Zwitschermaschine

Zwitschermaschine

It is not certain whether the name of the band came from Paul Klee’s painting of the same title. Sometimes they added an „fourth root from” or played under a different name. What is certain is that the artstudents Cornelia Schleime and Ralf Kerbach, studying at the academy in Dresden, were fed up with oppressive regulation and the restriction of their experimental playing field in real socialism. Following an exhibition that was spoiled due to the restricting circumstances, they got tough and started their band project in 1979. Kerbach, who left the country for Westberlin in 1982, had a high regard for the Sex Pistols and The Stranglers, while Cornelia Schleime wanted to give a voice to her own lyrics, and this led to a constellation that began to change as new members, such as Michael Rom, Lothar Fiedler and Helge Leiberg, joined for long or short periods. Michael Rom’s rather romantic lyrics are waiting to be rediscovered. How much of the radicalism of the lyrics written by Sascha Anderson, their third singer, has survived since it became known that he worked for the Stasi remains to be determined.

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