Led by Hans-Jürgen Buchner, the Bavarian jazz-pop outfit Haindling issued multiple albums that enjoyed solid commercial reception from the start of the 1980s onward while also supplying music for numerous German film and television projects. Their jazz-pop approach weaves in components of Bavarian volksmusik, among them regionally specific southern Bavarian dialect, and the musicians, Buchner above all, frequently turn to unusual instruments. The group’s roster stayed largely unchanged across decades, featuring Buchner on vocals, saxophone, tenor horn, tuba, klavier, keyboard, guitar and percussion, Heinz-Josef Braun on bass and tuba, Michael Braun on saxophone, trumpet, tenor horn, keyboard, percussion and vocals, Peter Enderlein on drums and percussion, Rainer Kürvers on keyboards and tenor horn, plus Roald Raschner on klavier, keyboards, guitar and vocals. Braun and Kürvers departed in 1999 and were succeeded by Wolfgang Gleixner on bass, tuba, guitar, percussion and vocals together with Reinhold Hoffmann on keyboard, tenor horn, saxophone and oboe, while Raschner left in 2004 and was replaced by Michael Ruff on keyboards and klavier.
Buchner established the band after being born on 27 December 1944 in Bernau bei Berlin, Brandenburg; as a youngster he relocated to Regensburg in Bavaria and spent his formative years in Niederwinkling within the Niederbayern region of southern Bavaria. After finishing his early education he trained in ceramics, obtaining a master’s degree in 1965 at the age of twenty-one, and subsequently launched a pottery workshop in the nearby town of Straubing. He pursued that vocation for seventeen years before turning professional musician in 1982. Having previously played only as an amateur, he secured a contract with Polydor, under whose aegis he and Haindling issued the albums Haindling 1 (1982), Stilles Potpourri (1984), Spinn I (1985), Meuterei (1986), Höhlenmalerei (1987), Muh (1989) and 7 (1991), as well as the retrospective collections Speck (1982-1992) (1992) and Schrilles Potpourri (1993). In parallel the group began a lasting association with Bavarian writer-director Franz Xaver Bogner, scoring his television series Irgendwie und Sowieso (1985-1986), Zur Freiheit (1987-1988) and Café Meineid (1990-2003).
Haindling reentered the market in 1993 with the BMG release Haindling, the first of several albums for the label that included Weiss (1995), Perlen (1996), Zwischenlandung (1998), Filmmusik (2000), Tigerenten-Liederchen (2001), Karussell (2002) and Vivaldi & Vier Jahreszeiten (2004), several of which appeared on the charts. Soundtrack activity continued as well, encompassing scores for Bogner’s features Madame Bäurin (1993), Das Ewige Lied (1997) and Einmal Leben (1999), for Julian Pölsler’s Der Schandfleck (1999), Polt Muss Weinen (2000), Blumen für Polt (2001), Himmel, Polt und Hölle (2002) and Polterabend (2003), and for Douglas Wolfsperger’s Heirate Mir! -- Die Braut und Ihr Totengräber (1999), Bellaria: So Lange Wir Leben (2001), Die Blutritter (2003) and War’n Sie Schonmal in Mich Verliebt? (2004).
