PromoFabrik Webblog: Czech VANESSA return with new album after 12 years

Masochistic attractiveness was always the feature of Vanessa gigs. The audience, separated from the band by wire mesh and blinded by the projections - totally futuristic, merging fragments of porn and faces of mass murderers with optimistic computer animations - came face to face with something they had never before and never after experienced. It was not about the cultural experience itself, but about the sort of feelings one has after being mugged by a gang of angry, perverse youngsters who have just plundered a sex shop. Despite that, the audience kept coming back to Vanessa gigs...

In the general chaos accompanying the fall of communism, two people met in 1990 in Prague. These two people could have met only at that exact time and in that exact place. Daniel Rodný, genius programmer from an orthodox Jewish family and Samir Hauser, son of a Czech-Iraqi marriage, whose father was a high-ranking officer in Saddam Hussein's army.

The connection of Rodný's enthusiasm for electronic music and Hauser's genius as a lyricist, enhanced by the absence of any inhibitions, gave birth to the super-successful albums Disco Bastards, Flashback and Monogamy, which have to this day been an influence on anybody who decides to buy an electronic instrument. The video for the song “Prokopat se ven” won the 1993 European MTV Local Heroes prize

The energy with which the band approached their work and performances clearly had to tear them apart. Rodný left Vanessa in 1995. For a short period of time, Miroslav Papež, a fan of industrial sounds and all old electronic devices, became Hauser's new partner. At EMI they released the album Vanessa Gun and then immediately decided to take a creative break.

In the meantime, Samir Hauser was working as a cabaret singer under the pseudonym Bruno Ferrari, while Miroslav Papež started to work intensively with the Berlin independent scene, especially with Steve Morell's Pale Records label, where his side project Moimir Papalescu And The Nihilists was released.

Sometime in 2007, Hauser got back in touch with his original partner Rodný and both agreed that it was time for the band's rebirth and upgrade into the 21st century. Into their renewed project they invited Papež and also Jaroslav Stuchlý, a member of the hardcore band Michael's Uncle, and the operator Jakub Horák.
The material for the new album was created not only in the band's secret laboratories but also in Berlin, where the sound of the album came under the control of Alexander Hacke. It is the year 2009 and the world needs Vanessa again...

… and that is why the legendary VANESSA has been raised from the dead and has launched probably the most awaited comeback of the year. The Ave Agony album was produced by Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten); those who participated in its creation were, apart from singer Samir Hauser and composers Miroslav Papež and Daniel Rodný, drummer Jaroslav Stuchlý and producer Jakub Horák. A tough crew, naturalistic Czech lyrics and a revealing picture of a corrupt reality: that is the new Vanessa.
"We're doing mainstream these days, kind of pleasant tunes for people of our age, but for the younger ones as well," says Rodný. "The lyrics are about the pleasures and joys of people experiencing their mid-life crisis. If the folks want to discover something about themselves, including the dark side which is in every one of us, the Ave Agony album will make it possible for them," adds Hauser.

Bandmembers:
Samir Hauser (solo vocals and lyrics)
Jakub Horák (operator and producer)
Jaroslav Stuchlý (drums and percussion)
Daniel Rodný (analogue and digital instruments)
Miroslav Papež (analogue and digital instruments, vocals)

Other artists appearing on Ave Agony:
Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) – production
Ecson Waldes - mastering
Adolf Lachman - art design
Zdeněk Trinkewitz – design and typography
David N. Jahn – video and special animation
Adam Holý, Václav

Release-Date:
December 5th, 2009

Genre:
Electro / Industrial

Year of foundation:
1990

Tracklisting:
01 Satanova pomsta
02 Spolkni ďábla
03 Chci zmizet
04 Ahoj, chcípni
05 Mukamba
06 Fízl na speedu
07 Nechtěná magie
08 Den kdy jsme ztratili koule
09 Primitiv
10 Zrcadla
11 Melodrama
12 Smrad z lidí
13 Babylon

Discography:
1990: Killing Dance (Demo) 
1991: Discobastards (CD) 
1992: Flashback (CD) 
1995: Monogamy (CD) 
1997: Vanessa Gun (CD) 
2009: Ave Agony (CD)

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