On May 26th, 2022 Andrew Fletcher, founding member of Depeche Mode, died, aged 60. Out via Timezone on November 25th is the Depeche Mode tribute compilation “6122 (To Andrew Fletcher of Depeche Mode)”. The compilation’s title contains the year Andrew Fletcher was born and the year he died.

The aim was to bring together different artists from different decades, old musical companions of “Fletch” as well as known artists across different genres and promising new bands who were influenced by Depeche Mode’s sound.

The 2CD set features artists from all kind of musical genres and 50% of all profits will be donated to a charity organisation for children in UK, and the Children’s Cancer Trust in Germany, who officially partners to the project. Behind this project we find Daniel Gierke of the act The Brute.

Here’s an idea what to get.

Here’s is the complete tracklist:

CD1

1. A Question of Time – The Brute :
2. Never Let Me Down Again – Watershed
3. In Your Room – Nightnight
4. Ice Machine – Renard feat. Mary Ann
5. Broken – Redeem
6. Stripped – Starlights Live
7. Little 15 – Atlantic Popes
8. The Sun And The Rainfall – Apsürde feat. Manoya
9. My Secret Garden – Cold Connection
10. It’s No Good – Oxic Inc. feat. De La Morte
11. Dream On – Roy Jones & Red Beat
12. Should Be Higher – The Rude Awakening
13. Somebody – Toal, The Brute, People Theatre
14. In Sympathy – Bon Harris
15. Heaven – Zentrum Ost 71

CD2

1. Enjoy The Silence – LeBen
2. Personal Jesus – Polly Scattergood
3. Wrong – Kirlian Camera
4. Policy of Truth – Rohn-Lederman
5. To Have and to Hold – Page Of Quire
6. Angel – Tom Meeloo
7. Somebody – Peter Rainman
8. The Sun And The Rainfall – Northern Kind
9. Photographic – Shelter
10. A Barrel of a Gun (El Presidente Peron Yeah John) – Carlos Peron
11. I Feel You – Tin Gun
12. I Feel Loved – Daniel Hall feat. Stephen Newton
13. Oberkorn (It’s a Small Town) – Electrogenetic by Gareth Jones
14. Clean – Neocoma
15. Breathe – The Brute feat. Rachel Delgado

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.

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Available now is a new lyric video for Wolfsheim founder Markus Reinhardt’s project Renard. The video is for “Heresy” which features Sarah Blackwood (Client, Dubstar) on vocals and which is taken from Renard’s debut solo album “Waking Up In A Different World”.

Markus Reinhardt is the founder of the Hamburg based hit-making synth pop duo Wolfsheim. His band lit up the German charts with album releases such as “Spectators” (1999) and “Casting Shadows” (2003).

Following a well-publicised anachronistic break-up of the band, Reinhardt returned in October 2020 with Renard and the release of a debut solo album on which he collaborated with producers Oliver Blair (Ladytron, Client, Kelli Ali of Sneaker Pimps, etc) and the Hamburg based Chaos Compressor Club (Moddi, Love A, etc).

Vocal duties on the album were executed by Sarah Blackwood (Client, Dubstar), Pascal Finkenauer, Urban-folk singer Joseh brings, Greek vocalist/composer Marietta Fafouti, Berlin based Australian Eliza Hiscox (royalchord) and German singer Marian Gold, the co-founder of legendary fellow hit-makers Alphaville.

Here’s the lyric video for “Heresy”.

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.

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Markus Reinhardt together with Peter Heppner will be always linked to WOLFSHEIM. The successful German Electro/Wave-Pop duo split after their last –and probably best, album “Casting Shadows. Seventeen years after this brilliant opus, Markus Reinhardt is back on track unleashing the debut album “Waking Up In A Different World” (released by Metropolis Records) under the name RENARD. The project name is directly linked to Markus name; Reinhardt being basically the German name for ‘Renard’. But Markus Reinhardt also explained that he likes the French author Jules Renard. He even used his quote ‘Paradise does not exist, but we must nonetheless strive to be worthy of it’ to promote his album. The album is a fully accomplished piece of Electro-Pop with some extra Indie influences. Markus Reinhardt got the help of guest singers Joseh, Marietta Fafouti, Pascal Finkenauer (JAW), Sarah Blackwood (CLIENT), Marian Gold (ALPHAVILLE) and Elisa Hizcox (ROYALCHORD). This is what Markus had to say about RENARD.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I think it’s impossible to start this interview without getting back to WOLFSHEIM. A lot of things have been said about the split, but I’m more interested to know how difficult it was to leave this band behind you and especially after the last album “Casting Shadows”? How do you look back at the accomplishment of WOLFSHEIM?

