Today is the birthday of the compact disc, the first of which was released in Germany on August 17th, 1982. The first CD ever for sale was a recording of Richard Strauss’s symphony “Eine Alpensinfonie” as conducted by the famed Herbert von Karajan, and was released on Deutsche Grammophon, the company established by Emile Berliner who invented the disc record gramophone 93 years prior. The history of music sure does have a lot of ties to Germany.

A generation after the CD was first introduced, its future is questioned on an almost daily basis. CD sales are dropping worldwide and MP3 players have all but wiped out portable CD players. Fortunately, there are still some people who really only feel good if they own a CD. They like holding a physical CD from their favorite band or looking at the artwork and reading the lyrics on the pages of the insert booklet. But will this idea last, or will everything eventually just turn into digital files? What do you think? Which type of person are you?

Alexander Veljanov, the voice of Deine Lakaien, is currently working on a new album of his own called Porta Macedonia. While the tracklisting and release date are not yet known, we do know that this album will come in 3 variations. 1: a standard CD with the basic tracklisting. 2: a limited edition with bonus tracks and a more elaborately designed CD booklet. and 3: a double LP version for collectors and music enthusiasts.

The album has not been listed at any online stores yet, so it’s probably safe to say that we still have to wait a few more months for Porta Macedonia to be released. But if you can’t wait, or if you are somehow unfamiliar with the seductive vocals of Mr. Veljanov, you can always listen to his current music or his past work with Deine Lakaien on Myspace.

Yeah, you read right. About a month back a rather unusual album dominated the European album charts. The album in question was Chant - Music for Paradise, performed by the monks of the Cistercian abbey of Stift Heilingreiz in Vienna, and in the last couple weeks it has outsold many of your usual popstars and whatnot you’d expect to see in the top ten. Released on May 19th, Chant - Music for Paradise soon conquered the classic charts and threatened the pristine throats of Madonna and the like at the overall charts by penetrating the top ten in the UK, Austria and Germany.

The monks’ unusual success story started when a video of the Cistercian monks, who start their days at the generous time of 5:15 by praying, chanting at their monastery was posted on YouTube. The video soon became a minor internet hit, and when one of the monks sent an application for a contest held by Universal Records, they were soon offered a record contract. This was followed by the setting of a recording studio in their monastery, the recording of a full album, the filming a professional music video and the invasion of the European music charts.

If you’re in any way at all interested in medieval or classical music, you should really take at least a peek at Chant’s work. I’m sure you can enjoy them even if you’re not catholic or religious at all, I know I’m not either and I still did. There are various ways to check them out: you can hear a few songs on their website (player in the up-right corner), download the free song Hymnus ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’ here or just kind of watch the original video where it all started embedded after the break. You can order the album on Amazon, here for those stateside (the American version of the CD is titled Chant - Music for the Soul) and here for Europeans. I hid the rather huge tracklisting behind the link.

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Every once in a while, there is a certain non-German band that’s just too good not to mention, so I always try to find some obscure reason that makes them eligible for this blog. Luckily for me, that’s not too hard to do in the case of Apocalyptica. They are from Finland, but they do have links to several German bands like Rammstein, The Farmer Boys, Die Happy and Guano Apes, all of whom have provided guest vocals at one time or another to Apocalyptica. So now that we have established that much, let’s get on with the whole purpose of this post.

News about the tour
Apocalyptica will be touring the United States and Canada very soon. Their tour begins next Friday, April 11th, and continues on until mid-May for a grand total of 30 concerts. This is a really big tour for a foreign band and they are visiting lots of regions that most bands don’t go to, so let’s help make it worth it for them. Go to one of their concerts, you won’t be disappointed!

Ticket info
Tickets for most of the venues are for sale here on Ticketmaster.com. Also, please note that Ticketmaster lists a few of the venues as being in different towns than the official tour list which is listed below. The venues are all the same, but the actual city it’s in may be a neighboring town to the major city in the list below, so just do a little homework ahead of time to find out exactly where you’re going.

