Kreidler - Early Recordings 1994-95

While working in Berlin Wedding at andereBaustelle studio on their upcoming album – scheduled for release

in May 2026 on Bureau B – Kreidler found also time to dig deep into the vaults of their Düsseldorf and Berlin

archives. Thirty Years ago Kreidler's eponymous mini-album was released on Cologne-based label Finlayson;

and for RIVA, their first outing, on cassette tape it is even 31 years. Both released in limited physical formats

and long unavailable. This edition documents the band‘s beginnings, with threads that can be followed

throughout their whole history to their current work. Still, they are straight out of a certain scene, at a certain

place, at a certain time.

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Kreidler — formed from the encounter of the band Deux Baleines Blanches (Thomas Klein, Andreas Reihse

and Stefan Schneider) with DJ Sport (Detlef Weinrich) — already in its initial years, and in those that followed,

managed to hold seemingly contradictory strands, becoming a fluid form that could equally accommodate the

various strengths and interests of its members. This ability has remained intact up to the present lineup of

Thomas Klein, Alex Paulick and Andreas Reihse.

In Düsseldorf, the Academy of Arts is situated just next to the Altstadt, a rather grubby area to get disorderly

drunk and eat cheap fast food. But as intoxication and partying go quite well with doing or studying art, artists

conquered certain spaces, made them their own. The art scene had anyway always mingled with the music

scene. This led to such famous spots as Creamcheese or Ratinger Hof. Art from Düsseldorf was already exciting,

but then also the music was making waves: Kraftwerk, NEU!, la Düsseldorf, followed by post-punk acts like

DAF, Der Plan, Mittagspause et al. Kreidler, too, emerged from around the Academy, where Detlef and Stefan

were students, while Andreas was studying audiovisual communication at the University of Applied Arts, and

Thomas design nearby Krefeld.

In February 1994, Deux Baleines Blanches organised a spoken word event at Erinna König‘s Op de Eck Café in

Düsseldorf Altstadt, and they visited Detlef who was playing music in a listening setting he had installed at the

Academy. The idea came up to cooperate on a project. Later on, a spoken word artist asked them to accompany

one of his readings. Kreidler‘s first show was March 29, at Melody bar, a small place in the Altstadt and then a

favorite hang-out for art students.

Summer 1994 Kreidler recorded RIVA on Stefan‘s 4-track tape recorder in their rehearsal room, a converted

former bakery. For some overdubs and mix they went to Friedrich Sitterle‘s Frosch-Studio. The tape was self-

released, then A Contresens, a Paris-based label picked it up. Months later a show in Cologne the label

managers of Finlayson offered Kreidler a release. The band had already sent the RIVA cassette to Matthias

Arfmann of Kastrierte Philosophen fame to see if he was interested in producing their upcoming album —

and he was. So off to Hamburg Kreidler went. Their car broke down, while Thomas was struggling with a back

injury, managing to play the drums for a mere ten minutes before needing a break. Despite all obstacles, the

recording and mixing were successfully completed, Finlayson released the untitled mini-album to great critical

and popular acclaim. Oliver Tepel wrote in 1995 in Spex magazine: “On the basis of calm grooves from andante

to moderato —comparable to the dissolution of object and background in analytical cubism — the contours of

the instruments disappear in favour of mysteriously meandering waves of sound,” and Jörg Heiser: “This has

arrived in a whooshing root tone, in the very center (and not in any next room).”

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Tracklisting

A1 Beginn / Drücken

A2 Café dello Sport

A3 Glashütte Gerresheim

A4 Charles Wilp fotografiert Muhammed Ali

A5 Flames

A6 Tierfilm

A7 Das Wilde Heinefeld

A8 Angst

B1 Die Sexy Antwort auf Beige

B2 Anti-Car

B3 Soft Niveau

B4 Boccia

B5 Sportfläche

B6 Bikini

B7 Im Betrieb (IV)