Alphaville

Alphaville is a German synth-pop band centered around vocalist Marian Gold (Hartwig Schierbaum), formed in 1982 in M"unster. Started out as a trio with Gold backed by synth players Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens. At the end of '81, Gold and Lloyd (Frank would come in not long afterwards) take part in a concert with 5 other artists, on [b]Nelson Community[/b]. Initially the band name was just [b]Forever Young[/b], however, after a few months they changed the name inspired by [b]Jean-Luc Goddard[/b]'s film: Alphaville "the city of the future". Which, incidentally, represented even better their whole project. Due to contracts and agreements with record labels, Alphaville stopped performing live shows after '84, using only play back features at most shows and presentations. Only after 1994 would they performed again without these resources The band then has a downfall. At Frankfurt Airport, after a live show (the last, until after 1994) Mertens warns that he would leave the band. Ricky Echolette (Wolfgang Neuhaus) joined in his place, in early 1985. The following year they released the single [b]"Dance With Me"[/b], which is well received by the public. Soon they released the album [b]"Afternoons in Utopia"[/b] After 3 years they appeared again with the album [b]"The Breathtaking Blue"[/b] bringing a totally new concept with regard to sonority, lyrics, instrumentalization and even the media in which the songs were recorded. They practically invented the DVD. The Breathtaking Blue was released in [b]CD+G[/b] format. The production of the album was difficult, Gold would later say "the production saw Alphaville in the horrors of permanent crisis. There was an ongoing war between [the band]. ... The furious guitar shrieks during the intro [of lead-off single "Romeos"] being a true indication of the real spirit of the production. In 1988, a compilation of singles called [b]"The Singles Collection"[/b] was released in the USA, with Forever Young, Big in Japan in a remix (not as good as the one of '84), Red Rose and Dance with me, all in 2 versions. [b]"Prostitute"[/b] was Alphaville's first release for five years. It features electronic jazz, new wave music, synthpop, swing music, hip hop, classical ballads and Pink Floyd-like epic electronic music. However, the album's experimental nature and lack of commercial success led the band to return to its synth/dance roots with the following album, Salvation. It was the last Alphaville album with Ricky Echolette. The good thing about '93, after 10 years away from the stage they decided to play in Beiruth, yes, live! They did a tour up until and they decided to launch in June of 1997 the album [b]"Salvation"[/b], The most revered song was of the album was [b]"Wishful Thinking"[/b]. Between 1999 and 2002 the band, in a stage of rest and crativity, released some parallel and old/demo versions of their songs, independent. Experiments and inventions, the projects were the limited and numbered 8CDs [b]"Dreamscapes"[/b], the first live album [b]"Stark Naked And Absolutely Live"[/b], and the remixed compillation named [b]"Forever Pop"[/b]. In 2003 they release the limited and numbered compilation of 4 CDs called [b]"CrazyShow"[/b], it is this year that Lloyd leaves the band definitely. 7 years later, Alphaville mysteriously reappeared with the album [b]"Catching Rays On Giant"[/b]. So, 2010 is marked as the year of Alphaville's return. Now with a new training and a totally refurbished style! In 2017, they released a new album with even more force, [b]"Strange Attractor"[/b] despite having had an extremely difficult production. After the loss of (Martin Lister), who was also part of the production of the album, they released this new album and went on tour!