THE BLECH

THE BLECH
unscrupulous entertainment (1985-1996)

In 1985, Hubl Greiner and Rupert Volz founded the band THE BLECH – a project that from the outset resists any clear categorization and understands “Skrupelloses Entertainment” not only as provocation but as a guiding artistic principle.

THE BLECH is not a genre, but a system malfunction – a musical chameleon driven by a taste for escalation. Moving between moshpit-ready punk and the refined aesthetics of contemporary classical music, they dismantle stylistic certainties and reassemble them in real time. Their live activity reflects this radical permeability. Over eleven years, the band tours across Asia, North and South America, Europe, and the former Eastern Bloc countries. They are invited twice to the documenta in Kassel, perform at rock and pop festivals alongside artists such as Nina Hagen and Chaka Khan, share punk festival stages with Henry Rollins and Einstürzende Neubauten, and appear at jazz festivals with Cecil Taylor and Herbie Hancock. At avant-garde and contemporary music festivals, they perform in direct proximity with Fred Frith, John Zorn, Helmut Lachenmann, and Mauricio Kagel.

With six releases, THE BLECH creates an autonomous musical universe composed of Brecht and Weill fragments, Arabic influences, Dada, jazz, punk, and new music. The band works with layering, rupture, and deliberately staged irritation. Their pieces are driven by eccentric, idiosyncratic texts that are both playful and darkly subversive, and by a vocal style that cuts through space like a muezzin, frightening even operetta singers.

Alongside their recordings, THE BLECH also present radical video clips and uncompromising live shows. Their concerts develop into unpredictable condensations of sound, action, and physical presence. The stage becomes a site of immediate confrontation, where energy is unleashed and perception is shifted. Between ecstasy and loss of control, situations arise that resist any form of repetition.

The band’s recordings are released on labels including HEUTE music prod., Columbia Japan, Jaro Medien GmbH, Traumton Berlin, Trikont, What’s so funny about, In-Poly-Sons (France), Independance, Supporti Fonografici (Italy), Rough Trade, and Macadam Mambo 17.

THE BLECH & Contemporary Music

The appearance of THE BLECH at the 34th International Summer Courses for New Music in 1988 marks a radical turning point in the festival’s history. Under the direction of Friedrich Hommel, who aims to open the traditionally academic “ivory tower” of new music to popular forms, THE BLECH become the first rock formation to perform in this highly specialized context.

The lineup consists of core members Hubl Greiner (drums, metals, sampler), Rupert Volz (vocals, guitar), Therofal Rödelberger (bass), and Helmut Bieler-Wendt (baritone Violektra, “Knackfrösche”).

The artistic concept of „Narrncartan mit Peripetie oder ein ganz gewöhnlicher Tag im Leben des großen Gurglers“ is aimed at deliberate boundary crossing: the band fuses the eruptive energy of rock and punk with complex compositional structures (Joachim Krebs), free improvisation, multimedia elements, and performative contributions by Uwe von Trotha (speech, hypermodern expressive dance, underwater performance).

Reactions from the professional audience in Darmstadt are deeply divided, ranging from enthusiastic approval to sharp rejection. For parts of the conservative audience and faculty, the volume and physicality of the band come as a shock and are perceived as a provocation against academic purism. Younger listeners, however, celebrate the performance as a necessary revitalization and liberation from rigid dogmas.

Despite – or precisely because of – these controversies, the concert is now regarded as a historic event that paved the way for the later integration of electronic music and experimental pop culture into the canon of contemporary music.

THE BLECH – Final Tour

In 1996, the band embarks on a final tour through Russia and Siberia, accompanied by several television appearances, including a talk show with Artemy Troitsky and live broadcasts on Russian television. The journey culminates in a concert at a Moscow football stadium in front of around 40,000 spectators, broadcast nationwide and reaching an estimated 25 million viewers on television.

 

CULTURAL DECEPTION, EROTICISM AND SAUERKRAUT

Hubl Greiner describes the music of THE BLECH as follows:

“We ask questions without knowing the answers. We show life as it is – a mad simultaneous concert of murder, cultural fraud, eroticism and sauerkraut. We dissolve the eternal conflict of opposites into laughter. We have persuaded the Virgin Mary to marry the devil.

In our show, the stakes are not only in the air – there is also confrontation with chair legs, key rings and boot jacks. The space in which we rage like the possessed trembles; the shoe of a friend lies dead on the stage. Another one gets hit on the head with something hard, so that he is illuminated by a vision.