Markus: The end of WOLFSHEIM came as a surprise to me at the time. I was shocked because I assumed that WOLFSHEIM would be with me until the end of my life. So first I was a little lost, but if life has other plans for you, then you have to accept it. And sometimes you don’t understand why it happened until many years later. When I founded WOLFSHEIM at the time, I quickly realized that I didn’t want to be a musician to achieve a short-term success. I had the hope of being able to write music with some shelf life. Even if nothing is eternal, it seems to me to have succeeded to a certain extent.

Q: I can easily imagine as a musician/composer you felt the need to compose new songs. What have you been doing all over the years and how did you finally come to set up RENARD?

Markus: Sure, I felt the need to compose most the time and I guess it will never end. But often I felt a kind of void, even while WOLFSHEIM was quite successful. I was puzzled and for a while I thought I’m not thankful enough, but soon I realized I had to find out why I felt this way. So it was a time of self-reflection and I ended up writing scripts for TV-shows among other things. Music and writing is a great combination!

Q: What can you tell us about the writing and production of “Waking Up In A Different World”? Did you had specific ideas in mind about the sound and its production?

Markus: Some of the songs on the album I’d composed for WOLFSHEIM, so they are a bit older. But that’s never a problem if a song has a certain quality. Around 2005 I finally managed to work only on a laptop without external devices. I’d dreamed about it back in the early 90s. And I believe that this technical development is one of the reasons why compositions became bit more organic. And ultimately, I wanted to get to the core of every song in the studio. My songs have a certain fragile mood that not everyone knows how to deal with. A wrong sound or beat can ruin everything. So it took a long time to find the right producers.

Q: I now and then recognize some specific WOLFSHEIM arrangements, but globally speaking I get the impression you ‘renewed’ yourself revealing another side of Markus Reinhardt. How would you define yourself as composer and how did you see yourself evolving throughout the years?

Markus: Such questions make interviews interesting, because I’m forced to think about my own work and that’s doesn’t come easy. On the whole, I believe that I can now cater the needs of my songs even better, if you can say so; which singer could fit perfectly and which instrumentation would then best to emphasize the mood? And I guess I think even less about a commercial success during the whole production. Only the songs are important.

Q: You decided to work with guest singers and especially the collaboration with Marian Gold from ALPHAVILLE and Sarah Blackwood from CLIENT caught my attention. Tell us a bit more about the different singers? Did you’d specific criteria in mind about the choice of the singers and how did the collaboration happened (lyrical- and production wise)?

Markus: Marian is definitely one of the best singers in the world and I couldn’t imagine that one day he would sing for me. But it soon turned out that he is a WOLFSHEIM fan and that’s how we started working together. And of course, I’d a certain idea of, which song could be a perfect match. I gave him probably 10 and only 2 of them worked out though.

Sarah I met through a label guy. I knew her voice from DUBSTAR and CLIENT and I was surprised that she knew my work too. I’m thankful to her because she was the third to join RENARD, at a time not many people believed in the project.

Q: Because of the pandemic 2020 became a rather strange and terrific year to release a new album, but at the other side, music and arts generally speaking, have the power to make forget all bad things around us. How do you look back at 2020 and what means music to you –especially in hard times?

Markus: It was shocking to see how quickly the world around you can change and what is possible when people act out of a certain fear. Of course music can be like a safe haven and I hope that my album can comfort the listeners. Now and in the future.

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

Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Markus Reinhardt will be forever linked with Wolfsheim. After the band’s split we didn’t hear that much from Reinhardt who finally resurrected as Renard. This is the first chapter from a new project on which Markus Reinhardt joined hands together with different singers. Joseh, Marietta Fafouti, Pascal Finkenauer (Jaw), Sarah Blackwood (Client), Marian Gold (Alphaville) and Elisa Hizcox (Royalchord) have been his guests.

