Diary of Dreams + Das Ich

In the late 1980s, when Bruno Kramm and Stefan Ackermann — then still young

New Wave musicians — were sending out their first religion-critical demo tapes,

they had no idea that these releases would soon define an entirely new music

genre: "Neue Deutsche Todeskunst" (New German Death Art). Songs like "Gottes

Tod" and "Des Satans neue Kleider," which to this day carry a wholly unique and

undiminished magic, became widely sung anthems of the black scene in freshly

reunified Germany.

Even with early works like "Satanische Verse" and the album "Die Propheten," Das

Ich combined drama with music, expressionism with classical composition, and

electronics with Gothic — at an intensity the musical landscape had never

encountered before. They pushed boundaries and inspired countless bands and

art forms with their new sonic language.

On extensive world tours across Europe, the USA, South America, Asia, Israel, and

Russia, Das Ich were not only ambassadors of a new, expressive, and historically

conscious German culture — they also helped liberate the German language from

the confines of Schlager, folk music, and Krautrock. Between albums like "Staub,"

"Egodram," "Lava," "Antichrist," and "Cabaret," Stefan Ackermann and Bruno

Kramm always allowed themselves enough time to follow their inspiration freely,

developing a musical language that found its own distinct answer to every era and

every zeitgeist.