Geisterfahrer

Geisterfahrer is a dark wave band from Hamburg that was founded in 1979 by Michael Ruff (vocals), Matthias Schuster (guitar, synthesizer, vocals), Hans Keller (violin, synthesizer, bass) and Holger Hiller (synthesizer). Supported by a drum machine, the group had one of their first appearances at the Hamburg "Into the Future" festival, where they provoked the hardcore punks there with improvised electrical noise so much that they were switched off during the gig. Holger Hiller letf shortly afterwards to form Palais Schaumburg. Jürgen Weiss (drums, bass) joined the band as a replacement.

The Geisterfahrer was the first band to release a single for Alfred Hilsberg's record label ZickZack Records. However, the EP 'Geisterfahrer' was inferior due to the lack of studio technology, so that the group was the first German new wave band to sign a contract with a major label. The debut LP 'Schatten Voraus' was released in 1980. With lyrics by singer Michael Ruff about scarlet fever and plague crosses, as well as a musical mixture of cold wave, gothic rock and medieval moments, The Geisterfahrer steered into the dark wave environment and stylistically anticipated the  Neue Deutsche Todeskunst. In 1980 they were pretty lonely with this kind of music. 

A short later, Hans Keller left to work as a music journalist in New York. Shrinking into a trio, the follow-up LP 'Fest Der Vielen Sinne' turned out to be much more rock. The group now focused more on the dark wave sound a la Joy Division and Bauhaus. With "Himmel Auf Erden" there was even a smaller hit that found its way onto various NDW samplers. After various live concerts, the next LP 'Topal' was released in 1983, which was again produced independently of the industry in its own GF studio, but did not match the success of the previous records. Matthias Schuster recorded some electronic-experimental soundtracks for the GF video together with Erdem Güngörecek and Michael Bühl (trumpet, trombone, flute), but these only appeared on vinyl in 1987 under the title 'The Other Side Of ...' in a limited edition.

In 1986 the group returned in the line-up of Michael Ruff, Matthias Schuster, Erdem Güngörecek and Jürgen Weiss, expanded with Andy Giorbino (guitar) and Kirsten Klemm (cello). With the LP 'Fisch Gott' the band was able to connect with the old classics like 'Fest Der Vielen Sinne'. However, the successor 'Stein & Bein' was disappointing. The title song was successful again, but the rest of the record irritated the audience with English-speaking mainstream rock. After 'G-Far-I', recorded with the new bass player Marco Van Basten, turned out to be similar and offered nothing new, Geisterfahrer split, since the band members pursued various solo projects. [SOURCE. WIKIPEDIA]