In Strict Confidence

German electro-industrial and darkwave act In Strict Confidence ranks among the scene’s most enduring and acclaimed groups. Over a career spanning nearly three decades, their darkly romantic approach carried the project through a steady stream of albums and EPs, while a distribution arrangement with the American Metropolis label secured them a foothold far beyond their home country.

The group first appeared in 1989 as the four-piece Seal of Secrecy. Three years later the lineup had contracted to a duo—Dennis Ostermann, the band’s frontman and primary architect, alongside Jörg Schelte—and the name was changed to In Strict Confidence. Early cassette recordings earned them attention within the underground, leading to a contract with Zoth Ommog. Their initial releases for the label, the 1996 album Cryogenix and the 1998 follow-up Face the Fear, remained rooted in conventional harsh EBM laced with metallic textures. Contractual disagreements prompted a departure from Zoth Ommog, and the 1999 album Love Kills!, issued on Bloodline, marked a shift toward a more nuanced and expansive sound that merged melodic dark electro with future-pop elements.

That direction was refined across the next three albums, all released on Minuswelt: Mistrust the Angels in 2002, Holy in 2004, and Exile Paradise in 2006. The return of founding member Stefan Vesper and the arrival of Antje Schulz’s ethereal vocals broadened the group’s palette, while Ostermann’s literate lyrics wove politics, psychology, spirituality, and sexuality into a potent, provocative mixture. Each of these records was supported by at least one extended “single” containing additional mixes, and Hecq supplied complete remix treatments for the latter two.

La Parade Monstrueuse, released in 2010, adopted a coarser production aesthetic and introduced guitarist HayDee Sparks after Schulz departed; Nina de Lianin stepped in as her replacement. The sole album for ZYX’s Golden Core imprint, 2012’s Utopia, felt somewhat uneven, yet the 2016 Minuswelt release The Hardest Heart reunited the harder edges of the band’s formative years with the melodic strengths of its peak period, earning praise as a welcome resurgence. Self-released in 2018, Hate2Love steered the project once more toward a stripped-down, vintage style steeped in classic EBM and synth-pop.