KRABAT

Krabat biography
German band Krabat was formed in the early nineties by Andreas Koch and Anja Wylezol as a follow-up to another project in the Hanau / Wächtersbach area. The initial line-up included Peter Present on drums and Kai Seibel on bass guitar as well.

The name "Krabat" was chosen based on the fact that everyone in the band had fond memories of a children's' book by that name.

At that time, the 60s/70s-Prog influences were more apparent and the musical material sometimes proved to be quite complex and challenging for some audiences. In 1997 the self-produced recording "Homo ludens" was released, which still manages to give quite a good representation of how the band sounded at the time.

In the following years, the band continued to expand on their own brand of guitar-based prog rock. The following release "22" saw a more refined and polished sound with a rockier edge throughout. Even though the band's only recordings distributor was a small Swiss record label (black rills records), a certain quantity were even sold to American and Japanese mail-order-vendors. Also, positive reviews started popping up on various German and international Prog-Websites.

Still, due to personal differences after almost a decade together the band started to fall apart shortly after.

Following a period of uncertainty, Andreas and Anja decided to try putting together a new line-up and find out if there was still music to be made by this band.

And indeed - there was!

Ingo Schaefer - an old friend of the two - came in on bass. A little later Uwe Hermanns took the drum-seat and Krabat took off with renewed energy. In 2005, Uwe had to quit for personal reasons, but a replacement was quickly found in Sven and thus stood the new line-up.

The sound had begun to incorporate various Alternative-Rock influences, rocking and grooving even harder now. Still the signature-elements remained, but in a more modern and accessible fashion. After successfully having presented the new material at countless gigs, the band thought it was finally time for a new recording ...

The third CD "waiting for the next big thing" was released in August 2008 on Herzberg Verlag, the record label of the famous Burg Herzberg Music Festival, on which the band played in July 2009 with their new drummer Hans Peter.


http://www.krabat-home.de/