Koyaanisqatsy
Biography
The name of the band „KOYAANISQATSY“ comes from the language of the Hopi-Indians and means as much as „Crazy Life“, “Riot life”, „Out Of Balance“, “A state that has to be changed”. 1994 - after having taken a break from music for 2 years - guitar player Markus Glanz (ex-BRAINSTORM, ex-VAIN VISION) started to look for suitable musicians for a new project, which should be placed musically somewhere between classical music, soundtracks and Heavy Metal. After an extensive search he finally found...
The name of the band „KOYAANISQATSY“ comes from the language of the Hopi-Indians and means as much as „Crazy Life“, “Riot life”, „Out Of Balance“, “A state that has to be changed”.
1994 - after having taken a break from music for 2 years - guitar player Markus Glanz (ex-BRAINSTORM, ex-VAIN VISION) started to look for suitable musicians for a new project, which should be placed musically somewhere between classical music, soundtracks and Heavy Metal.
After an extensive search he finally found the ideal partner in drummer Stefan Petzoldt (ex-DREAMSCAPE). Regarding musical ideas he had similar visions and was also inspired by the same bands and composers. Right after the very first jam session it became clear that this was the beginning of a joint musical journey.
The first songs for this new project saw the light of day in a rehearsal room in Munich where Markus and Stefan began to create a story to be told and arranged the song material accordingly.
They had the vision to create a musical fairytale and to make it come alive with a combination of a story and pictures.
Markus recorded the first passages with a keyboard and Stefan contributed the beats and breaks with a drum computer.
In 1995 the virtuoso keyboarder and pianist Wolfgang Schneider, winner of the German MIDI AWARD for compositions in 1991, joined them. Wolfgang’s original background is the world of classical music, but ever since joining KOYAANISQATSY he has refined their music with his own musical background and his outreaching symphonical sounds and arrangements.
At that time the decision was made to name the band „KOYAANISQATSY“, which is also the title of a popular cult documentary film (written with an „i“ instead of „y“ at the end - Koyaanisqatsi).
Piece by piece complex compositions were created which included, in parts, 70’s orchestra instrumentation. The band’s direction shifted more and more towards classical, romantic music – although the powerful drums and the staccato guitars still dominate the music of KOYAANISQATSY, so it is still some form of Heavy Metal.
One year later bass player Michael Scherz joined KOYAANISQATSY and completed the line-up.
The band remained unsuccessful in search of a singing support, so the debut CD was realized as a pure instrumental album in the year 2000. The six tracks on the debut (divided into seven more pieces) “From the yearning to burst the perpetual circle”, are living through a non-restrained dynamic and an orgasmic sound experience of melodies and tempers. The last track of the album, “Golden Dawn”, is at almost 18 minutes, the band’s longest and probably also the most mature track to date.
In December 2000 an unexpected incident occurred, so the band broke up exactly on January 1st, 2001.
Info is taken from band’s myspace-profile: http://www.myspace.com/koyaanisqatsy1
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