1992 was an eventful year to say the least. TJ had teamed up with Armin Schwarzfeld, with whom he had played in a band called: "Spirit of Soul" in 1985, and the duo formed EXZESS. Their idea was to record an electronic album that should pay tribute to artists like Depeche Mode or Kraftwerk and the genuine decline of electronic music. There were tensions right from the start; TJ wanted to sound new and different while Armin, who was really into Depeche and Front 242, wanted to be as close to Depeche as possible. During the recordings for the EXZESS release Thomas became a diabetic, got married and his wife got pregnant as well. 
Wedding 1992, from left to right: Best man Michael Seib, TJ, his wife Petra and TJs mother
Franca Pettrich, who later joined TJ to continue Digital Dreams, met Thomas during the EXZESS recordings. The two became close friends and even went off to record material for the EXZESS without Armin at the "Mainton-Studio" at a Bunker (pic) in Offenbach, with Frank M. on the helm, who later co-produced the 1996 release "Digital Dreams - Vesicula".
TJs brother Hans-Juergen provided the masks for the cover
The music was finally released in June 1992 but only as a tape. There was no money for a CD production at that point in time. Exzess split later in 1992 after rave reviews of their music and TJ and Franca carried on with Digital Dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment