SCHWUND – Lebendige Lügengebäude

Time does not pass without a trace in the era we live in, and so the music on SCHWUND’s new album LEBENDIGE LÜGENGEBÄUDE sounds less playful, almost stoic, more uncompromising than his previous releases (including those on Nachschlag). The Berlin-based synth-punk musician has been active in the Berlin punk and wave underground in various formations for more than 10 years; From 2017 to 2021, he played drums for the Berlin punk band MASKE. In 2019, together with Cosey Mueller, he launched the synth-wave duo DAS DAS, which released two records on Detriti Records. In 2021, he founded the no wave / synth-punk duo LOHN DER ANGST, whose most recent release UNTERGANG VOM UNTERGANG came out on MANGELin 2024. Since 2015, following the release of the GEDANKENÜBERFALL EP, he has been performing solo as SCHWUND, playing live with analog synthesizers and partly surreal, often satirical lyrics in German. With the exception of the 170-minute-long double tape NEUE GRÜTZE (2017), his releases have been strongly influenced by early NDW, punk, and the cassette underground of the early ’80s. This includes the vinyl release TECHNIK UND GEFÜHL (2019) on Phantom Records. Between 2021 and 2023, SCHWUND released the three-part series DIEEZER TÜBE, partly through his own label NACHSCHLAG. The music was issued on taped-over Schlager cassettes, with the extra tape length filled with sound collages made from field recordings and synth-noise textures. His new album LEBENDIGE LÜGENGEBÄUDE will be released on vinyl in November 2025 via MANGEL Records. Its sound is more repetitive and harder, drawing on EBM and industrial influences: driving rhythms meet warped synth melodies and electric funkyness. Lyrically, the album delivers nested, dark, and sometimes warning words — tinged with bizarre humor — layered over pounding beats and technoid sequences. This album is a status report, a séance, an uprising, a crisis meeting.