{"id":31025,"date":"2026-08-27T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31025"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:42:22","slug":"faust-proudly-outside-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/27\/faust-proudly-outside-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Faust: Proudly Outside (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the most outr\u00e9 and boundary-pushing musical acts of the 1970s, West German band Faust exerted influence that far outstripped its own popularity. Between 1971 and 1975 the band released five albums, each distinctly different from the others, and in the process they created a body of work that helped change the course of (if not all rock music, then at least) the experimental segment of rock. Now in 2026, Bureau B Records has reissued two of the band\u2019s landmark albums, 1972\u2019s Faust So Far<\/i> and 1973\u2019s Faust IV<\/i>. In connection with those reissues, I spoke with three founding members of the group about that period of Faust\u2019s history, those albums and their lasting influence.<\/p>\n

The term krautrock is a critic\u2019s \u2013 or record label\u2019s \u2013 invention, not the product of artists endeavoring to defining their own work in a concise manner. The label came about to describe a particularly German (then West German) music, loosely related to rock but often with little connection to the American musical forms that had influenced that genre. Whether the artists said to have fallen under the krautrock banner meant to or not, their music rarely bore the influences of blues, country or other styles with origins in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Instead, the deeply experimental music drew inspiration from European forms, and electronic pioneers like Karlheinz Stockhausen. Of course, it being the 1960s and \u201870s, the influence of illicit drugs colored the creative output of many krautrock artists, as did communal living and a generally free-wheeling disregard for such conventions as commercial appeal.<\/p>\n

Krautrock records didn\u2019t sell in massive numbers in West Germany, and if those records found international distribution at all \u2013 and a few did \u2013 their sales figures in the UK, U.S. and beyond were unremarkable. But the influence of krautrock has made an indelible impression on much of the rock-based music that followed in its wake: David Bowie, U2, Radiohead, Talking Heads and newer acts like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Trees Speak have all acknowledged a creative debt to German artists of the krautrock era.<\/p>\n

And thanks in part to that championing by high-profile British and American stars, wider recognition came to deserving German artists. While Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream had already found relatively high-profile success worldwide, today, lesser-known but quietly influential bands like Neu!, Harmonia, Cluster and Can have found earned recognition for their pioneering work.<\/p>\n

Yet even by the standards of krautrock, Faust stands apart. The music created by the iconoclastic aggregation from Hamburg fits only loosely (and sporadically) into the rock idiom; Faust\u2019s sound collages and experimental bent render it as one of krautrock\u2019s most challenging exponents. The fact is that Faust never really had a signature sound: each of its albums seemed to exist unto itself, exploring musical ideas that took the band in fascinating yet disparate directions.<\/p>\n

Faust was launched in 1971 by producer and music journalist Uwe Nettlebeck. With the goal of creating a band to work in Germany\u2019s underground music scene, he assembled a group comprised of drummer Werner \u201cZappi\u201d Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler (organ), bassist Jean-Herv\u00e9 P\u00e9ron, Rudolf Sosna (guitar and keyboards) and saxophonist\/synthesist Gunther W\u00fcsthoff. (Second drummer Arnulf Meifert appeared on the debut album and The Faust Tapes<\/i>, but would not be present on Faust So Far<\/i> nor Faust IV<\/i>.)<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s Nettlebeck-produced self-titled debut from 1971 was a bracing and improvisational collection of avant garde stylings, sound collages and experimental sounds. Though highly influential and critically acclaimed, Faust<\/i> was not a commercial blockbuster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mere months after releasing their debut, Faust was back in the studio, again with Nettlebeck, creating what would become their second LP, Faust So Far<\/i>. The band\u2019s sophomore release was a more conventional affair, but only by Faust standards: even to modern ears it\u2019s still a wonderfully weird-sounding record.<\/p>\n

Asked about the relative accessibility of Faust So Far<\/i> as compared to the debut, both P\u00e9ron and Diermaier decline to comment. But Irmler admitted that the change was intentional. \u201cOf course,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt was part of a consideration to make all the even-numbered albums \u2018poppier,\u2019 in our sense.\u201d He says that the album aimed to present what he describes as a \u201cFaustian feeling and interpretation of pop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diermaier explains that Faust So Far<\/i> was \u201cconstructed,\u201d and credits G\u00fcnther W\u00fcsthoff for its concept. But he emphasizes that it was a group effort. \u201cWith Faust, conception and improvisation are connected through the different approaches of the musicians,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat was decisive was that there was no leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the closest Faust So Far<\/i> came to what most listeners would consider pop was Sosna\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl.\u201d The track features a catchy melody wedded to a whooshing synthesizer sound and an insistent, monochromatic beat. Both of the latter qualities would be strongly associated with the sounds coming out of German bands Tangerine Dream and Neu! But Diermaier insists that Faust \u201chad nothing to do with [those] other bands. Rudolf had the idea for \u2018Rainy Day.\u2019 He came into my room at night, woke me up, and said I should play drums to it. Then we went into the studio. I played along, and that\u2019s how the piece came into being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irmler emphasizes that the term krautrock hadn\u2019t even been coined at the time. \u201cWe always felt somewhat outside of things,\u201d he says. \u201cRock was something we ultimately couldn\u2019t \u2013 and didn\u2019t want to \u2013 serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

P\u00e9ron says that even if krautrock existed at the time, he and his fellow musicians in Faust were unaware of any such movement. \u201cOur studio, the W\u00fcmme School, was at the end of the world in a village with no more than 100 inhabitants,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe had no ambition whatsoever to hear what was going on in the music world at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while Faust\u2019s music seems to exist in its own dimension, each member of the band had his own favorite artists. One might not detect the influences, but Irmler was a serious Beach Boys fan. Other members of Faust counted the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Pierre Boulez among their favorites. Sosna and Diermaier both had an appreciation for the music of Frank Zappa. But Faust went its own way, and it\u2019s perhaps only the music of last of those that bears any similarity to what they were doing.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve Got My Car and My TV\u201d is vaguely reminiscent of the approach employed by Frank Zappa and the Mothers on We\u2019re Only in it for the Money<\/i>, and \u201cGiggy Smile\u201d from Faust IV<\/i> suggests that Faust had an appreciation of the Mothers\u2019 Flo & Eddie years, when former Turtles Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman fronted Zappa\u2019s group. But the way Irmler addresses the topic doubles down on Faust\u2019s musical Eurocentrism: \u201cOf course,\u201d he says. \u201cThe [music of the] Europe-influenced Zappa was a companion for some of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be continued\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most outr\u00e9 and boundary-pushing musical acts of the 1970s, West German band Faust exerted influence that far outstripped its own popularity. Between 1971 and 1975 the band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,43,64,73],"tags":[3135],"class_list":["post-31025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-krautrock","category-reissue","category-vinyl","tag-faust","cat-41-id","cat-43-id","cat-64-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31032,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31025\/revisions\/31032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}