Picture: Jörg Grosse-Geldermann
Since their formation in 1985, Deine Lakaien have been among the figureheads of the international electronic avant-garde and dark wave scene, but the duo consisting of Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov has always built bridges to very different genres. Finally, it was the need of the classically trained composer, working as a theater pianist and bandmaster at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, to initiate more modern things that made him look for an experimental singer by newspaper ad. The rest is history. In the more than thirty past years Deine Lakaien with their unique symbiosis of classically composed melodies with earworm character, experimental arrangements on an electronic basis, multicolored dabs of partly extraordinary acoustic instruments and of course Alexander Veljanov’s dark velvety exceptional voice have been able to enthuse an audience that is by no means limited to the Gothic and Dark Wave scene alone – quite the contrary.
After the first two albums “Deine Lakaien” (1986) and “Dark Star” (1991), Deine Lakaien recorded their first chart success with their third album “Forest Enter Exit” and made the major labels take notice. After the massive upheavals in the music industry, Alexander and Ernst have returned to their origins in recent years. Both their latest studio albums “Indicator” (2010) and “Crystal Palace” (2014) and the anniversary compilations “XXX. The 30 Years Retrospective” (2016) and “The 30 Years Retrospective: Live” (2018) were released on Chrom Records, the label where the minions’ musical journey once began.
35 years after their foundation, the creative urge of Alexander and Ernst is unbroken. Out of their immanent self-image of always facing new challenges, they have initiated a particularly ambitious project: Their last album, whose release had to be postponed by a year due to the Corona pandemic, is not by chance titled “Dual” (2021).
