Project Pitchfork

Project Pitchfork
Project Pitchfork at the Blackfield Festival 2013
Background information
Origin	Germany
Genres	Electronic rock, dark wave
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Candyland Entertainment, Trisol Music Group, Karma Records (South America)
Associated acts	Rec IMATEM Santa Hates You Aurora Sutra Jansen Spilles
Website	http://www.project-pitchfork.eu
Members	Peter Spilles Dirk Scheuber Jürgen Jansen Achim Färber
Past members	Markus Giltjes Yenz Schrader

Project Pitchfork is an electronic rock group from Hamburg, Germany.

History^[1]

First years (90-94)

Project Pitchfork was formed by Peter Spilles and Dirk Scheuber. Having agreed to work together, they then picked the project's name by picking a word at random from the dictionary. The demo K.N.K.A. was recorded. Encouraged by the positive response, they take to the stage for the first time on 15 February 1990 in the scene club "Kir" in Hamburg and thoroughly convince the audience in the sold-out location. In May 1991, the revolutionary debut "Dhyani" is released. It is one of the first border walks between electronic music and Gothic and becomes an often quoted milestone in the history of Dark Electro.^[2]

From the very beginning, Project Pitchfork have been fond of improvising, always getting as much out of the given situation as was possible. This method of working is also employed on the coming records. Their second album Lam-'Bras appeared in February 1992. This album yielded the first vocal appearance of Patricia Nigiani. The third Pitchfork album, Entities appeared a mere six months later, from which the track "Souls" was later reworked into an extended version on 1993's Souls/Island EP. These two albums strengthened the bands' visionary role in the scene. Project Pitchfork differ remarkably from other bands in the Gothic scene – not only with their music, but also with the professional attitude surrounding the band. From a very early stage, Peter Spilles decides to make the band his job to solely concentrate on his music. This accounts for the rapid succession of albums as well as for the countless concerts that lead the group to the whole of Germany and even – as the first scene band ever – to former Eastern Germany in the early nineties.^[3] The band switched to the "Off-Beat" label for 1994's IO, yielding the singles "Renascence" and "Carrion". It is the first digitally produced Pitchfork work, which underlines their further development. For the first time they enter the German album charts (number 56),^[4] for the first time they embark on a lengthy German tour.

The development years and success (95-02)

In 1995, Project Pitchfork established their own label, Candyland Entertainment, through which they release the majority of their own material as well as the material of other bands.

The next Pitchfork release, the "Corps d'Amour" EP was more sexually-influenced than previous works. In 1995 the album Alpha Omega was released. In the same year, Project Pitchfork's tour was supported by the band Rammstein. The next Project Pitchfork's studio album "¡Chakra:Red!" arrived in 1997, the first album since Dhyani to be written as a group effort rather than by Spilles alone. The extensive use of sampled guitars in this album stands for Pitchfork's urge for progress. Moreover, this record marks the inclusion of Jürgen Jansen as a permanent member and is followed by another rapid succession.

Right after their first US tour in 1998, they return with the concept album "Eon:Eon", their first on a major label (the Warner Music Group label EastWest). The album yielded three singles: "Steelrose", "Carnival" and "I Live Your Dream". In the same year, the band was nominated for an Echo Award in the category Best Video National' for their music video "Steelrose". Long to come "Daimonion", released in 2001 can even top this string of successes: The album rockets to number 8 in the German charts, a huge European tour supports the release. Song "Timekiller" becomes one of their biggest club hits to date.^[5]

As follows, Project Pitchfork effectively prove with the following "NUN" trilogy, it is yet possible to be more ambitious, more daring: 30 September 2002, sees the coming of "Inferno", the first part of a triptych completed by the EP's "View From A Throne" and "Trialog". Whole trilogy is released in quick succession. They are again nominated for an Echo Award, this time in the category "Best Alternative Act National".

Recent years (03-14)

It would be a further three years before Pitchfork returned again with the album Kaskade in 2005. Its 15 tracks are especially versatile – a reason why Spilles only places two very long songs on the digital release "Wonderland/One Million Faces", which will be later released on CD in May 2007.

