30 Jahre_Klangwart_concert & recordrelease (Klangwart / Reuber / Del Grande)

Klangwart was founded in 1996 by Markus Detmer (15.03.1972) and Timo Reuber (31.10.1970) in Cologne.

The “Elder Statesmen of Neo-Krautrock”: Electro-duo Klangwart was thought-provokingly labelled as such by an inventive music journalist when presenting their album “Transit” (named, among others, Record of the Year in the “Avant-Rock” section of The Wire’s 2016 Critics Poll). The tag responds to an understandable attempt at finding a category for one of the most singular phenomena of the electronic music scene.
It might be more passing to call them the “Under-Statesmen”, as minimalism and understatement are key elements of the Klangwart project, founded 30 years ago by musician and author Timo Reuber and DJ and Staubgold label manager Markus Detmer.

With the release of „Wildnis“ in autumn 2026, Klangwart celebrate 30 years of the group’s existence.

During numerous sessions in their own Inkiek studio in Unna/Germany and a residency in Montoriol/France in 2025, Klangwart have created their new work „Wildnis“ („wilderness“), inviting Sébastien Del Grande to add tenor and alto saxophone, drums, marimba and other various percussion instruments to their electronic textures. Catalan composer and performer Ivan Chin aka Ivan Telefunken also participated in the recording sessions by contributing to a Catalan version of Swiss group Grauzone's famous new wave hit „Eisbär“ under the title „Os Polar“. Timo Reuber’s arrangements, production and mastering gave the album its final touch.

Klangwart started their musical expedition into for them unknown territories already in 2014 when they went to Bogotá/Colombia in order to record with protagonists of the local music scene: Damián Ponce (drums), César Quevedo (bass) and Eblis Álvarez (violoncello), members of The Meridian Brothers, and singers Juanita and Valentina Áñez Rothmann a.k.a. Las Áñez. The result, released on Markus Detmer’s Staubgold label in 2019, was Klangwart’s trademark sound permeated by a Latin American pulse and pitch.

With „Wildnis“ the story continues: field recordings from Latin America are interwoven with delicate electronic structures, Del Grande’s iconoclastic approach to the saxophone meets Klangwart’s familiar organ drones, Catalan folk meets German Krautrock.

On stage, Detmer, Reuber and Del Grande will transform those studio achievements into a complex live performance where electronic and acoustic instrumentation play equal parts in order to achieve a universal sound free from aesthetical borders.

Every few years, seemingly coming out of nowhere, the duo release a consistently critically acclaimed Klangwart album, give a couple of concerts, and disappear once again. This might sound of harakiri, as it contradicts all common rules of the music market. But behind it lies a profound longing for veracious expression on the border between avant-garde and entertainment.