Faust is a German krautrock band, originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron, Rudolf Sosna and Gunter Wüsthoff, working with producer Uwe Nettelbeck and engineer Kurt Graupner.

History
The group formed in 1971 and located themselves in the rural setting of Wümme. They secured a lucrative record deal with Polydor and soon began recording their debut, Faust, which sold poorly but received critical acclaim for its innovative approach and established a devoted fanbase. Faust became one of the premier bands in the international appreciation of the genre that would eventually be known as krautrock. Faust became one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's Virgin Records, who embarked on a marketing campaign somewhat daring for its time, aimed at introducing Faust to UK record-buyers in as big a way as possible. The Faust Tapes was a cut-and-paste album which spliced together a large number of bits and pieces from their extensive collection of private recordings, not originally intended for release, but widely regarded today as their finest work. Virgin issued it at the then price of a single, 48 UK pence (they did the same the following year with Gong's Camembert Electrique album except that by then the price of a single had gone up to 59 pence). The Faust Tapes reportedly sold over 100,000 copies but its low price tag rendered it ineligible for a chart placing. Faust were arguably the most radical of the groups of their era, using advanced studio techniques and electronics in a way that opened up new possibilities for studio composition. At the time they may not have appeared to have had the same impact as a number of their German peers (notably Kraftwerk, Can and Tangerine Dream), but they are increasingly recognised as the most far-sighted of the German groups of that era. Faust broke up in 1975 after Virgin had rejected their fifth album (some of the recordings later appeared on the "Munich and Elsewhere" album), but reissues of their recordings and various additional material through Chris Cutler's Recommended Records maintained a level of interest. Faust experimented with the presentation of some of their records. Their first album was originally on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve with an X-ray of a human fist silkscreened on the outer sleeve ("faust" is German for "fist"). The second album, So Far made extensive use of black, though inside the sleeve were sheets with one illustration for each song. The Faust Tapes had a visually disturbing op art cover design by Bridget Riley, while that for Faust IV consisted of a series of blank music staves. The impact of these designs is largely lost in CD reissues. After Faust's breakup, the group's whereabouts were unknown; the Recommended Records catalogues talked about the group's "disappearance". The official website lists three concerts during the 1980's, and the "Patchwork" album, a compilation of outtakes, feature three snippets that were recorded in the 80's, but apart from that, the groups' activities between 1975 and 1990 remain shrouded in mystery. In 1990, members Irmler, Diermaier and Péron reunited for performances . 1994, Péron and Diermaier toured the United States for the first time, assisted by Steven Wray Lobdell. They have continued to perform in various combinations and with various additional musicians ever since. In the booklet for The Wumme Years box set, Péron announced that Sosna had died on November the 10th 1996 . Gunter Wüsthoff has not taken part in any of the reunions. Diermaier has always been behind the drum kit. Irmler was present, but contributed little to the reunited groups' first concerts, and did not participate in the 1994 US tour, but took a more active role after that, producing the groups' records and releasing them on his Klangbad label. He also compiled and edited the "Patchwork" album. In 1996, Diermaier and Péron meet Olivier Manchion and Amaury Cambuzat (Ulan Bator). They performed for the first time together as "Collectif Met(z)" in November 1996 (this quartet is the basis of an actual Faust line-up and this concert is part of a 2005 release). Few days after, Faust performs at the Garage in London and at the Transmusicales de Rennes, featuring Chris Cutler. Great return, ovation. Péron left the group in june 1997.From mid-1997 to 2004, Faust tours as Zappi W. Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Steven Wray Lobdell, Lars Paukstat, Michael Stoll. Diermaier and "art-errorist" Péron rejoined in 2004 by immediately recording "Trial and Error" , DVD to be released 2007 by Fuenfundvierzig Label. Zappi proposed to Péron to start a "new" Faust together with Olivier Manchion and Amaury Cambuzat from Ulan Bator. Diermaier/Péron's new Faust did their première at Art-Errorist Avant Garde festival ( Schiphorst, Germany), presenting in the same time a new release entitled "Collectif Met(z)", a collection of live, new and unreleased songs. This incarnation of the group has been extremely active, releasing several CD-Rs and DVD-Rs and touring extensively, including a very successful autumn 2005 UK tour,

released in 2007 as "... In Autumn" by Dirter.

A new album has also been recorded by Diermaier, Péron and Cambuzat and is produced and mixed by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter of Nurse With Wound. It will be released in the first half of 2007. Faust now exists in two completely different incarnations,both active and each reflecting different aspects of the original group. Uwe Nettelbeck, Faust's creator and producer, died 17 January 2007.

The England Tour from 27. Oktober to 10. November 2005 in Bangor, Aberdeen, Cardiff, London, Brighton, New Castle and in the end in Hammersmithpalais in London was a big success. "Faust", as Faust founder Jean Herve Peron and Zappi W. Diermaier, also Amaury Cambuzat und Olivier Manchion performed several "Faust" Songs from the 70s live for the first time in the fausthistory.

