| Origin | Germany |
| Activity | 1985- |
| Status | Active |
| Genres | Darkwave, Neoclassical, Avant-garde |
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Deine Lakaien is a German band project active since 1985. It is formed by the vocalist Alexander Veljanov and by the composer and multi-instrumentalist Ernst Horn. The group unites influences from dark wave with pop music and elements of avant-garde.
Deine Lakaien was founded in 1985 by Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov. Ernst Horn had just quit his position as a conductor at the Statestheater of Baden in Karlsruhe, while keeping his freelance work as pianist and composer for dramas at the “Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel” in Munich being engaged in avant-garde music of the 20th century. Alexander Veljanov, born in Republic of Macedonia, was enrolled for film and theatre studies in Munich in 1985. He was part of the gothic subculture and mainly interested in Dark Wave.
Ernst Horn was dissatisfied with his occupation in the past and wanted to do something more modern. He had recorded a few pieces for a new project in winter 1984 already. Only a singer was missing. In 1985 he advertised in a newspaper “Vocalist wanted who enjoys experimenting”. After Alexander Veljanov contacted Ernst Horn responding to the ad, both met in Munich and founded Deine Lakaien within the same year.
Their debut album Deine Lakaien, that was distributed by themselves, was released in 1986 an edition of 500 records, which Ernst Horn financed personally. Though the musicians were looking for record stores all over Germany to sell the album, only few showed interest. Thanks to some stores a few 100 records could be sold eventually. The track Colour-Ize got played in local discos and became an underground-hit. The success of Deine Lakaien remained locally restrained. Colour-Ize was released in 1990 on the first Zillo-Sampler German Mystic Sound Sampler Volume I. At this time, the band was already under contract.
Despite the uncertain future they recorded a demo-tape in 1987, which was called Silver Tape due to the silver wrapping. With an edition of 50 pieces of the Silver Tape Deine Lakaien tried for years to attract interest of a label. A fan of Deine Lakaien contacted Carl Erling in 1989. Finally, Deine Lakaien signed a contract with him in 1990 and with the new founded sublabel ClassX took the band. From the Silver Tape only the pieces Days gone by, Reincarnation, and Love Me to the End were used for the next album. All the other pieces were dismissed by the band, though ClassX offered to release the Silver Tape without changes. The Silver Tape was re-released with the name 1987 in 2003.
Deine Lakaien was the first European band which got a record contract from Gymnastic Records and the uncertain times were over: In January 1991 the second album Dark Star was released and sold more than 5000 within the next months. The EP 2nd Star with more pieces and remixes was published already in November. The debut album got re-released end of 1991 and the band went on their first tour, playing in front of up to 800 people in Bochum. Since Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov wanted to give concerts without playback and bandtracks, two musicians reinforced the live ensemble: Violinist Christian Komorowski and Michael Popp, multi-instrumentalist and specialist for medieval music. Alexander Veljanov knew Christian Komorowski from the band Love Sister Hope, Michael Popp and Ernst Horn met each other at the Residence Theater in Munich. Together they founded the band Qntal also in 1991. Due to its tremendeous success the Dark Star-Tour was continued in 1992, and with Dark Star-Tour ’92 the first Live-album was released.
Deine Lakaien gave a concert in the Vier-Linden in Hildesheim already on 11 October 1991 that was recorded for the radio show Grenzwellen another followed on 19 February 1992 in the Hunky Dory in Detmold.[8] Ecki Stieg, moderator of Grenzwellen, suggested an “Event on his own account” after the successful collaboration. Ernst Horn thought it would be a private party and developed a concept to perform pieces of Deine Lakaien with a prepared piano. The event shaped up as a festival with several bands in a hall. Though the audience was much larger than expected, the show was perceived very well. Thus, in December 1992 Deine Lakaien went on the Dark Moon-Tour, a first acoustic tour, together with Stephen Brown and Blaine L. Reininger from Tuxedomoon.
Deine Lakaien gave several more acoustic concerts in 1993. However, the musicians were mainly occupied with the recordings of the third album. Veljanov published the album Suck Success with his Side-project Run Run Vanguard in March 1993. Forest Enter Exit was released on 29 October 1993. It was the first album of Deine Lakaien which got into the charts. In November and December 1993 the first Forest Enter Exit-tour took place, which was continued in 1994. The concert on 10 December 1993 in the Durlach-Hall in Karlsruhe was filmed and published in 1995 as VHS. The first single, Mindmachine, was released in 1994. The second large-scale Acoustic tour with the instrumental group Das Holz as supporting act happened in 1995.[9] Due to this occasion, the live-CD Acoustic was released. The second album of Qntal, Qntal II, was released, too. Alexander was working together with the English band Sleeping Dogs Wake, who got in touch with Deine Lakaien as their supporting act on the Forest Enter Exit tour.
The name Deine Lakaien (which translates to “Your Lackeys”) was suggested by Alexander Veljanov. It is a reference to a line of the song “Die Genaue Zeit” by Einstürzende Neubauten. Deine Lakaien was supposed to be an electronic project from the very beginning. However, both musicians thought that the Dark Wave movement had reached a dead end. Thus, they wanted a name without any connection to the scene. On the other hand, they wanted a German name, though it was clear at that time that the lyrics would be mainly English.
The style of Deine Lakaien is mainly classified as Dark Wave. The majority of their studio albums are produced electronically, but there are exceptions: In Kasmodiah (1999) the musicians Michael Popp and Christian Komorowski join Deine Lakaien. White Lies (2002) was recorded with Patrizia Düringer (violin), Jost Hecker (cello), Uli Widenhorn (guitar), Riccardo Delfino (hurdy-gurdy) and Sabine Lutzenberger (vocals). In April Skies (2005) the actual live musicians take part.
The music is influenced by classical music and several artists of the 1970s and 1980s like Ultravox, Kraftwerk, Bauhaus and Joy Division. Stylistic diversity is an important characteristic of their music. On the early album Forest enter Exit, are collected such different pieces like Walk to the Moon – a quiet, emotional, mainly piano accompanied ballad, Nightmare – a mixture of slow passages and dissonant avant-garde parts, Resurrection Machine and Brain Fic – two technoid songs. Later albums are more uniform in character. Kasmodiah and White Lies are relatively calm; the newest album April Skies is livelier. This character is supported by the use of an electric guitar and influences of rock music.
Members
Alexander Veljanov (vocals)
Ernst Horn (instruments)
Discography
Deine Lakaien (1986)
Dark Star (1991)
Dark Star Live (1992)
Forest Enter Exit (1993)
Winter Fish Testosterone (1996)
Kasmodiah (1999)
White Lies (2002)
1987-2003 (Early material)
Live in Concert (2003)
April Skies (2005)
Acoustic (2007) (1995 Live Recording)
20 Years of Electronic Avantgarde (2009) (Orchestral recordings)
Indicator (2010)
Acoustic II (2013)
Crystal Palace (2014)
XXX. The 30 Years Retrospective (2016)