VON SPAR is an artist collective from Germany consisting of Sebastian Blume, Jan Philipp Janzen, Phillip Tielsch and Christopher Marquez.
They made their critcally acclaimed entrance (e.g. coverstory in SPEX magazine) in the pop circuit in 2004 with their debut album. (Die Uneingeschränkte Freiheit Der Privaten Initiative - L’Age D’Or - 2004).
Three years later and wiser the supergroup returned with an uncompromising album (Von Spar - Tomlab - 2007) that got ahead of all expectations and surprised their audience and critics were shocked. This was not a band following the latest trend. Their new musical language was inspired by seventies Krautrock taking lines of flight to Fluxus Art and Minimal Music. With two new members the five-headed pack recorded in the legendary Electric Avenue Studio, Hamburg, with producer Tobias Levin.
For HyBoLT (Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition - 12″ - ITALIC 2009), VON SPAR draw inspiration from the Krautrock of the 1970s again but took their love of experimentation to the dance floor with a real disco happening, all refracted psychedelic colour and fluid dreams. Musically, VON SPAR has produced a brilliant piece of prog-disco, one that tells of cosmic pop science and combines Can’s spirit of discovery with the dance-floor instinct of Giorgio Moroder.
On their third album, VON SPAR have once again put themselves to the task of juxtaposing seemingly disparate musical spheres. The spectrum ranges from electrified pop and krautrock elements to fusion experiments to clubby electro tracks. Based in Cologne and Berlin, the four musicians celebrate an elaborately constructed disorder. Like their previous releases, it defies categorization.
Foreigner (CD / LP - ITALIC 2010) is a science-fiction album chock full of trippy pop, which tumbles through unexplored terrain without forgetting to look in the rearview mirror and allowing the listeners enough room to use their own imagination.
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Discography:
- Vielen Dank Für Ihr Verständnis - 12″ - (L’Age D’Or, 2003)
- Die Uneingeschränkte Freiheit Der Privaten Initiative - Album - (L’Age D’Or, 2004)
- Vielen Dank Für Ihr Verständnis Vol. 2 - 12″ - (L’Age D’Or, 2004)
- Von Spar - Album - (Tomlab, 2007)
- HyBoLT - 12″ - (Italic, 2009)
- Foreigner - CD / LP (Italic, 2010)