Big nose zappi,  art-errorist jhp, faust members olivier manchion  and amaury cambuzat decided to meet in  carina’s  old mill in LUTH/south of france,to tune in for their upcoming three concerts :
Les Nuits Sonores of Lyon, Paris La Villette Festival and the  Bodoe Notudgang Festival .We also had invited Keef Rob to join us at our rehearsal-retreat to be ready for Lyon .
We had long talks about the “ set-list-concept”: the UK.tour Nov.05 had shown that the audience  appreciates to hear the “old tunes” but we missed the lengthy free improvisations . So we decided to take up the challenge and play “old stuff” which had not been played before  and mix totally free  pieces in between with no time-restricting factor.

We spent ten days of diciplined joyful practicing routine : begin at 7 a.m, work till 8 p.m every day . It turned out to be first extremly tedious but soon we felt that we were rapidly progressing towards our goal: at the Nuits Sonores we played for the first time ever  most material of our first LP “faust clear” .It was generally considered as “impossible to play live” . .. why don’t you eat carrots, slow goes the goose, me lack space, in the spirit, meadow meal ….In order to visually support and enrich the set , we showed a video that we had made in luth  with ourselves as comedians .
The festival was well organized   and our guest-artists Walter Monnen and  Keef Rob did a splendid job on acoustic guitar ,keys , vocals and sounds.  Keef returned to the USA with our best thanks and respect.
Julien Perrin came with his video crew  to secure detailed  footage of the lyon  set-up and performance . It will be  part of a  documentary film dedicated to the German music scene  from the late sixties on.
Julien ( camera)  and Julien ( soundman) followed us also in the studio CAMPUS  in Paris  where we met with our guest-artists John Greaves ( henry cow etc…)  and Lilla Peron, violin at the National Conservatory of Classical Music .We  rehearsed there  for one and a half day. John cancelled  a wedding invitation in Normandy to support us !
In Paris La Villette, we were scheduled to play outdoors but the weather-gods had decided differently ! The promoteres had to re-organize the whole festival so we ended up after eight hours delay in a beautiful venue “ la Halle Aux Cuirs” holdind 300 people: by the time we started our performance, they had to open the gates behind the stage  and let  the enthusiastic audience  watch us from behind, standing in the rain. All in all, about  1000 people sqeezed inside and outside  . It was very motivating.
We were not happy about the monitor balance on stage and had to play  “ by the ear”  in that case quite difficult and this is where  our work in the mill  and at the Campus studios showed their   efficiency. Fortunately, we found out later that the recordings of the  FOH sound was more than acceptable . John and Lilla   triggered most  intense and fascinating moments in the performance .

In between  Lyon and Paris , we had booked studio time in Hamburg: 5 days with zappi, jhp and amaury where we recorded exclusively improvisations . We have made a rough mix of these sessions  and are now looking for a label  to  release  a new album. We were  fully pleased by the output, by  the quality of the recordings as well as  by the vitality of the music We decided to take that “spirit” to Bodoe where we knew that we had to play in that same  trio form.
Bodoe, yes, all the way up north, beyond the polar circle.  A festival organized by idealists where  idealist artists performed for an idealist audience !  a beautiful feeling….amazing the courage of the promoters to put up a festival of only uncompromising music  …hat off ! perfect FOH sound and perfect monitor sound ! We also had  a splendid “backline shop” , a metal scrapyard  surrounded by a grandioso norwegian sea/mountains landscape. We were allowed to do our sparks and flames and smoke and tv-smashing , ironing, water splashing .We played two sets this time to give room enough for our free impros. .Our guest artist this time was “Shit-Lars “ (!) He drummed the hell out of the end of first set and welded wild flames at the end of the second. ..the contrast between the  nobel venue and the outrageousness of all the performances was just overwhelming..total destruction of the backline and absolute smoke out of the venue  which  sparked off  general fire alarm in the vicinity…. a looooong trip from faust headquarters to bodoe but we do not regret one second.

Trial and Error


after a few years of seperation, Jean Herve and Zappi called each other at the exact same time. We decided to meet in early 2005 in my basement studio and just start playing. In 2004, I already had an idea to produce something under the title "trial and error": senselessly playing around, with no target, just to see what would happened, in very close connection with a video recording. Jean Herve, a specialist when it comes to laying vocals spontaneously, came up with a few songs right away. For example "Marylin Monroe" - "ich kann es kaum erwarten dass der Tag anfängt" ("I can barely wait for the day to start"), or "caise claire", a song against nicotine. He put his head inside of a trash can filled with cigarette ashes, and dug his hands in it, which gave a good sound foundation. I put the camera on a random point and filmed for example only his butt or his feet, which resulted in the song "Füße" ("Feet") After the recording i tweaked the sound with extreme effects and edited the video in synchronisation with the sound. After that, "Person S" likewise processed the Video with effects.
As a bonus we included two "Faust" experiments, taken from the Wümme archives of the early 70's. With two photos from this time, also made to motion pictures using video effects, as well as two songs with Amaury Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion from the group "ulan bator", which we recorded in the kitchen in Schiphorst acoustically with a camera. ("rainy day" and "rondo")
On the cover we show the title in minutes, as well as in GB as AVI files.