Worlds Collide will be released in North America
One last thing. Apocalyptica’s current album Worlds Collide, which was originally released in Europe on September 14th, will be released in the United States and Canada on Tuesday, April 15th. Chances are, you can probably buy it at their concerts as well. Check out my original post about Worlds Collide for all the info and tracklisting.

Apocalyptica’s 2008 North American Tour dates:
April 12 - House of Blues - San Diego, CA
April 13 - The Boardwalk - Orangevale, CA
April 14 - Roxy - Los Angeles, CA
April 16 - Slim’s - San Francisco, CA
April 17 - Roseland - Portland, OR
April 18 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA
April 19 - Commodore - Vancouver, BC
April 21 - In the Venue - Salt Lake City, UT
April 22 - Gothic Theatre - Denver, CO
April 23 - Beaumont Club - Kansas City, MO
April 24 - Pop’s - St. Louis, IL
April 26 - Fine Line - Minneapolis, MN
April 27 - House of Blues - Chicago, IL
April 28 - House of Blues - Cleveland, OH
April 29 - Crofoot - Detroit, MI
April 30 - Phoenix Theater - Toronto, ON
May 1 - Metropolis - Montreal, QC
May 2 - Paradise Club - Boston, MA
May 4 - Trocadero Theatre - Philadelphia, PA
May 5 - Fillmore / Irving Plaza - New York, NY
May 7 - Club - Washington, DC
May 8 - Amos - Charlotte, NC
May 9 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
May 10 - Parish at House of Blues - New Orleans, LA
May 11 - Warehouse Live - Houston, TX
May 12 - House of Blues - Dallas, TX
May 14 - Sunshine Theatre - Albuquerque, NM
May 15 - Marquee - Phoenix, AZ
May 16 - Pima County Fairgrounds (KFMA Radio Day) - Tucson, AZ
May 19 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV

Qntal will soon be enchanting us with their beautiful blend of classical and electronic music again. Their sixth album entitled Translucida will be released on both sides of the Atlantic this week. In the United States, Dancing Ferret’s sub-label Noir Records will release Translucida on Tuesday, February 26th. The album will then be released in Germany on Friday the 29th. Both locations will see the usual 2-format release with a standard and a limited edition. The basic album comes with 12 songs, while the limited edition is in a digibook and contains a second disc with bonus material.

Listen to Translucida
I am currently listening to the 2 songs from Translucida that are on Qntal’s Myspace page and they are just stunning. Very beautiful and captivating. If you enjoy Qntal’s previous music, or other “modern-traditional” bands like Faun or Corvus Corax for example, you will love this new album. Qntal is really one of the most steadily-good bands in this genre and Translucida really continues this trend.

Where to find Translucida
In North America, get it directly from Dancing Ferret’s store, Isotank: regular for $13.99* - limited edition for $16.99
In Europe, get it from EMP.de: regular for Eur 14.99 - limited edition for Eur 16.99

* Please note: I don’t know why Isotank shows the regular version with the bonus disc, but no other retailer shows this. I think it’s a mistake on their site. If you want the bonus disc, make sure you buy the limited edition.

Qntal - VI-Translucida tracklisting

Disc 1:
01. Sleeping
02. Departir
03. Slahte Wille
04. Translucida
05. La Froidor
06. Glacies
07. Worlds Of Light
08. Obscure
09. Sumer
10. Amorous Desir
11. Ludus
12. Passacaglia

Disc 2 on limited edition only:
01. Ludus
02. Umaere
03. La Froidor
04. Slahte Wilde (Version Bleu)

You may remember Chamber from their joint release Once In A Lifetime with ASP, which I rather enjoyed. I am also starting to enjoy their new album Transitions which will hit stores on October 26th. There is a strong classical tone to the album, it sounds very built up, very mature and layered. Some songs like the first track “Freak Wave” are a little more upbeat and perhaps even folk influenced, while others are softer and quieter. The lyrics really sound good, though they are mostly in English (with the curious addition of a French song).

