Norwin Münch
Details

The idea of making a working-class-studio came Norwin Münch, Germar Hoffmeister and Boris Schimatowitsch, when they recorded together the Bei chez Heinz-April Festival in 2007 with small equipment. The three achieved the same quality as a charged professional studio at the same time. This and the fact,  that the Arena 23 Studio was about to close, made the three turn to the decision to run their own working-class-studio. One question was no doubt for the three: The studio has to be analogue!

The Arena 23 Studio was the studio in which Boris and Norwin rehearsed together with guitarist-sensation Johann Wenke and their common band June Brazil. Later Norwin stayed in the studio and kept on rehearsing and producing here with Hannover’s famous Jamie and the Magic Torch Song. After it was clear that this Studio will close, you are not in the mood anymore to rehearse in a muffy cellar, after 4 years rehearsing in a working-class-studio. This was a decisive influence for Norwin to push the decision of an own studio forward. The two names Boris Schimatowitsch and Arena 23 Studio belong nowadays to the references of the E.m.E.-Studios.

Boris Schimatowitsch is Hannover’s leading musical-equipment-engineer and home-engineer of Willi Dammeier of Willi’s Institut für Wohlklangforschung. Beside that, he was the home-engineer for Dete Klaamann’s Music Corner. He quitted from the E.m.E. studio-project in 2008 to concentrate on his buiseness with his shop Tonkontrolle. Boris is still the technical host and home-engineer for the E.m.E- studios. If anybody in Hannover can solve a technichal problem, it is him! Norwin’s personal trainer for difficult routing problems, new configurations and tips and tricks is Nico Poschke, a very well experienced sound engineer and former chief of the reknown 3CW-Studios. He still does mastering works for several pros and is E.m.E.-Studios’ partner in analogue/digital questions.

The Arena 23 Studio was hosted by Dim Doelle. Dim and Norwin produced Norwin’s Solo-Album, which was the last release out of this studio (it hopefully will finally be released in the end of this year), which finally closed in April 2010. Co-host of this studio was Hannover’s legendary Hermann Frank, who decorated the studio with one golden record: Balls to the walls of Accept.

Norwin Münch is most famous for his changing of bands. If you are interested here are some background-informations linked with his personal musical-record.

 

Nienburg

  • 1977-1980 Tenet’s Hubris Dint (g/bg)
  • 1980-1981 Grinseling (g/dr)
  • 1982-1983 Vanadium (dr)
  • 1983-1985 Sans Ears (dr)
  • 1985-1990 The Pilgrim Fathers (g)
 

Hannover

 

With Tenet’s Hubris Dint Norwin was only some kind of comparse. His first band Grinseling was unique, because their major musical influence was La Düsseldorf and the band was one of the first in North-German-provence which used a real analogue synthesizer. Inspite of now being the biggest New Wave fan, Norwin was misleaded during the wave run and made an excursion to the hardrock-universe with Vanadium. Sans Ears was a hopeful young band who developed a unique 80’s compatible style-mixture between New-Wave and Funk. They won the Nienburg-Rock-Competition in 1984.

The Pilgrim Fathers were most famous for their dared production of the vinyl-album Sind im Garten in the famous Peppermint park-studios engineered by Fury in the Slaughterhouse-producer Jens Krause in 1989; 750 produced. Inspite of it being a good album with a fine mixture of Rock’n’Roll, Punk Rock and New Wave, the most two remarkable things during the production from today’s point of view are the following:

  • Mousse T. was in these days a placemant-student from the 9th class secondary school, inside Peppermint Park and beside the Pilgrim Father’s LP-production.
  • A friend of Germar visited the band during the production and brought a demo-tape, recorded in a cellar and said: “Look my colegue has started making music too!” The name of the band was Terry Hoax.

The band played their biggest show on the Bruchhausen-Vilsen Open Air in 1988 in front of 3000 people on stage 2.

With Diamonds and Rust, the band’s name was later changed to MOM, Norwin succeeded in winning the Hannover Sixpack of 1992 and the renomated Alfelder Pophammer in the same year. Guitar-player Holger started to take over the leadership of the band. Norwin was the first to quit and Holger changed the complete band-line-up 2 times during the next two following years. When MOM played in Lehrte in Das andere Kino in 1992, singer Christian and drummer Norwin helped (as musicians and volonteerely) a very desperate live-engineer who had his first day in buiseness. Christian routed his ways on the mishboard and Norwin assorted the channels in the stagebox. The man appreciated very much the help of the two and was found very grateful by them. His name was Andreas Nuxoll and the name of his buiseness was Velvet Sounds. MOM recorded their second demo-tape in the Studio of Ulla Holl, the wife of Gerd Knüttel, chief of Hannover’s Rocksound and live engineer of Marius Müller-Westernhagen.

