Biography
Arno Steffen, a Cologne-based musician, has moved across punk rock, experimental avant-garde work, and witty pop material throughout his career. Born on August 28, 1953, in Cologne, Germany, the self-taught artist started the Pink Floyd-inspired band Interstellar Overdrive with writer Roland Kaehlbrandt while still attending high school; the group ran from 1970 until 1975. After a brief interruption he resumed activity, first joining Jennifer in 1977 and then Suiciyde Ampheta (also spelled Suicidyd Ampheta). An acoustic trio with his friend Juergen Zeltinger prompted Steffen to convince his Suiciyde Ampheta colleagues to back Zeltinger as frontman, forming the punk group Zeltinger that played its debut concert in 1979 and quickly drew notice for street-level punk delivered in Koelsch dialect. Steffen began as the band’s songwriter, producing a Koelsch-lyric version of a Ramones song titled “Müngersdorfer Stadion,” before also playing guitar in the lineup. At the same time he briefly served as lead singer for Jürgen Fritz’s band Triumvirat, appearing on their 1980 album Russian Roulette and contributing several songs as composer. In 1984 Steffen issued the solo album Schlager, recorded with Krautrock producer and engineer Conny Planck, whom he had first met when Planck worked on Zeltinger’s initial release. The record took an experimental approach built entirely from found sounds and rudimentary samples without standard instruments, every element generated vocally or drawn from pre-recorded sources that were then partly processed. Although Schlager remained atonal overall, the single “Supergut (ne)?!” became a minor hit and fit the New German Wave style closely enough to appear on numerous 1980s compilations in later years. Steffen followed with the solo 12" EP 4 Liebeslieder in 1985. His avant-garde explorations continued through numerous art and music performances, including projects commissioned by the Goethe Institute. He renewed his partnership with Conny Planck for the South American music ventures “Around the Globe” and “Westworld,” joined by Cluster’s Dieter Moebius. After Planck’s death in 1987 Steffen collaborated with photographer Jürgen Klauke, began scoring television programs and films, and produced the Köln-Sampler series that spotlighted new bands from Cologne. In 1990 he assembled the group L.S.E. with pianist Rolf Lammers and de Bläck Fööss vocalist Tommy Engel, the initials taken from the members’ surnames. Augmented by various guest musicians, the trio fashioned an eccentric sound mixing humorous Koelsch stories, Zappa-esque jazz, and boogie-woogie. L.S.E. released three albums in the 1990s: Fuer et Haetz un Jaejen d'Kopp (1992), Ruhm Kennt Keine Gnade (1994), and Aua (1996). The band entered a hiatus in 1996 without formally splitting and later issued the best-of compilation Das Beste von L.S.E. in 2004. More recently Steffen has focused on scoring television movies, composing music for eight episodes of the long-running German crime series Tatort as well as the TV movie Das Wunder von Lengede.
Albums
Singles