Chamber’s MySpace page has 4 full length songs you can listen to, all from Transitions. You can pre-order the album in Europe on Chamber’s webshop and various other online sites, and in North America on Isotank.

Chamber - Transitions tracklist:
01. Freak Wave
02. Insane
03. Elven King’s Waltz
04. Dead Man’s Hill
05. Deeper Sense
06. Mourning Song
07. Lost and Found
08. Je ne t’aime plus
09. Pride goes (before a fall)
10. King of Fools
11. Life Goes Oh
12. Change the Day
13. I wish I was
14. The wilde lands
15. Lady of the Isle
16. Ver Sacrum

Untoten has become fascinated by the 1634 Loudun possessions, an event in France where many nuns were said to have been possessed by the devil. This was the band’s inspiration for their new album, Die Nonnen Von Loudun, which they have interpreted in 2 different versions. Hysteria is the “rock” version of the album (although I’m having trouble calling the samples I’ve heard rock), while the second version called Das Geheime Tagebuch Einer Nonne has a more classical, baroque style. Both versions of Die Nonnen Von Loudun will be released on November 2nd, but it looks like the Untoten shop will be releasing it a few weeks early on October 14th. As an extra bonus, the first 1,000 copies will be autographed by the band.

So far, Untoten has make 2 samples available on a MySpace page exclusively for Die Nonnen Von Loudun. There is a third song from Untoten’s 2006 best-of album that you can listen to, too. And if you want, you can check out a couple of their older songs on the band page.

I’ll get the tracklist for you as soon as I can. Here it is!

Die Nonnen von Loudun - Hysteria tracklist:
01. Von einer sittsamen Magd
02. König aller Sünden
03. Flammen der Liebe
04. Das Kabinett
05. Die Beichte
06. Die blutende Nonne
07. Die Mutter
08. Die Ruhe vor dem Sturm
09. Abigail
10. Tanz mit dem Teufel
11. Das Werk des Teufels (Der Mord)
12. Weiber
13. Braut des Himmels
14. In Nomine
15. Als Maria stand …
16. Schon steht der ganze Ort…
17. Die Asche der Rose I (instrumental)
18. Die Asche der Rose II
19. Der Pakt des Grandier
20. Die Beschwörung
21. Sur le Noel
22. Hysteria
23. Loudun (Abspann)

Die Nonnen von Loudun - Tagebuch einer Nonne tracklist:
01. Braut des Himmel
02. Als Maria…
03. Weckruf
04. Die Beschwörung
05. Sur le Noel
06. Werk des Teufels
07. Von einer, die den Teufel verschluckt
08. Zwischenspiel
09. Die kleine Nachtmusik
10. Nachtgedanken
11. Ach, schaut sie euch…
12. Blutende Nonne
13. Auf den Fluren…
14. Valentine
15. Hysteria
16. Die Entkleidung
17. Die Beichte
18. Prozess
19. In Nomine
20. Talisman
21. Ich öffne Dir!
22. Die Betschwestern
23. Der Pakt 2
24. Asche der Rose II
25. Fuge I
26. Höllenfahrt!

It’s Friday, September 28th, and if this date sounds familiar it’s because there are a lot of new German music releases out today. There’s a little bit of everything for you… industrial, metal, gothic, rock, and pop. Here’s a quick overview of these 8 new releases just to refresh your memory. Click on the bold title to read the full article and get the tracklist for that album or single.

• Eisheilig - Auf Dem Weg In Deine Welt album

Eisheilig’s new album features plenty of dark, gothic rock sounds that have gained them quite a following in recent years. Ten new tracks will keep you company when you’re feeling down.

• Emigrate - New York City single

“New York City” is the first single from Emigrate, Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe’s side project. The single has 3 album songs plus a remix of “New York City” by Alec Empire and the “My World” music video which is based on the new movie Resident Evil: Extinction.

• Juli - Ein Neuer Tag live album and DVD

Juli has become one of the most popular pop rock bands in Germany over the past few years. Ein Neuer Tag is their new live album, not to be confused with their studio album of the same name. The Ein Neuer Tag DVD set features footage from several entire concerts.

