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Faust

A German krautrock band put together in 1970 by the producer Uwe Nettelbeck, who lived and recorded in a converted schoolhouse at Wumme and made four records of tape collage and noise before 1975.

Origin
Wumme, near Bremen, Germany
Years active
1970-1975, 1990-present
Genres
krautrock, experimental rock, sound collage
Labels
Polydor, Virgin, Recommended Records, Klangbad

Wumme

Faust took its name from the German word for fist, and was assembled in 1970 by Uwe Nettelbeck, a former music journalist, with the engineer Kurt Graupner. MusicBrainz gives 1969 and Wikipedia 1970 for the start. The band came from two Hamburg groups: Nukleus, with Rudolf Sosna, Jean-Herve Peron and Gunther Wusthoff, and Campylognatus Citelli, with Werner Zappi Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler and Arnulf Meifert, who was dismissed shortly after the debut. Nettelbeck arranged a Polydor deal to build a German counterpart to the Beatles, and Polydor financed a studio in a converted schoolhouse at Wumme, where the band lived and worked communally.

Faust, released on September 21, 1971, was recorded that year at Wumme and runs 34:07 over three pieces, "Why Don't You Eat Carrots", "Meadow Meal" and "Miss Fortune". It came on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve with a silk-screened X-ray fist. AllMusic called it a revolutionary step forward in the progress of rock music, and Pitchfork gave it 9.0. Faust So Far followed in 1972, recorded in March at Wumme, in a black sleeve with black labels and one insert print per song, and Polydor dropped the band after poor sales.

Virgin and the Manor

The Faust Tapes (1973) was issued by Virgin for 49 pence, the price of a single, and was certified silver by the BPI for 60,000 copies; the Wire placed it on its 1998 list of one hundred records that set the world on fire while no one was listening. Faust IV was recorded in June 1973 at the Manor in Oxfordshire, produced by Nettelbeck and engineered by Graupner, and was the last album by the original line-up. Pitchfork's Dominique Leone gave it 9.4 in 2007, and Record Collector called the songs a sabotaged mixed bag of defaced whimsical ditties. Their first John Peel session on BBC Radio 1 was broadcast on March 1, 1973, with "Lurcher", "Krautrock" and "Do So".

Virgin dropped them afterward, and an attempt in 1975 to record at Musicland Studios in Munich, financed by Virgin, ended in unpaid bills and the end of the band; the recordings later appeared on Munic and Elsewhere and Punkt.

Return

Irmler, Diermaier and Peron played together again in 1990 and 1992, and in 1994 made their first US tour, with Sonic Youth members supporting. Rudolf Sosna died on November 10, 1996, and Peron left in June 1997. From 2005 two versions of Faust existed, one with Diermaier and Peron, the other with Irmler, who released Faust Is Last in 2010 on his label Klangbad. Uwe Nettelbeck died on January 17, 2007. Later records include Daumenbruch (2022, with Diermaier, Wusthoff and members of Einsturzende Neubauten) and Blickwinkel (2024).

Setlist.fm logs 181 setlists, the first year 1973, with "Krautrock" played 32 times and "The Sad Skinhead" 22. Vice reported in 2016 on a Louisville show, only the band's fourth in North America in 40 years, in which bubble wrap and an air-conditioner panel were used as percussion. Radiohead, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Sonic Youth, Stereolab and Mark E. Smith have all been cited as admirers, and Faust IV is in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Andy Wilson's book Stretch Out Time covers 1970 to 1975.

Members

Records

Songs

Madlib, Stereolab

Where to go next

Reference

Writing and criticism

Live performance archives

Labels

Sources

  1. Faust (band), Wikipedia
  2. Faust (album), Wikipedia
  3. The Faust Tapes, Wikipedia
  4. Faust's art of improvisation, Vice (2016-04-05)