DIE FISCHE - Eine Nacht in Cairo

"Bureau B present a reissue of Die Fische's Eine Nacht in Cairo, originally released 1986. Die Fische from Ratingen pressed their 1986 album Eine Nacht in Cairo in a small private edition. Long considered a forgotten treasure of the German post-punk underground, it has more recently been discovered all over again by new listeners as one or two cuts, such as "Fire Of Love" and "Conversation Of Everyday-Lovers", have broken through the topsoil into the vast reaches of the internet. Nowadays, collectors over the world search for precious copies of the Eine Nacht in Cairo album, a wonderfully rapturous album, somewhere between leftfield synth-pop and post-punk. Die Fische were founded by Bernd Oprach and Peter Walgenbach back in 1982. During the course of various sessions in the new, openly experimental Ratingen music scene, they got to know drummer Arnd Willert, who soon became a fully-fledged member of the band. The gravitational pull of the Düsseldorf scene and groups like Der Plan grew stronger around this time, with Ratinger Hof at its center. As punk, new wave and early, experimental NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) orbited around the trio, they decided to renegotiate their own trajectory, creating music far removed from traditional forms. Their approach to recording (including the use of a Walkman) the electronic equipment they had assembled, such as sequencers, synthesizers (for guitar sounds too) and drum machines opened up new sonic horizons. Compared to today's digital technology, however, the means at their disposal were rather limited. Instead of holding them back, this actually set the tone for creative improvisation. Allied to Dadaist elements, the early works are strikingly uncompromising. Ten tracks featured on the 1983 cassette which represented the self-released debut by Die Fische. The band played a host of shows throughout Germany from 1982 onwards, many of them in the Düsseldorf region. The subsequent album, Eine Nacht in Cairo, sounds altogether more structured and mature. This time around, the line-up was augmented by the vocalist Patrick, bassist and co-lodger Konrad Mathieu and an additional session drummer, Gigi Sessenhausen. The band members continued to work in numerous other projects, with fluctuations and new formations in shifting constellations very much in the spirit of the age. Die Fische can be seen as a band who were energized by the current of musical optimism in the early 1980s. Many treasures disappeared all too quickly." - Bureau B.