Einstürzende Neubauten
"Einstürzende Neubauten" were founded in West-Berlin in 1980. After several changes, the "classic" line-up was formed with Blixa Bargeld (Christian Emmerich), N. U. Unruh (Andrew Chudy), Marc Chung, Alexander Hacke and F. M. Einheit (Frank-Martin Strauß).
Hailing from Berlin"s – in the case of Unruh and Chung Hamburg"s – burgeoning Punk and Wave underground, the Neubauten early distinguished themselves from the dominant musical influences of their time. Symptomatic for their then idiosyncratic, nowadays revered and often imitated sound was the – originally born out of the lack of a drum kit – use of construction tools and self- made percussions, which were constructed out of scrap metal.
The radical, experimental approach and the provoking, highly intricate and coded lyrics soon made the band known beyond the borders of Berlin: In the beginning, the Neubauten were recognized as an irritating, yet fascinating phenomenon in Germany and abroad, but with the release of their seminal album "Halber Mensch" in 1985, they were internationally lauded as avant-garde stars.
In the following years, the Neubauten also caused a stir with prolific side projects, for instance their theatre productions with Heiner Müller and Peter Zadek. Moreover, the individual members didn"t limit themselves to the work in the band, but reached out with their very own literary and musical endeavours. Especially Blixa Bargeld was often in the spotlight, also owing to his creative and successful collaborations with Nick Cave, and Bargeld remained a member of Cave"s band "The Bad Seeds" till 2003.
In 1993, the Neubauten released the album "Tabula Rasa", which – in contrast to their previous recordings – mostly eschewed dissonant soundscapes in favour of more classically structured songs. The following years saw the departures of F. M. Einheit and Marc Chung, with new members joining the band for recordings and live performances. In 2000, the band celebrated its 20th anniversary with the "Silence is Sexy" tour; and from 2002 on, due to the radical economic changes within the music industry, the Neubauten published new songs mainly with the help of fan-financed internet initiatives. A regular studio album, "Alles wieder offen", was released in 2007.
From very early on, "Einstürzende Neubauten" became the subject of film projects, among them the documentaries "Halber Mensch" (1986) and "Liebeslieder" (1993). The first-ever live performance of the band in East-Berlin in the winter of 1989 is revisited in Uli M. Schueppel"s "Elektrokohle (Von wegen)", which was released in 2009.