Sankt Otten

Artist: Sankt Otten + Majeure
P: 2010
SANKT OTTEN's Split Album with MAJEURE, the solo project of ZOMBI’s drummer A.E. Paterra
Tracks 1 to 3 recorded and mixed at Straylight Studios, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, June 2010.
Tracks 4 to 7 recorded spring/summer 2010, Osnabrück/Germany.
Track 8 is a collaboration of Sankt Otten and Majeure, and was recorded in July/August 2010.
It is also exclusive to the CD version of this release.

Artist: Sankt Otten
P: 2011
On the MAJEURE split they for the first time showed a more distinctive interest to the world of 70s and 80s synthesizers. The new album GOTTES SYNTHESIZER continues this voyage into the synth’s heaven. A paradise of warm analogue sounds, sequencer lines and electric drums garnished with the typical soaring guitar drones of OLIVER KLEMM as the central theme of the album.By adding ingredients reminding of the German pioneers of progressive electronic music, SANKT OTTEN are moving the KRAUTROCK elements into a new context. With FAST NEU IST AUCH GEBRAUCHT the full length includes an hommage to the old KRAUTROCK heroes NEU! just as a ROBERT FRIPP influenced 13 minutes monster piece like the title track GOTTES SYNTHESIZER. Other songs (DIE WELT IST JA NICHT ZUM AUSHALTEN or ICH VERLASSE MICH SELBST) are rather influenced by STEPHAN OTTEN’s energetic electric drums. Mellow epic ambient hymns like WIR SIND DEINE PROPHETEN or DAS ENDE VOM LIED are their great tool to create a connection between specific soundscapes in order to make a coherent album out of the single tracks. The main excellence of this full length is that SANKT OTTEN are combining influences of an old genre with elements of today’s music to a new interesting mixture.
For the artwork of GOTTES SYNTHESIZER the spanish artist SALUSTIANO borrowed SANKT OTTEN some of his significant paintings. The art they’ve chosen together is a perfect effigy of SANKT OTTEN’s sound.

Artist: Sankt Otten
P: 2013
Ambient/ Electro/ Kraut. Last summer on one of their live shows Sankt Otten met HARALD GROSSKOPF, drummer of ASHRA (as well as appearing on albums of KLAUS SCHULZE). This day wasn t only the starting point for the collaboration with Grosskopf on the track 'Wenn ein Masterplan keiner ist', but furthermore motivated Sankt Otten to invite other musicians to contribute to their 2013 release. All but the eponymous track ""Messias Maschine"" feature remarkable guest musicians from different generations and musical backgrounds, resulting in an especially varied album. Participating musicians are JAKI LIEBEZEIT (CAN), ULRICH SCHNAUSS, COLEY DUANE DENNIS (Maserati) and CHRISTOPH CLÖSER (BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE) among others. For the artwork of Messias Maschine Spanish artist SALUSTIANO again borrowed Sankt Otten some of his significant paintings. The whole release is a wonderful masterpiece of electronic music. By mixing the unique melancholy of Sankt Otten with ingredients of contemporary synth-music and the heritage of German pioneers of progressive electronic music, the band is moving KRAUTROCK into 2013. Sankt Otten are extremely proud having convinced legendary CAN-drummer JAKI LIEBEZEIT to collaborate. Jaki, this 75-year old ""Human Drum Machine"" joined with his mantric and experimental beats on three tracks. The recording sessions reconfirmed what Jaki's fellow band member HOLGER CZUKAY once said: ""Jaki plays like a machine. Just better."" Another album highlight is the appearance of ULRICH SCHNAUSS, who added some of his distinctive synth layers and percussion to the title 'Im Himmel angekommen'. Furthermore, theremin maestro MILES BROWN of THE NIGHT TERRORS from Australia joined the cooperation and played a haunting melody on a 7/8 beat of Stephan Otten's unique electronic drumming. COLEY DUANE DENNIS, head of US-postrock legend MASERATI recorded a tremendous echo-guitar for 'Da kann selbst Gott nur staunen' vesting the track with a sound that easily could have arisen from a session of KRAFTWERK playing with PINK FLOYD. Following the MAJEURE / SANKT OTTEN split album in 2011, ZOMBI / MAJEURE drummer A.E PATERRA now returns with powerful acoustic live drumming on 'Nach Dir die Sinnesflut'. Finally, the album ends with an epic twelve-minute ambient track, which marvelously combines Oliver Klemm s guitar layers with a sax solo of CHRISTOPH CLÖSER of BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE / THE NEST.

