The band name

The band name is usually translated into English as "Collapsing new buildings", where "collapsing" is an adjective, not a verb, and Neubauten generally carries the more specific connotation of a high-rise tower block. Also, the term Neubauten is generally associated with post-World War II buildings, which, due to the destruction during the second World War and extensive rebuilding thereafter, include a large number of buildings in West Germany.

History

1980 (the beginning)

On April 1, 1980, Einstürzende Neubauten made their first appearance in the Moon Club in Berlin. This date is considered to be the band's birthday. Their name was a reference to the Berlin Kongresshalle, a post-war "new building," which had collapsed earlier that year. At that time the band was just a coincidental live set-up of the Dadaistic musical movement the Geniale Dilettanten. This line-up featured Beate Bartel and Gudrun Gut, Blixa Bargeld, and N.U. Unruh, who later went on to record music under the name of Einstürzende Neubauten. The two female members Bartel and Gut left the band after a short period of performing and founded the girl-band Mania D.. A young sound technician and multi-instrumentalist Alexander von Borsig (alias Alexander Hacke), fifteen years old at that time, joined the band and became a long-time member.

1981-1982

In 1981 the percussionist F.M. Einheit (from the Hamburg band Abwärts) joined Einstürzende Neubauten and they released their first LP Kollaps, a strange and new mixture of rough punk tunes and industrial noises using obscure instruments such as metal plates, self-made music machines, and various electronic sounds. The live performances with FM Einheit in the 1980s included lots of metal banging and destruction on stage, which became legendary.

1983-1984

In 1983, Einstürzende Neubauten recorded their second album Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T.. The title comes originally from a book of the writer Leo Navratil, which describes the drawings of Oswald Tschirtner, O.T. 1974. Also in 1983 Blixa Bargeld joined the band The Birthday Party (featuring Nick Cave, Mick Harvey). After it was disbanded a short time later, he became a long-time member of one of the bands that rose from The Birthday Party's ashes - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (featuring Nick Cave and Mick Harvey). Blixa Bargeld remained a full-time member of two bands, Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, until 2003.

1985-1989

The band's next foray, Halber Mensch (1985), may be seen as the developmental breakthrough of their musical career. Musical structure became more evident, with Bargeld's lyrics and singing in particular changing from shouted words and phrases into organized, poetic melodies.

1990-1995

In 1991, the band tried something completely new, recording the soundtrack for Heiner Müller's play Die Hamletmaschine (The Hamlet Machine). The band image of Einstürzende Neubauten changed. Blixa Bargeld, formerly wearing punk/industrial style clothes, appeared at the live concerts in a suit.

1996-1999

A short time later, the band released the next album Ende Neu (1996). A song "Stella Maris" - a duet of Blixa Bargeld with the female singer and Hacke's spouse Meret Becker - became quite famous. A world tour followed the release. During this time, Jochen Arbeit and Rudi Moser (both were the members of Die Haut) joined the band.

2000-2001

2002-2004

In 2002, Einstürzende Neubauten began work on a new album without the backing of a record label, relying instead upon supporter participation in an experiment of a type of Street Performer Protocol combined with an internet community and touches of the patronage system. About 2,000 supporters signed up to support what became Phase I by paying 35 US$ or EUR to participate in the experience and receive the results. Numerous sessions of the recording and creating of the next album, were translated to the supporters community via the internet, as a streaming video. An exclusive Supporter Album #1 was sent out to them in autumn 2003. Blixa Bargeld left Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2003. In order to go on tour, the band reneged on the idea of creating a supporter-only album, and cooperated with Mute Records to go on tour and release Perpetuum Mobile in 2004. The air sounds, such as blowing the plastic pipes with an air compressor, were greatly explored and used for this album.

2005

The band also started a new project called Musterhaus in early 2005. The first CD Anarchitektur was sent out in May of 2005, and was also available for download to Musterhaus subscribers. The Musterhaus project is a "line of releases intended to give the band an outlet for more experimental impulses and exploration." Musterhaus releases are released roughly every 3 months.

2006

Phase III of the Supporter's project started on February 10th. On February the 25th, the fourth part of the Musterhaus series, called Redux Orchestra vs. Einstürzende Neubauten was completed. One of the new additions to Phase III was a piece-by-piece album available only to supporters, consisting of 12 jewels as the band calls them. Starting in March, these downloadable tracks were released on or around the 15th of the month and are drawn from singer Bargelds' dreams. Available so far;

Members

• Blixa Bargeld: lead vocals, guitar, keyboards. (real name: Christian Emmerich, original member)
• Alexander Hacke: bass, guitar, vocals (also known as Alexander von Borsig, since 1980)
• N.U. Unruh: special built instruments, percussion, vocals (real name: Andrew Chudy, original member)
• Jochen Arbeit: guitar, vocals (since 1997)
• Rudi Moser: special built instruments, percussion, vocals (since 1997)

Other personalities

• Ash Wednesday: keyboards, electronics (touring member since 1997, perhaps named for the Australian bush fires, perhaps for the holiday)
• Boris Wilsdorf - sound engineer
• Erin Zhu - executive producer, webmaster of neubauten.org.
• Ari Benjamin Meyers - frequent collaborator, with Redux Orchestra and on Piano

Previous members

• Beate Bartel: bass (original member, only in the band for a short time in 1980)
• Gudrun Gut: keyboards (original member, only in the band for a short time in 1980)
• F.M. Einheit: percussion, vocals (real name: Frank Martin Strauß, 1981-1995)
• Mark Chung: bass, vocals (1981-1994)
• Roland Wolf: keyboards, bass (replaced Mark Chung in 1995, died in a traffic accident short time later)

Singles

• "Für den Untergang" (1980)
• "Kalte Sterne" (1981)
• "Thirsty Animal" (1982) (with Lydia Lunch & Rowland S. Howard)
• "Yü-Gung" (1985)
• "Das Schaben" (1985)
• "Feurio!" (1989) (3-inch disc)
• "Stella Maris" (1996)
• "NNNAAAMMM" (1996)
• "Perpetuum Mobile" (2004) (download-only release)

EPs

• Interim (1993) (part of Tabula Rasa triptych)
• Malediction (1993) (part of Tabula Rasa triptych)
• Total Eclipse Of The Sun (1999)
• Airplane Miniatures (2003) (supporters-only download, Christmas present)

Videos

• Halber Mensch (film) (1985)
• Liebeslieder (1993)
• Stella Maris (1996)
• 20th anniversary concert (2000)
• Grundstück DVD (2005)

Further reading

• M. Bullynck and I. Goerlandt: "The Semiotics of Einstürzende Neubauten's 'X'". In: Philament 7 (2005), pp. 1-8. [1]
• A. Spencer: "Einstürzende Neubauten und Heiner Müller: 'Kopfarbeit' or The Theatre in Your Head". In: Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik 48 (2000), pp. 203–222.

External links

• Official Einstürzende Neubauten webpage
• Official Blixa Bargeld webpage
• Official Alex Hacke webpage
• Official F.M. Einheit webpage
• Official Ash Wednesday webpage
• From The Archives: a site with discography, concert history, videography, bibliography, etc. Also features Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party and related artists.
• Einstürzende Neubauten Lyrics
• Einstürzende Neubauten Discography webpage
• Doing the unspeakable On the 25th anniversary of the legendary German band, Max Dax interviewed its co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Alexander Hacke on Berlin in the eighties and the End Time aesthetics of Berlin's Kreuzberg district at signandsight.com.