels when we all know the CD format no longer sell? What are the further plans for Wintry?

Alex: After I had finished the Wintry master, I got a message from A&R from Cleopatra, and he asked me about some bands I released. So I sent him the new Wintry and we got a deal for North America exclusively. Young & Cold Records are partners for selling recrods via the e-shop, but Wintry also has 70% of the tracks in German, so we just found a deal for the vinyl release exclusively for Europe. The CD edit features bonus tracks and Wave Records sell it worldwide.

About the CD sales, I can tell you this format is still  selling, but not like in the 90s. But we have many customers only buying CD editions. Of course vinyl is growing the last years, but the main people at least in Brazil just buy CD’s. I think releasing 3 different formats is a good way to reach all kind of customers.

The plans for Wintry are to compose more tracks next year so a new album will be probably released for 2021/2022.

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

On 10th and 11th August 2019 the annual M’era-Luna festival takes place in the area of Hildesheim-Drispenstedt, Germany. M’era Luna exists since 2000 and is one of the biggest Gothic festivals in the European scene. Gothic, new wave, electro, EBM, industrial and medieval bands are featured on 2 stages.

The last years the festival was every time sold out and had about 25.000 visitors. This year some of the confirmed artists are: Fields Of The Nephilim, VNV Nation, Lacrimosa, OOMPH!, Deathstars, DIE KRUPPS, Within Temptation, ASP, Subway To Sally, Combichrist, Diary Of Dreams, Corvus Corax, Suicide Commando, Agonoize, Funker Vogt, Mono Inc., DE/VISION, Empathy Test, Joachim Witt, Spetsnaz, [:SITD:], Zeromancer, Melotron, …

DJ’s at the afterparties are: Der Schulz (Unzucht), Bruno Kramm (Das Ich), Chris L. (Funker Vogt and Agonoize), Andy Krüger (Melotron), Ronan Harris (VNV Nation), Mike Kanetzky (Matrix Bochum).

Besides watching concerts you can also visit markets, artist signing events, gothic fashion shows, readings by Axel Hildebrand, Markus Heitz and Christian von Aster. The Gothic Garden, an oasis of calm right in front of the festival infield, offers demanding festival-goers comfort, space and conveniences to make your stay more exclusive, pleasant and more relaxing. At the M’era Luna Academy you can follow special workshops which will be announced soon on the official renewed website.

The interactive M’era Luna app can be downloaded here and tickets can be ordered here.

Russian dark wave band The Guests was founded in 2002 and has since then released numerous albums and performed at various festivals. Out now is the band’s newest release, the “Highlands” EP.

The EP includes the title track next to several remixes of the song “Autumn Walk” by such artists as Bruno Kramm (Das Ich), Asper X and Fedor Arkhangelsky.

You can check out the EP 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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Out later in March in a wider distribution is Das Ich’s cult debut EP “Satanische Verse” in a limited vinyl version (500 copies). You can order this vinyl version right here.

“Satanische Verse” was originally released in 1990 as a demo-tape (and we still have 2 of them in our archives), and featured the tracks on Side A of this vinyl only. One year later, it would be the first ever official Das Ich released on the band’s own Danse Macabre label.

That first CD album featured 4 tracks (side A + “Jericho”) and was the first sign of life for the project around Bruno Kramm and Stefan Ackermann. The same year the duo would release the album “Die Propheten” which paved the way for worldwide success.

All tracks on this vinyl edition have been re-digitalized and re-mastered, and let’s be honest, this album is absolutely a must-have in your collection. Recommended!

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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The German darkwave band Dorsetshire is back alive after a prologned silence that lasted 21 years (if you don’t count the few tracks and remixes that have been released here and there). The band has reunited now and has been re-recording some of their hits as well as new material which should be released in the next few months.

The band nowadays consists of frontman Monaco X, bassguitar player Mike, guitarist Andy Age, keyboardists Mr. H./Jogi/Bruno Kramm. It’s also in Kramm’s own studio where the band has been recording new material.

The band rose to fame with their debut CD “Das Letzte Gefecht” (1994) and the follow-up “Beast” (1996) after which the band called it quits in 1998.

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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