The 30 Years Retrospective Live

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Dear friends,
when we were dealing with the idea of a tour for the 30th anniversary of the Deine Lakaien band three years ago, we didn’t know about the design, sequence and line-up of the tour at all, let alone the release on sound and video media. After many discussions we decided to look back at our solo projects and the former live musicians.

We didn’t want to do an optically inflated show, but to concentrate completely on the music. What was important to us were the halls with chairs and good acoustics, as we were then able to experience in concert halls of the first category, the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie, the Dresdener Kulturpalast or the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In fact, our “thirtieth” proved to be the most successful Deine Lakaien tour to date. The solo projects Helium Vola, which only had one official appearance (at the “WGT” 2003!) and Veljanov, who has a loyal fan base independent of Deine Lakaien, certainly had a big part in the enthusiastic reactions. Since we were able to draw from the full range with concert grand piano, two keyboard players, string trio, guitar, drums and up to six vocal voices, the sound, from the intimate duo to the full line-up, is also varied and lavish.

During the preparations we musicians concentrated of course completely on the appearances and not on their immortalization and it was a more than happy coincidence that our discoverer, label boss and long-time mentor Carl D. Erling, remembered his former protégés and suggested the video recording of one of our appearances. He took care of all the preparations, financing, artistic design and editing, together with another of our companions, Patrick Bernhardt, called “Paddy”, and his company Crazy Clip TV. The location for the recordings was Hamburg’s Laeisz Halle, which turned out to be an excellent choice.

A beautiful room in which I spent many evenings during my studies, which surprisingly also offered the best conditions for sound recording. After the tour, the selection and editing from ten camera perspectives, first in raw version and later with the involvement of the band, was finalized. A special thanks goes to the camerawoman Jana Käsdorf, who with a lot of dedication tried for special perspectives and postproduction. Of course, the sound of a concert recording must not stand back. For this purpose, the 48 channels of the sound recording were mixed in stereo and surround sound.

On the advice of our business partners, the focus should now be on the release of the tour as a sound document. And the wish arose to immortalize the best versions of the songs on a double CD among all concerts. Selecting, editing, and mixing was an extremely laborious operation, and the computer sometimes moaned noticeably under the weight of 576 tracks to be edited.

Of course, the best musical interpretation of the songs had priority in the selection, but also other aspects demanded attention at the mixing desk, such as the positioning of the musicians on the stage, which influenced the “crosstalk” on the microphones, or the tendency to detune individual instruments at low hall temperatures (especially in the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum!). And, of course, the nodding of individual alto analog synthesizers that has always been known from our concerts. Nice to look at, but also sometimes capricious …

At this point once again a huge thank you to all those involved, the great musicians, Katharina Garrard, Yvonne Fechner, B. Deutung, Slobodan Kajkut, Goran Traikoski and Igor Zotik, who also took on many vocal parts, to the wonderful Sabine Lutzenberger of Helium Vola, the technicians Ernst Sieber, Kilian Keuchel, Stefan Pflaum, Michael Priess and Carli Scharschmidt, who provided the first-class sound and the atmospheric stage design, the recording team and all participants, who ensured the organisation and the smooth running of the concerts.

It was a tremendous piece of work for everyone and the commitment and the good mood with which everyone put into it is documented on this album, which also means for us an almost wistful review of one of the absolute highlights in our “Lakaien’s life”. And also to you, dear audience, who accompanied our music with such audible excitement and enthusiasm, once again a deep bow,

Your most subservient servants (‘Deine Lakaien’),
Ernst
& Alexander