Fall 2019, after a break of almost ten years: Live Tour in memory of TRANCE GROOVE mastermind STEFAN KRACHTEN (1958 - 2014)
TRANCE GROOVE
To memorize their friend and band founder Stefan Krachten who passed five years ago, Cologne-based groove combo TRANCE GROOVE is forming itself for a series of concerts in the autumn of 2019, after almost 10 years of absence from the stage.
It's 90's original line-up will bring keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Jürgen Dahmen to the stage, who will be playing the drum parts for Stefan, in line with DJ Heli (turntables), Thomas Kessler (keys), Dal Martino (b), Reiner Winterschladen (tr) and Helmut Zerlett (keys).
Helmut Zerlett on the music of TRANCE GROOVE: "The music that I have done with Stefan is a recurrent theme since the 80ies: Dunkelziffer, The Unknown Cases, Goldman, and TRANCE GROOVE had a lot in common.
What TRANCE GROOVE did then and does today is more or less what Dunkelziffer used to do in former times.
We meet for concerts, play freely together for one and a half to two hours. In Trance Groove music there are tape loops that contain a key and a basic groove. That’s the foundation we are playing with, reinterpreting the piece. That means to have wide areas of freedom, but still a minimum of specifications. Due to the loops, we also get kind of a song structure: if the tape is three to five minutes long, the piece will have the same length.
Trance Groove is not a part of the electronics scene. Of course, there are many computer loops in our music. But with six people on stage playing live, it's so much more handcrafted music than electronically reproduced music. The loops are more like a rhythm box that runs along. Just like CAN used to work live with such devices.
Trance Groove creates kind of a party atmosphere. That’s what people like about us. There are very good musicians playing, and every time we go on stage will be a special event, always something new. There will be no two identical Trance Groove Concerts, though it may actually be the same program. Each concert is emotionally unique, depending on what’s happening the very moment."
