Biography
Julian Cope asserted in Krautrocksampler that Faust represented the most legendary ensemble imaginable, underscoring the German band's decisive role in shaping ambient and industrial soundscapes. During their formative years in the early 1970s the collective issued a sequence of recordings that fundamentally altered studio practices, incorporating tape-splicing methods alongside Dada-inflected playfulness within expansive psychedelic frameworks. Those efforts cultivated a devoted audience, above all 1973's Faust IV, whose comparatively approachable character eventually secured its status as an enduring classic. The unit dissolved in 1975, yet several originators reassembled in 1990. Faust persisted with live work and fresh recordings, revealing lasting sway across industrial, techno, noise-rock, and even hip-hop circles, most visibly through the 2004 alliance with Dälek titled Derbe Respect, Alder. Two distinct configurations, each anchored by founding personnel, later operated concurrently, the version built around Jean Hervé Péron and Werner Diermaier proving the most active through frequent touring and releases such as 2017's Fresh Air. A separate roster featuring Diermaier alongside early participant Gunther Wüsthoff delivered the studio album Daumenbruch in 2022.
One-time music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck assembled Faust in Wumme, Germany, during 1971 alongside Hans Joachim Irmler, Jean Hervé Péron, Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Rudolf Sosna, Gunther Wüsthoff, and Armulf Meifert. After securing label funding, Nettelbeck transformed a disused schoolhouse into a recording facility where the musicians spent their initial months in near-complete seclusion, refining an idiosyncratic, densely textured approach with intermittent contributions from minimalist composer Tony Conrad and members of Slapp Happy.
Pressed on transparent vinyl inside a clear jacket, the self-titled debut appeared via Polydor in 1971. Despite dismal commercial returns, the noisy collage of spliced musical fragments secured a committed following. A second elaborately presented effort, Faust So Far, arrived in 1972 and earned the band a Virgin contract; the label then issued 1973's The Faust Tapes—a fan-compiled assortment of domestic recordings—at single price, generating substantial press attention. Following the Tony Conrad collaboration Outside the Dream Syndicate, Faust issued 1973's Faust IV, whose commercial disappointment prompted Virgin to terminate the agreement and withhold the planned fifth album.
Once Nettelbeck redirected his energies elsewhere, Faust dissolved in 1975 and the musicians dispersed across Germany. More than ten years of intermittent activity in shifting combinations preceded an official reunion centered on Irmler, Péron, and Diermaier that yielded several European concerts at the start of the 1990s. The ensemble made its initial American appearance in 1993, supporting Conrad, and subsequently undertook further U.S. engagements. After two live documents, the Jim O'Rourke-produced Rien emerged in 1994, succeeded by You Know FaUSt in 1996.
Péron departed in 1997. Ravvivando surfaced in 1999 with Diermaier, Irmler, Steven Wray Lobdell, Lars Paukstat, Michael Stoll, and Amaury Cambuzat of Ulan Bator; the set garnered near-universal acclaim and prompted additional festival and touring opportunities. Faust continued issuing material in this configuration until 2004, when Péron returned for Trial & Error, a 2007 DVD on the Funfundvierzig label. Diermaier suggested forming a renewed Faust with Péron; joined by Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion, the quartet debuted at the Art-Errorist Avantgarde Festival in Schiphorst, Germany, simultaneously unveiling Collectif Met(z), a collection of live, newly created, and archival pieces. This incarnation produced multiple CD-Rs and DVD-Rs while maintaining a near-constant touring schedule. Material captured during their 2005 U.K. dates later appeared as In Autumn in 2007. The lineup also incorporated ex-Henry Cow saxophonist and flutist Geoff Leigh, vocalist Lucianne Lassalle, poet Zoë Skoulding, and members of the Welsh ensemble Ectogram.
Founding associate Uwe Nettelbeck passed away on January 17, 2007. That April the trio of Diermaier, Péron, and Cambuzat performed at France's Rock in Opposition Festival and tracked the studio album Disconnected. C'est Com...Com...Compliqué, the second release from this trio, arrived on Bureau B in 2009, although the roster had already shifted by 2007 when Cambuzat exited and was succeeded by guitarist James Johnson of Gallon Drunk and Bad Seeds plus former filmmaker Geraldine Swayne on keyboards, percussion, and vocals. With the 2010 appearance of Faust Is Last by the Irmler-led aggregate of Paukstat, Lobdell, Stoll, and Jan Fride, Faust effectively operated as two concurrently active entities. Continuing that pattern, the Péron-Diermaier quartet issued Something Dirty on Bureau B.
In 2014 Diermaier and Péron released jUSt (or Just Us), a set of sometimes-minimal song frameworks intended as foundations for reinterpretation by other musicians. The pair toured the United States in 2016 alongside a rotating cast of guests that included Barbara Manning, Jürgen Engler of Die Krupps, and saxophonist Ulrich Krieger of Art Zoyd. Selections from those performances formed the 2017 full-length Fresh Air. In 2020 Faust contributed two tracks to a split LP with Kommissar Hjuler und Frau within the FLUXUS +/- series on Psych.KG; each copy carried unique artwork and multiple titles. The following year Bureau B issued the box set 1971-1974, encompassing the band's first four studio albums plus three discs of previously unreleased recordings, among them a complete album captured at Giorgio Moroder's Munich studio. Bureau B subsequently issued that album independently in 2022 as Punkt. Recorded immediately after the 1974 Moroder sessions, the material remained unfinished at the time because the musicians pursued separate projects; its belated release nearly fifty years later functioned as the group's unofficial fifth studio album.