• Kash and Nik Page - Kommunion single

Much more than just an ordinary single, “Kommunion” offers 6 remixes of the title song where Kash collaborated with Nik Page, plus 6 more remixes of previous Kash songs. A total of 12 remixes makes this more of an über-single.

• Krieger - Krieger album

Krieger is a brand new German rock band who looks very promising. Their sound is nice and heavy and they are under the same management company as Rammstein. This is definitely one to pick up.

• Nena - Cover Me album

One of Germany’s most famous pop musicians is doing coversongs of a wide range of bands from around the world. Nena’s new album Cover Me offers up 2 discs filled to the brim with her remakes of classic songs.

• Painbastard - Borderline album

Painbastard’s new album Borderline is sure to please fans of industrial-dance music. These 14 new tracks are the band’s main attraction, following the preview songs we heard back in July on Nyctophobia.

• Songs of Lemuria - Deep album

Songs of Lemuria covers bands from Nirvana to Einstürzende Neubauten on their new album, Deep. Their use of gothic-influenced classical music and the beautiful vocals by Michaela Laubach and Nik Page make the sound pretty deep, too.

Not bad for one day, eh?

It seems like doing covers is a pretty popular trend right now. We’ve got some metal coversongs coming in a few months and some pop versions a bit sooner, and now Songs of Lemuria is joining the mix with some covers of their own. Their new album Deep will be released on September 28th with covers of everyone from Nirvana to Subway To Sally to Einstürzende Neubauten, all in their usual mixture of gothic and classical styles. I guess it’s natural that Nik Page’s band Blind Passengers is covered on the new album as well, considering he and Michaela Laubach together provide some beautiful vocals for Songs of Lemuria.

Deep has 14 songs plus a data track which has a bunch of pictures and wallpapers for your computer. Once again, AlphaMusic.de comes to the rescue with some samples of the new album, while the Songs of Lemuria MySpace page lags behind the times with some older songs. They’re worth listening to, though, if you want to get a nice idea of what the band sounds like.

Songs of Lemuria - Deep tracklist
01. Deep
02. Meer
03. Footprints On The Moon
04. Dein Kuss
05. Kommunion
06. Dein Duft
07. Hunting High And Low
08. Seemannslied
09. Waterdrops
10. Stella Maris
11. All Apologies
12. Irony
13. Walk On
14. End Oh The Night
15. Data-track

There’s been so much news lately that I haven’t really had any time to tell you about 4 more releases that are hitting stores today. Normally I would go over them individually and in more detail, but I’m in a bit of a time crunch right now because later tonight I will be seeing Ulrich Schnauss live in New York City (more U.S. tourdates here) so I’m lumping them all together into one post and doing a quick overview for today. I’ll probably post about them in more detail at some time in the future.

• Diary of Dreams - The Plague
  Diary of Dreams has a new album coming up next month, and this single gives you a nice preview. Two versions of “The Plague” plus additional songs “Allocution” and “Traumtänzer”.
• Götterdämmerung - Of Whores and Culture
  This is kind of a gothic/new wave band from the Netherlands, and their new album (with quite an interesting title) features 10 new songs. Check out some of their music here.
• Coppelius - Time-Zeit
  Coppelius is an interesting band combining rock music with cellos, clarinets, the double bass, and other more traditional instruments. They also seem to have an old-fashioned sense of style. Check their MySpace page for some music. Thanks to Maija for pointing this one out.
• Laibach - Nova Akropola (re-release)
  And finally, I thought I would point out that one of Laibach’s older albums, Nova Akropola, is being re-released today. I know, they’re Slovenian, not German technically. But they have strong links to Germany, often use the German language, and are adored by most German music fans I know, so they’re approved.

There you have it. The terribly abridged, perhaps even rushed version of today’s releases. I’m sorry I don’t have more time to get into the details, but I’ll provide you with everything you need to know over the next few days. See you tomorrow.