The splitting of MOM was a luck for Norwin, because after MOM Norwin ran his still today regarded most succesful band: Shitlist. Shitlist had got a recording-contract already two days before the band exists at the small but still existing Hannoveranian label Epistrophy-records, run by Frank Ahorner. Ahorner had a connected distribution and the band sold 1000 pieces of their debut 6’’-vinyl-EP By the Slice in 4 weeks! After that, the straight-edge-mania broke out in the band and alcohol- and meat-consuming Norwin Münch was the first who had to leave the band. The band couldn’t hold its self upset standards and split up completely 3 weeks later. The name Norwins was not Norwin’s idea, but thus of his two mates of Shitlist. The Norwins existed earlier than Shitlist, but were some kind of side-project of Shitlist. After Norwin’s quit, the band earned some fame in the scene with the name Numbfire. When Shitlist played once in Silke Arp Bricht,  they asked themselves whether this young and new guy in the scene could handle the mishboard. The guy was Willi Dammeier (Certainly he could).

Hippiehunter you can regard as an ancestor-band for Hannover’s famous Hammerhai. This band developed the unique style with Suzie’s organ, but all with English textes. The band split up surprisingly, when Sölti quit. Hippiehunter was elected band of the year in 1997 by the Bei chez Heinz audience. With Hippiehunter, Bypass, Spielstation,

Die Krächzies, June Brazil (story see above) and Jamie and the Magic Torch Song, Norwin made fine performances on Hannover’s Fährmannsfest. With Bypass and Hippiehunter they did one show each with the Guano Apes who wondered themselves who were these unknown but showsteeling bands. A quotation of these day’s Fährmannsfest’s musical director Stefan Arnold: “Best bands of the whole festival: Bypass and Guano Apes!” Btw. The boys and girls of Guano Apes were anything else but friendly.

Even if you cut the story of Spielstation very short and mention only the most important things, it would take more space, than the whole story written down here.

With Jamie and the Magic Torch Song  Norwin was in the line up for the 5th album of the London singer Jamie Gray, who lived in Hannover and had his first four albums produced solo. His 5th Album Trink Jamie, he produced with a complete band line up. It is regarded as the most professional production Norwin participated in. (Release of his very own album see above).

From the Hippiehunter/Hammerhai-conflict Norwin got to know Hammerhai-drummer Herr K. (Stefan Kopka), with whom he used to play in the project Gott und Götter. His actual projects Macclesfield and Salford you can hear and see here on the page.

As a live-event-organizer Norwin was one of the first persons together with Germar who organized Live-Festivals for underground bands in Nienburg, such as the Locked Air into spring festivals. They participated in the organisation of the Nienburger Altstsadtfest. Those activities and the support of Min Death Dance for the band Adjudgement draw the foundation of the Nienburger Rockinitiative, which still exists, behind itself.

Due to this knowledge, Norwin was recruited for the DGB-Jugendtreff, which nowadays is the Bei chez Heinz in 1991. Norwin is the oldest member of all in the Bei chez Heinz. From 1996 – 2015  Norwin was the moderator of Hannover’s Fährmannsfest from 2009-2016 1st chairman and since 2000 member of the organisation-commitee.

Due to this personal record Norwin has a real multidiverse knowledge in nearly every style of music!

Germar Hoffmeister
Details

It all started way back in 1985 (well yeah, the 80´s, kind of a musical vacuum then, with a few exceptions). Founding member of legendary punk-crossover-new-wave outfit "The Pilgrim Fathers" (Album: "Sind im Garten", released on Down and Out records 1989), whose special sound and excentrical stage performance put them on the same level like acts as EA80, Neurotic Assholes, Boskops, Slime, etc.. That album is still found on various mailorder websites. 1998 a techno infection showed up, which isn´t cureable and therefore always around in a latent matter. Heavily influenced by artists like Tomasz Balicki,  (Atmos), Wayan Raabe und Arne Schaffhausen (midimiliz, spirallianz und Extrawelt), the kickin bassdrum went through the fields of Goa (Trancefer of Elements 2000-2006, Lovefield 2001, Psycedelic Circus 2003, Antaris 2002, U-Site 2001, ...)...only to strike terror into people’s hearts with some minimal-prog-trance nowadays.