Throughout the 2020s Faust sustained activity in multiple configurations. Diermaier rejoined Gunther Wüsthoff, collaborating further with Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM and Einstürzende Neubauten's Jochen Arbeit and N.U. Unruh among others; this lineup delivered Daumenbruch on Eroto Tox Decodings in early 2022. The Péron-Diermaier unit teamed with Keiji Haino for This Is the Right Path, issued later that year by Old Heaven Books. In 2023 the two volumes of Momentaufnahme, previously available only within the 1971-1974 box, appeared as standalone discs.
One-time music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck assembled Faust in Wumme, Germany, during 1971 alongside Hans Joachim Irmler, Jean Hervé Péron, Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Rudolf Sosna, Gunther Wüsthoff, and Armulf Meifert. After securing label funding, Nettelbeck transformed a disused schoolhouse into a recording facility where the musicians spent their initial months in near-complete seclusion, refining an idiosyncratic, densely textured approach with intermittent contributions from minimalist composer Tony Conrad and members of Slapp Happy.
Pressed on transparent vinyl inside a clear jacket, the self-titled debut appeared via Polydor in 1971. Despite dismal commercial returns, the noisy collage of spliced musical fragments secured a committed following. A second elaborately presented effort, Faust So Far, arrived in 1972 and earned the band a Virgin contract; the label then issued 1973's The Faust Tapes—a fan-compiled assortment of domestic recordings—at single price, generating substantial press attention. Following the Tony Conrad collaboration Outside the Dream Syndicate, Faust issued 1973's Faust IV, whose commercial disappointment prompted Virgin to terminate the agreement and withhold the planned fifth album.
Once Nettelbeck redirected his energies elsewhere, Faust dissolved in 1975 and the musicians dispersed across Germany. More than ten years of intermittent activity in shifting combinations preceded an official reunion centered on Irmler, Péron, and Diermaier that yielded several European concerts at the start of the 1990s. The ensemble made its initial American appearance in 1993, supporting Conrad, and subsequently undertook further U.S. engagements. After two live documents, the Jim O'Rourke-produced Rien emerged in 1994, succeeded by You Know FaUSt in 1996.
Péron departed in 1997. Ravvivando surfaced in 1999 with Diermaier, Irmler, Steven Wray Lobdell, Lars Paukstat, Michael Stoll, and Amaury Cambuzat of Ulan Bator; the set garnered near-universal acclaim and prompted additional festival and touring opportunities. Faust continued issuing material in this configuration until 2004, when Péron returned for Trial & Error, a 2007 DVD on the Funfundvierzig label. Diermaier suggested forming a renewed Faust with Péron; joined by Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion, the quartet debuted at the Art-Errorist Avantgarde Festival in Schiphorst, Germany, simultaneously unveiling Collectif Met(z), a collection of live, newly created, and archival pieces. This incarnation produced multiple CD-Rs and DVD-Rs while maintaining a near-constant touring schedule. Material captured during their 2005 U.K. dates later appeared as In Autumn in 2007. The lineup also incorporated ex-Henry Cow saxophonist and flutist Geoff Leigh, vocalist Lucianne Lassalle, poet Zoë Skoulding, and members of the Welsh ensemble Ectogram.
Founding associate Uwe Nettelbeck passed away on January 17, 2007. That April the trio of Diermaier, Péron, and Cambuzat performed at France's Rock in Opposition Festival and tracked the studio album Disconnected. C'est Com...Com...Compliqué, the second release from this trio, arrived on Bureau B in 2009, although the roster had already shifted by 2007 when Cambuzat exited and was succeeded by guitarist James Johnson of Gallon Drunk and Bad Seeds plus former filmmaker Geraldine Swayne on keyboards, percussion, and vocals. With the 2010 appearance of Faust Is Last by the Irmler-led aggregate of Paukstat, Lobdell, Stoll, and Jan Fride, Faust effectively operated as two concurrently active entities. Continuing that pattern, the Péron-Diermaier quartet issued Something Dirty on Bureau B.
In 2014 Diermaier and Péron released jUSt (or Just Us), a set of sometimes-minimal song frameworks intended as foundations for reinterpretation by other musicians. The pair toured the United States in 2016 alongside a rotating cast of guests that included Barbara Manning, Jürgen Engler of Die Krupps, and saxophonist Ulrich Krieger of Art Zoyd. Selections from those performances formed the 2017 full-length Fresh Air. In 2020 Faust contributed two tracks to a split LP with Kommissar Hjuler und Frau within the FLUXUS +/- series on Psych.KG; each copy carried unique artwork and multiple titles. The following year Bureau B issued the box set 1971-1974, encompassing the band's first four studio albums plus three discs of previously unreleased recordings, among them a complete album captured at Giorgio Moroder's Munich studio. Bureau B subsequently issued that album independently in 2022 as Punkt. Recorded immediately after the 1974 Moroder sessions, the material remained unfinished at the time because the musicians pursued separate projects; its belated release nearly fifty years later functioned as the group's unofficial fifth studio album.
Throughout the 2020s Faust sustained activity in multiple configurations. Diermaier rejoined Gunther Wüsthoff, collaborating further with Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM and Einstürzende Neubauten's Jochen Arbeit and N.U. Unruh among others; this lineup delivered Daumenbruch on Eroto Tox Decodings in early 2022. The Péron-Diermaier unit teamed with Keiji Haino for This Is the Right Path, issued later that year by Old Heaven Books. In 2023 the two volumes of Momentaufnahme, previously available only within the 1971-1974 box, appeared as standalone discs.
Albums
Singles