Artist: Sankt Otten
P: 2010
Sankt Otten's fourth album sees the duo’s sound evolving once again, while retaining the undeniable hallmarks of atmosphere, melodic dexterity and depth. “Morgen wieder lustig” employs stacks of luscious synthesizers, with knowing nods to fellow Germans Kraftwerk and Klaus Schulze, alongside Oliver Klemm's hallmark soaring guitar drones and Stephan Otten’s unmistakable rhythms. While their early sonic experiments explored the brooding and frayed edges of ambient, post-rock and jazz, these new songs push this relationship to a new level. Morgen wieder lustig shifts from the head-rush ambience of 'Das bezahlte Lob' to the dark and twisted post-jazz of 'Fromme Lügen'. Just when you think you have the album pegged, 'X für U' drags you on a melancholic, Klaus Schulze-inspired sc-fi odyssey.

Artist: Sankt Otten
P: 2012
SEQUENCER LIEBE (“Sequencer Love“) leads into a paradise of warm analogue sounds garnished with the typical soaring guitar drones of OLIVER KLEMM, while the band's mastermind STEPHAN OTTEN flavoured these ingredients with his 80s electronic drum sounds. For the first time he used synthetic sounds and percussions for this album exclusively. Sequencer lines that may remind one of German pioneers of progressive electronic music are the red thread of this release - but SANKT OTTEN are moving the Krautrock elements into a new context. The title track SEQUENCER LIEBE is the best example for this approach. On the other hand the band offers ambient tracks like MIR BRICHT DIE STIMME WEG or DIE STADT RIECHT NACH DIR. Both of these epic tracks are dominated by great synthesizer soundscapes and e-bow guitar sounds which give you goose bumps easily. Finally, titles like KANN DENN LIEBE SYNTHIE SEIN ? and GESTERN FAND ICH ALTE TRAENEN show that SANKT OTTEN’s talent for little Synthpop hymns that could come right from the 80s. Altogether, the main achievement of their 6th full length is that SANKT OTTEN are combining influences of old genres with elements of today’s music to a unique and timeless mixture. The spanish artist SALUSTIANO again borrowed SANKT OTTEN some of his great paintings for the artwork, this time from this lastest BLACK collection. These black paintings constitute part two of a cooperation trilogy which began with the red artwork of GOTTES SYNTHESIZER. The perfect synergy with SANKT OTTEN’s unique sound.

Artist: Sankt Otten
P: 2025
For the first time, an external studio was booked (Mühle der Freundschaft, Bad Iburg) and the pool of analog synthesizers and other sound generators there was dusted off. Sankt Otten came up with the master plan to first free the spirit of 50 years of German electronic music trapped in the antiquated keyboards and oscillator housings, then to dismantle it, turn it inside out and reinterpret it. Echoes of music from Düsseldorf are joined by sounds familiar from the Weserbergland, or mystical, sublime arcs of sound and, of course, the sequences typical of the Berlin School - whether side by side or interwoven. In a departure from the usual way of working, the majority of the tracks were created in the studio and in part from improvisations, which makes “Tote Winkel “ the most organic material we have heard from Sankt Otten to date.
 

Artist: Sankt Otten
P: 2008
From the opening track of 'Wunden gibt es immer wieder' Sankt Otten make their intentions known. Stephan Otten..s echoing rhodes piano falls over golden drones as Oliver Klemm drapes his elegant trademark guitar through the track like a neon waterfall. The album represents a marked progression from the bands earlier output. It draws upon the heart of their previous forays into dark melancholic trip hop yet discards the form. In doing so the band have managed to present a musical vision that is even more epic, cinematic and noirish and distinctly their own.
Over its eleven instrumental tracks the album presents such an immensely crafted and expansive landscape. From the buzzing twilight halo of 'Taschensymphonie', the magisterial lament of the title track and the urgent, dramatic ambience of 'Der Groove des guten Gewissens' 'Wunden gibt es immer wieder' is a slow burning, intensely orchestrated piece of maximalist minimalism. The albums hypnotic melancholia is undeniable as it turns lost moments into cinematic anthems.. This is music made for film made for music and an album only Sankt Otten could make. 'Wunden gibt es immer wieder' is the follow up to the immensely successful and critically praised 'Wir koennen ja Freunde bleiben'.

Here the last copy!