KRAMM: coeur
2000, Danse Macabre

If I had known this was what Bruno Kramm kept to himself during all his years with Das Ich, I would have sought him up and punched some sense into him. "Coeur" is more melodic, rhythmic and easy on the ears than Das Ich. With borrowed excerpts from both VNV Nation and Apoptygma Berzerk, Kramm adds his strange, characteristic German lyrics and ends up smiling. At least he should, 'cause this is fantastic stuff!

To hear Bruno Kramm sing and sing like this is something of a shock, to be honest. And he actually can sing.
"Coeur" is exclusively electronic with one, glorious, exception. A forthcoming single choice if it were up to me. "Ich ahne dich" is raw power. Electronics, guitars and a perfectly contrasted blend of vocals. Anne Wagner of, in my opinion, underrated pop band Obsc(y)re helps bringing "Ich ahne dich" to impressive heights.

Most of the tracks on Kramm's first solo album are upbeat and club friendly, whilst the mentioned "Ich ahne dich" and the final track "Ragnarök", a song reminding me of the softer side of Wumpscut, are somewhat slower.
Not being a Das Ich fan, my initial expectations were quite low. As it turns out, though, I ended up with widened eyes, sweat running down my forehead and an urge to tell the world about "Coeur" as soon as possible.
Niklas Forsberg, releasemagazine.net

The godfathers of dark electronic music have done it again. Just two years following Das Ich’s successful album Lava, the duo of Stefan Ackermann and Bruno Kramm present their follow-up which has no comparisons. The remarkable dark Cabaret delivers naughty sound escapades in multiple cynical interpretations of a basic theme centered around the costumes for marionette theatre. For the album, Kramm’s usual electronic chamber orchestra was accompanied by a large variety of vital sounding acoustic collages. This deviates from the usual electronic blend of Das Ich by producing songs which allude to a twilight somewhere between claustrophobic reality and unchained phantasmic atmosphere. Ackermann’s vocals range between incantations and distorted madness to draw the listener through their visit to the nightmare theatre, giving them a joyride through their darkest emotions. Next to hymnic song jewels like “Atemlos,” “Paradigma” and the radical minimalistic dance floorer crusher “Opferzeit” the album also ventures into experimental sound collages with songs like “Fluch,” lead by guest vocalist Marianne Iser’s erotic opera-like vocals. It excites and terrifies as the album reaches its climax with the title track “Cabaret.” Point blank Das Ich pose the questions “What is imagination and what’s destiny? Where does reality end and where does madness begin?”
metropolis records