Krautrock legends Faust see 1971-1974 years compiled on a mega boxset on vinyl and CD and release long lost album ‘Punkt’
Audioglobe sent us some interesting news about Faust. Who? Faust!
Faust are a German band which was formed in 1971 in Wümme by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck. The band was originally composed of Werner “Zappi” Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron, Rudolf Sosna and Gunther Wüsthoff, working with engineer Kurt Graupner. Their work was oriented around dissonance, improvisation, and experimental electronic approaches, and would influence subsequent ambient and industrial music.
As such they are considered a central act of West Germany’s 1970s krautrock movement which included acts like Can, Neu!, Amon Düül II, Faust, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free, Guru Guru, early Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Cluster.
They secured a recording contract with Polydor and soon began recording their debut, “Faust”, which sold poorly. Meifert was sacked shortly afterwards because, as Peron wrote in 2004, “he discussed things, because he had flat buttocks and an absolutely beautiful girlfriend, because he practised every day, because he always kept his room neat and woke up every morning to first wet a cloth he’d put in front of his room to keep the dirt out, because he played such a hard 4/4th that we had to travel into the tongue, ready to drop, ding dong is handsome top.”
The band did have its loyal fans. “There is no group more mythical than Faust”, Julian Cope once said. And Stephen Morris (Joy Division/New Order) remembers: “The first Krautrock record which made a lasting impression on me was the debut album by Faust. The transparent disc looked spectacular and the music was mindblowing, not songs as such, it was something absolutely unique, the polar opposite of everything the Rolling Stones, Beatles and the like were doing. It was right up my street.”
To be released via Bureau B later on this month is the 7LP + 2×7”-boxset and the 8CD boxset “1971-1974”. This box is the first virtually complete collection of the band’s works from the years 1971-1974. In addition to the debut album it also includes the 1972 album “So Far”, the legendary 1973 Virgin UK release “The Faust Tapes”, “Faust IV” and, for the first time ever, the mythical, so-called ‘Munich album’ “Punkt”, which Faust recorded at Giorgio Moroder’s Musicland Studios in 1974. For one reason or another, this last album never saw the light of day – until now.
The bonus albums “Momentaufnahme I” and “Momentaufnahme II” also feature unreleased material. Two 7-inch singles round off the Faust 1971-1974 compendium: “Lieber Herr Deutschland” is the demo recording they sent to Polydor in 1971, The second 7-inch single in the box is a rerelease of “So far”, the first Faust single on Polydor, originally issued in 1972.
Mastered from the original tapes, Faust’s “1971-1974” is available as a limited edition vinyl set (2,000 copies) and 8CD-Box (1,000 copies).
Here’s an idea how the band sounded like in 1973.
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