Content: Soundwise you’ll rapidly recognize typical arrangements reminding you of Wolfsheim, but the album also is the beginning of a new adventure. And this sound remains for sure Electro-Pop driven, but it also has something Indie-like. Electronics and guitar playing are complementary, becoming melodic and sometimes reminding me of the universe of Moby. But Renard is for sure more melancholic although some of the singers inject a delicious, sensual touch to the composition. Joseh and Marian Gold each sang on 2 tracks. The last song is an instrumental. 

+ + + : We first of all have to welcome the comeback of Markus Reinhardt. But more than a comeback, this is a true resurrection of great Electro-Pop made in Germany. It’s not really comparable, it has something unique. That’s maybe why some songs remind me of the genius of Moby like the outstanding “Hotel” featuring Marian Gold. The music is accomplished, revealing brilliant sound treatments and empowered by judicious guitar playing. But the contribution and input of the vocalists is also part of this successful work. I already mentioned Marian Gold who probably never sang on a better song than on the legendary Alphaville hits. But there’s also something to say about the passion injected in “Restless” by Marietta Fafouti and the sensuality emerging from “Eliza Hiscox” and “My Heart’s Still Shaking”. I also have to mention Sarah Blakwood singing on the sad sounding “Heresy”. The opening cut “The Meissen Figurine ” featuring Joseh will for sure remind you of Wolfsheim.

– – – : I can’t see real minus points about this work, but the final track “Intelligent Design”, which also is an instrumental edit, is a rather disappointing end of a great work.

Conclusion: Markus Reinhardt hasn’t lost his genius to write a very unique kind of Electro/Wave-Pop music and this Renard’s debut is a refreshing release in the world of Electro-Pop music.

Best songs: “Hotel”, “My Heart’s Still Shaking”, “The Meissen Figurine”, “Travel In Time”, “Damn Happy”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.renard-official.com / www.facebook.com/renardofficial2020

Label: www.metropolis-records.com / www.facebook.com/MetropolisRecords

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

(Photo by Sven Emme) Renard is the brand new project by Wolfsheim founder Markus Reinhardt. Out now is the “Travel In Time” video shot for a single from his upcoming debut solo album “Waking up in a different world”. The track itself features the German singer Pascal Finkenauer (known from JAW, The Black Cherries, etc.).

It’s not the first time that the duo works together, in 2010 they formed Comfortable Cave Goodbye and released the rather great single…. “Travel in Time”. That track now gets picked up again for another project. The album was recorded with producers Oliver Blair (Ladytron, Client, Kelli Ali of Sneaker Pimps, etc) and the Hamburg based Chaos Compressor Club (Moddi, Love A, etc).

“The end of Wolfsheim motivated me to reinvent myself. A process that was urgently needed. With Renard, I’m more with myself,” he states. “My album combines the sound and mood of the 80’s with the stylistic devices of today.”

Here’s the Renard version.

The original version as released by Comfortable Cave Goodbye in 2010.

Guest vocalists from Client, Alphaville, …

Besides Pascal Finkenauer the project has several other singers, including urban-folk artist Joseh, Sarah Blackwood (Client, Dubstar), Greek vocalist/composer Marietta Fafouti, Eliza Hiscox (royalchord) and German singer Marian Gold (Alphaville). The two hold a long-held mutual admiration for each other’s work.

Tracklist:

1. The Meissen Figurine (feat Joseh)
2. Restless (feat Marietta Fafouti)
3. Travel In Time (feat Pascal Finkenauer)
4. Heresy (feat Sarah Blackwood)
5. Hotel (feat Marian Gold)
6. My Heart’s Still Shaking (feat Eilza Hiscox)
7. Damn Happy (feat Marian Gold)
8. Junkyards (feat Pascal Finkenauer)
9. Intelligent Design

Silence after Wolfsheim

For those who are unknown with Wolfsheim, this was a highly popular synthpop duo from Hamburg, Germany, that consisted of Markus Reinhardt and Peter Heppner. They are best known for their singles “The Sparrows and the Nightingales” (1991), “Once in a Lifetime” (1998) and “Kein Zurück” (2003).

Although never officially disbanded, Wolfsheim has been inactive since 2005 due to a dispute between the two members, which even led to trials in 2007 and 2008 that forbade either member to continue Wolfsheim without the other. Heppner has since shown interest to reform the band, or at least start recording again with Reinhardt.

Markus Reinhardt has since the split been rather silent, let’s hope that this new project is the beginning of a new era for the musician.

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.

side-line.com