Hymnen Und Helden Sankt Otten

• 1 I Feel Love 05:43
• 2 Doom Town 04:15
• 3 Alles ist gut 03:38
• 4 Sehnen [Hätte ich von Dir eine Fotografie] 05:43
• 5 Ich lieb Sie 03:20
• 6 So weit, so gut 05:31
• 7 Kriegsmaschinen, fahrt zur Hölle 05:26
• 8 Helden 04:58
• Total Runtime 38:34

Info for Hymnen Und Helden

A well-known Moog sequence leads us on the way into the cover album. Giorgio Moroders 1977 disco classic “I feel love” has been tackled here. Sankt Ottens instrumental interpretation starts out familiar, but ends in a slightly disturbing disharmony of mellotron and ebow guitar.

The instrumental version of the melancholy Wipers anthem from 1983 starts with a rather unusually fast 808 beat for Sankt Otten. The 80s electronic echoes suit the punk rock earworm “Doom Town” surprisingly well.

Without Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, more unusual electronic music would hardly have been conceivable in Germany in the early 1980s. “Alles ist gut” tribute to this band and singer Gabi Delgado-Lopez, who passed away in 2020 and with whom they shared the festival stage in 2015. Gabi‘s lyrics are rendered by text- to-speech software with the voice of an unknown Claudia.

“Wishing (If I had a photograph of you)” was made famous in 1982 by A Flock of Seagulls. This record was regularly played on Stephan Ottens turntable back then. Reason enough to remember this with “Sehnen (Hätte ich von Dir eine Fotografie)”. The recordings for this album were made in 2007 and have been updated and completed in the last year. Carsten Sandkämper, who was also featured on Sankt Ottens debut album “Eine kleine Traurigkeit”, contributed the vocals and lyrics.

The Swiss band Grauzone became famous with the NDW (New German Wave) hit “Eisbär”. Instead of this title, they took on the B-side of this single with “Ich liebe sie”. A synthpop love song full of innocence, stylishly sung by Carsten Sandkämper and refined with Kraftwerk-like choral sounds and an herbaceous motorik beat.

The band has enjoyed a personal friendship with Harald Grosskopf since their collaboration in 2013 on the album “Messias Maschine”. With “So weit, so gut”, they take on his little hit from the album “Synthesist”, which is one of the gems of the synthesizer albums of the eighties.

“Kriegsmaschinen, fahrt zur Hoelle” is an anti-war song from 1974 by Günter Schickert, the Berlin master of the echo guitar. Unfortunately, the lyrics are still relevant. Oliver Klemm contributes the delay guitars and Stephan Otten puts the lyrics through a vocoder. Sankt Otten compress the 17-minute original to just under 5 minutes and move it musically from the 70s to the 80s.

Sankt Otten’s adaptation of David Bowies “Heroes” is equipped with warm Juno 106 sounds, ebow guitar and synthesizer pads. The German “Helden” version, known from the movie "Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo", is sung in a touching way by Carsten Sandkämper.

New York-based Rafael Anton Irisarri was responsible for mastering of the record. As part of the series with graphic covers, this die-cut artwork was also created by Mexican designer Daniel Castrejon.

Stephan Otten, drums, programming, synthesizer
Oliver Klemm, guitar, synthesizer, piano

Sankt Otten
In 1999, Stefan Otten founded the band together with Carsten Sandkämper. Shortly after the band's formation, the first 12" EP, "Stille Tage im Klischee," was released on "Eleganz" in 1999, followed by the first CD release, "Eine kleine Traurigkeit," that same year.

After Sandkämper left the band in 2001, guitarist and keyboardist Oliver Klemm joined the band.

Sankt Otten quickly gained a foothold in the small but globally active electronic music scene and released numerous albums. After switching from the "Eleganz" label to "Hidden Shoal Recordings," the band released a total of eight albums on "Denovali Records" from 2009 to 2020. The releases feature elaborate graphics and, to a certain extent, a corporate design. In addition to CDs, Sankt Otten places particular emphasis on the elaborate vinyl editions of their albums. With colored vinyl and audiophile-quality 180-gram weight, these limited editions reach an international audience. A collaboration between Klemm and "CAN" drummer Jaki Liebezeit on Phillip Boa & the Voodooclub led to the legendary Kraut-Rock drummer being invited as a guest musician for the 2013 album "Messias Maschine."

This album contains no booklet.