On 23 January 2009, the band released the new MCD "Feel!" via Prussia Records. Then on 27 February, the band released the new album Dream, Tiresias!, also via Prussia Records. The album received high appraisal from electronic music magazine, ReGen.^[6]

In 2010, Project Pitchfork released their follow up album, Continuum Ride. Many praised the album for being similar in tone, lyrics, and production quality to their critically acclaimed 2009 LP; Bernard Van Isacker of SideLine said the album was a "perfect successor to 'Dream, Tiresias!'"^[7] A video was released for the song "Beholder."^[8]

Project Pitchfork showed no signs of slowing down, as a new year brought a new album. "Quantum Mechanics" was released in 2011, an LP ripe with a "reoccurring theme [...] that of criticism towards modern, corrupt society" as Hemi Malkki noted in a review from Reflections of Darkness.^[9] Bernard Van Isacker said he "got the feeling that 'Quantum Mechanics' might be the most intimate album from the past few years."^[10] The band filmed a video for the album's second track, "Lament." ^[11]

2011 also saw the release of the band's 2 disc retrospective album, "First Anthology."^[12] 31 songs were chosen from Project Pitchfork's back catalogue, dating back to 1991, and all were remastered by the band. A new track called "Burning" is the compilation's opener.

Although there was no new album from the band the next year, Spilles was just as prolific in 2012; with his other band Santa Hates You he released the album "It's Alive!"^[13]

The next Project Pitchfork album came in January 2013 with the release of "Black." A video was released in advance of the album, accompanying the song "Rain." ^[14] SideLine's Bernard Van Isacker gave the album a glowing review, saying the music is indicative of the band's place in electronic music history; the album "is the illustration of a living legend of electronics," he said.^[15] Zander Buel of Coma Music Magazine said, "after two decades and 14 albums, Project Pitchfork still sounds ripe with enthusiasm and a hunger to prove something to the world."^[16]

On 27 June, the band announced via their official website the new upcoming album, titled "Blood".^[17] In order to promote the record the band held a pre-release show in Hamburg on 13 September. The album was released on 19 September as a standard CD edition and a limited 2CD special edition, which was available through pre-order. The music video for "Blood-Diamond(See him running), edited by Spilles himself, was released in order to promote the record."

Members

Current lineup

• Peter Spilles – composition, lyrics, vocals (1989-...)
• Dirk Scheuber – keyboards (1989-...)
• Jürgen Jansen – keyboards (1998-...)
• Achim Färber – live drums (1999-...)

Former members

• Patricia Nigiani – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Markus Giltjes – live drums (1995)
• Yenz Schrader – drums, guitar (1998)
• Carsten Klatte – live guitar (1999-2011)

Discography

Studio albums

• Dhyani (1991)
• Lam-'Bras (1992)
• Entities (1992)
• Souls/Island (1993)
• IO (1994)
• Alpha Omega (1995)
• ¡Chakra:Red! (1997)
• Eon:Eon (1998)
• Daimonion (2001)
• Inferno (2002)
• Kaskade (2005)
• Dream, Tiresias! (2009)
• Continuum Ride (2010) (DE: #21^[18])
• Quantum Mechanics (2011) (DE: #12^[18])
• Black (2013)
• Blood (2014)
• Look Up, I'm Down There (2016)

EPs

• Precious New World (1991)
• Psychic Torture (1991)
• Little IO (1994)
• CH'I (1995)
• Corps D'Amour (1995)
• Trialog (2002)
• View From a Throne (2002)
• Wonderland/One Million Faces (2007)

Live albums

• Live '97 (1997)
• Live 2003/2001 (2003)

Singles

• "Carrion" (1993)
• "Renascence" (1994)
• "En Garde!" (1996)
• "Carnival" (1998)
• "Steelrose" (1998)
• "I Live Your Dream" (1999)
• "Existence" (2001)
• "Timekiller" (2001)
• "Awakening" (2002)
• "Schall Und Rauch/The Future Is Now" (2005)
• "Earth Song" (feat. Sara Noxx) (2008)
• "Feel!" (2009)
• "Beholder" (2010)
• "Lament" (2011)
• "Rain" (2013)

Compilation albums

• The Early Years (89–93) (1996)
• Collector: Lost and Found (2001)
• NUN Trilogy (2002)
• Collector: Fireworks & Colorchange (2003)
• First Anthology (2011)
• Second Anthology (2016)

Videography

• Va I Luce (1992)
• Entities Tour (1993)
• Glowing Like Io – Live Performance (1994)
• Alpha Omega – Live (1995)
• Live '99 (1999)
• Collector – Adapted for the Screen (2002)
• Live 2003 (2004)

References

External links

• Official site
• Project Pitchfork discography at MusicBrainz
• Full band's biography in English