Von Spar

Von Spar is a four piece pop group from Cologne, Germany who have already released several 12?s and two highly acclaimed albums. For their new single HyBoLT (Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition), Von Spar draw inspiration from the Krautrock of the 1970s again but take their love of experimentation to the dance floor with a real disco happening, all refracted psychedelic colour and fluid dreams.

Musically, Von Spar’s policy of ecstasy has produced a brilliant piece of prog-disco, one that tells of cosmic pop science and combines Can’s spirit of discovery with the dance-floor instinct of Giorgio Moroder. But the result is no sentimental reconstruction of musical styles of the past; instead, HyBoLT is a contemporary amalgam from the musical molecular kitchen.

As guest and remixer for their new single, Von Spar invited Norwegian new-disco king Prins Thomas (Full Pupp, Internasjonal, Oslo) on board. In his interpretation, Afro-disco percussion meets the melodic grace and dreaminess of La Düsseldorf. On a journey lasting almost 14 minutes, Prins Thomas leads the music through a broad spectrum of aesthetic and stylistic positions and combines them into an electrifying whole: an intoxicated disco trip.

There was a change of personnel during the preliminary stages of production again. Singer and founder-member Thomas Mahoud was no longer present by the time of the recordings for the new disc and the current Von Spar line-up is Sebastian Blume, Jan Philipp Janzen, Christopher Marquez and Phillip Tielsch.

The new single HyBoLT also serves as a first peek into Von Spar’s new album, whose release has been announced for 2010

When Von Spar made their critcally acclaimed entrance in the pop circuit in 2003 (e.g. coverstory in Spex Magazine) they were regarded as the German answer to the Post-Punk/No-Wave-renaissance. But their debut (Die Uneingeschränkte Freiheit Der Privaten Initiative - L’Age D’Or - 2004) was more a clever parody about eighties-style-hipster-bands.

Three years later and wiser the supergroup returned with an uncompromising album (Von Spar - Tomlab - 2007) that got ahead of all expectations and surprised their audience and critics were shocked. This was not a band following the latest trend. Their new musical language was inspired by seventies Krautrock taking lines of flight to Fluxus Art and Minimal Music. With two new members the five-headed pack recorded in the legendary Electric Avenue Studio, Hamburg, with producer Tobias Levin.

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