Heaven And

Heaven And came to live rather coincidentally: Originally Tony Buck, an Australian living in Berlin, percussionist Steve Heather, guitarist and electronic musician Martin Siewert and the keyboardist/bassist zeitblom, met to record a radio play. Also in the studio was Alexander Hacke from the band Einstürzenden Neubauten, who was immediately hired as a guest singer on the collective project that was their debut album Sweeter As The Years Roll By (2008).

Heaven And combine in this album elements from the most diverse musical genres of the last five decades. Various styles can be heard, to name a few psychedelic, jazz-trance or guitar sounds like those by the so-called “Americana” bands. Sometimes it seems to be an update of the stoic krautrock hits of the early 70s, such is the opinion of the music critic Ralf bei der Kellen, “whereby the bass considerably surpasses that of Holger Czukay in terms of minimalism”. Sometimes manic and explosive, wild and “hippyishly” chaotic. Heaven And send their listeners on an unsettling rollercoaster ride through styles: blues, postrock, heavy metal, free jazz, noise…

And yet one is yet to hear one clichéd sound from the musicians Martin Siewert (guitars, lap steel, electronics, keyboards), Tony Buck (drums, percussion), Steve Heather (drums, marimba, percussion) and zeitblom (bass, keyboards), according to Ralf bei der Kellen “they employ musical forms that have become clichéd in the 21st century and fill them with new ideas – with their ideas.” Their music is intensive and uncompromising. Anything that is musically imaginable can happen here.

At MaerzMusik, festival for contemporary music by the Berliner Festspiele, Heaven And present for the first time the music from their new album Bye And Bye I’m Going To See The King. There is seldom better reason to be so excited!