{"id":31026,"date":"2026-08-28T05:30:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31026"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:43:26","slug":"faust-proudly-outside-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/faust-proudly-outside-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Faust: Proudly Outside (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Werner \u201cZappi\u201d Diermaier readily admits to his Zappa fandom. \u201cAround 1968, I came to the Gr\u00fcnspan club with a Frank Zappa album under my arm,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe DJ, Peter Voss, didn\u2019t know the album, but he was interested, and he played a track from it. After that, I was called \u2018Zappa,\u2019 but later I was renamed \u2018Zappi\u2019 because I didn\u2019t want to be a double.\u201d<\/p>\n

A listener hearing Faust So Far<\/i> for the first time might not even realize that tracks like \u201cOn the Way to Abam\u00e4e\u201d and \u201cNo Harm\u201d are by the same artist. P\u00e9ron says that the stylistic variety of the group\u2019s output wasn\u2019t the product of intention. \u201cWe had no plan, no direction, no intention,\u201d he says, \u201cand we still don’t. Every piece we composed is the product of a spontaneous decision or a chance \u2018concours de circonstances.\u2019\u201d In his view, one member would \u201cpush the boat in a more or less clear direction, and the others then paddled more or less in the same direction… or not.\u201d Each of the Faust musicians came from his own musical background, and by nature that was reflected in the music they made together. \u201cWe wanted to show the musical richness we came with,\u201d Irmler says. \u201cSix musicians, six worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was a unifying aesthetic that bound Faust\u2019s music together, it was adventurousness. \u201cWe attempted to bundle the purely experimental \u2018neo\u2013free jazz\u2019 [into our music],\u201d Irmler says. \u201cWe could also offer [songs in] 4\/4 time, but generally we found that too stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea that their records might sell and earn them some D-Marks seems never to have occurred to the members of Faust in the 1970s. Irmler was financially independent at the time, and thus free from commercial concerns. Diermaier says that the prospect of selling records \u201cplayed no role\u201d at all in what the band did. P\u00e9ron laughs at the question. \u201cFaust and money!? We deliberately destroyed two consecutive opportunities for fame and fortune. We left the road to commercial success with our heads held high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laughing again, P\u00e9ron recalls Faust\u2019s sole attempt at crafting a mainstream-type song in a bid for a hit. \u201cIt was called \u2018Baby,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cIt sounded great. Our producer flew in a \u2018hit expert\u2019 from the UK. He came, listened \u2013 to a few bars \u2013 and left! That was the end of our search for money.\u201d The early \u201870s slab of whacked-out garage-psychedelia (with drum solo) eventually surfaced on a 1986 compilation Munic & Elsewhere<\/i> and again in 1988 on Seventy One Minutes Of\u2026 <\/i>
\nThe cover of the Faust So Far<\/i> LP was all black, with the title in light blue, 36-point type text. (\u201cThe group agreed [only] on the concept of \u2018black,\u2019 P\u00e9ron says.) The inner sleeve, however, was in full color and featured a collection of original paintings by artist Edda K\u00f6chl; one corresponding to each track on the record. P\u00e9ron says that producer Nettlebeck was responsible for the idea. \u201cHe entrusted Edda with the illustrations; they all fit the music perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faust\u2019s third album, 1973\u2019s The Faust Tapes<\/i> was the object of a novel marketing gambit: UK label Virgin released it for the price of a single (a Faustian bargain, one might say). It sold as many as 100,000 copies in the UK, but the label lost money on the release. (Bureau B reissued the critically-acclaimed The Faust Tapes<\/i> in 2022.)<\/p>\n

In 1973, Faust also released their fourth album, Faust IV<\/i>. That record would be the final release from the original lineup of the group. While it sounds little like Faust So Far<\/i>, the record nonetheless features the ineffable Faustian qualities that made the group unique and special. Recorded in England, the record once again balanced the group\u2019s interest in juxtaposing free-form experimentation with tracks built upon (comparatively) conventional song structure.<\/p>\n

In places, Faust IV<\/i>\u2019s 11-minute-plus opening track, \u201cKrautrock\u201d feels like a parody \u2013 or at least a pastiche \u2013 of the motorik<\/i> style favored by fellow German band Neu! But when that observation is posed to Diermaier, P\u00e9ron and Irmler, it is met with stony silence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yet when the discussion turns to Faust IV<\/i>\u2019s \u201cThe Sad Skinhead,\u201d P\u00e9ron opens up and admits to the group having a sense of humor. \u201cWe laughed a lot in our music,\u201d he admits. \u201cMany pieces were played tongue-in-cheek.\u201d The remaining songs on Faust IV<\/i> are a heady mix of dissonance, lilting melodies juxtaposed with seemingly random bursts of noise, acoustic hippie folk leavened with throbbing electronics, one-chord electric jams overlaid with field recordings. The record is a collection of elements that shouldn\u2019t work together, yet somehow do.<\/p>\n

Understanding that each member of Faust brought his distinct \u2013 and strongly held \u2013 sensibilities to the work, it\u2019s something of a surprise that the albums got made at all. Faust seems to have deliberately lacked the cohesive, unified vision (or at least a leader who called the tunes) that defines many successful groups. \u201cWe all had different ideas about work rhythms, and work in general,\u201d says P\u00e9ron. \u201cCompletely different ideas about music and making music, and completely different ideas about camaraderie, friendship and group spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group members went their own ways in 1975. Several members reconvened in 1990, and today Diermaier and W\u00fcsthoff carry on as Faust. But Jean-Herv\u00e9 P\u00e9ron believes he knows what held the original group together for the first half of the 1970s. \u201cWe complemented each other,\u201d he says. \u201cOne had exactly what the other would have liked to have: probably, the common desire to create something completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diermaier, P\u00e9ron and Irmler agree that Faust made an important contribution to music in their original run. But more than a half-century on, the collective individuality that was a hallmark of the group continues as they each share a unique perspective. Faust\u2019s legacy is \u201cfree improvisation,\u201d Diermaier says. \u201cImprovisation that is about the bigger picture, not about egoistic self-display. It\u2019s about the expression of feelings, not about mastering a technique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually a flyspeck in the cosmos,\u201d says P\u00e9ron. \u201cBut there is a feeling that what we did was perhaps not so bad.\u201d He pauses and amends his observation. \u201cOkay, I admit: it flatters the ego.\u201d Irmler says that Faust\u2019s long-lasting impact \u201cwas planned and intended from the very beginning. Faust forever!\u201d Asked to define Faust\u2019s musical legacy, he responds with a single word: \u201cIndividuality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Werner \u201cZappi\u201d Diermaier readily admits to his Zappa fandom. \u201cAround 1968, I came to the Gr\u00fcnspan club with a Frank Zappa album under my arm,\u201d he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31035,"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-31026","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":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31026"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31821,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31026\/revisions\/31821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}