THE BLECH is a show for the panties of the prima donna, for the penis of the llama in the zoo, and for you.”

HIGHLIGHTS | festivals/concerts

  • 5. RENCONTRES DE MUSIQUES ELECTRONIQUES, Wissembourg/France
  • „MUSIK UND THEATERFESTIVAL“ Singen
  • Festival „MUSIQUES ACTION INTERNATIONALE 87“ Nancy/France
  • „FREE MUSIC PROJECT“, (Live at Radio France Culture, Paris, with Tom Cora)
  • „HUGO BALL AUSSTELLUNG“, at Lenbachhaus/Munich and Kunsthaus/Zürich
  • „LAUSCHANGRIFF-FESTIVAL“, Hannover
  • Festival AVIGNON
  • Concert at DOKUMENTA KASSEL 87
  • Festival at „PALAST DER REPUBLIK“, East Germany
  • JAZZHAUSFESTIVAL KÖLN
  • EDATANTES MUSIQUES, Dijon/France
  • JAZZFESTIVAL „DOM OMLADINE BEOGRADA“, Belgrade
  • GÖTTINGER JAZZFESTIVAL, at „Deutsches Theater“ (with Franz Dobler)
  • INTERGALLAKTISCHES LÄRM UND STRUKTUR FESTIVAL, Stuttgart
  • FESTIVAL „RHEINKULTUR“, Bonn
  • CONCERTO EXT Praca da Liberdade, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil
  • KLANGWOLKE, at Potsdamer Platz Berlin
  • FESTIVAL BARBUE, Kopenhagen/Denmark
  • CLUB QUATTRO, Tokyo/Osaka (with Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi)
  • JAZZFESTIVAL BERLIN (Jazzfocus)
  • MUSIK MOSAIK, Linz/Austria
  • MULTIMEDIALE (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie), Karlsruhe 89
  • WOODROCK FESTIVAL
  • FERIENKURSE FÜR NEUE MUSIK, Darmstadt (with Joachim Krebs, Uwe von Trotha)
  • Festival „TRANSMISSION“, Berlin/Tempodrom
  • MELKWEG, Amsterdam
  • OPERAHOUSE ST. PETERSBURG
  • Solidarity concert for the citizen forum (Prague)
  • BAND OF THE YEAR 1989, Czech Republic
  • DAS FEST, Karlsruhe
  • ROCKFESTIVAL at the ice-hockey stadium Prague
  • WRO 90 Sound Basis Visual Art Festival, Wroclaw/Poland
  • FESTIVAL PORTA 90
  • ARTROCK-FESTIVAL, St.Etienne/France
  • Tour with „Deutsche Bundesbahn“
  • Concert at DOKUMENTA KASSEL 92
  • DISSONANTEN, Rotterdam
  • ART ROCK INTERMEZZO at Volksbildungsheim Frankfurt
  • Festival Kufstein
  • Festival AREA SISMICA, Italy
  • Festival VICTORIAVILLE, Montreal
  • Festival MIMI, Marseille
  • Festival „Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie“, Karlsruhe
  • ODENWALD Festival of Mani Neumeier (Guru Guru)
  • Festival LAUSCHANGRIFF, Nürnberg
  • International FESTIVAL INTERWEEK, Novosibirsk
  • Festival BERLIN IN MOSKAU (Concert at Theatre Mossowjet Moscow, parts of the concert were shown in ARD
  • Tagesthemen, ZDF Kulturspiegel and NTV)
  • Talkshow with Artemy Troitsky in TV Russia
  • Concert at the Dynamo football stadium Moscow (broadcasted live in TV Russia)

FURTHER CONCERTS/FESTIVALS

North- and Southamerica, Canada, Japan, Russia, Siberia, Italy, France, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slowenia, Croatia, Netherland, Slovak Republic

THE MUSICIANS

  • Hubl Greiner … drums, objects, marimba, piano, bass, percussion
  • Der Volz … vocals, trumpet, guitar, lyrics
  • Helmut Bieler-Wendt (1989-1994) … violin, violectra, piano
  • Shirley Hofmann (1990 -1993) … brass, piano, accordeon, vocals
  • Jens Volk (1992-1994) … bass
  • Therofal (1986-1989) … bass, keys, sampler, vocals
  • Sandra Silva Coutinho (1991) … bass, vocals
  • Achim „Bagdad“ Schmidt (1987) … violine

GUEST MUSICIANS – STUDIO & LIVE 

  • Delal, vocals
  • Ze Eduardo Nazario, Brazilian percussion
  • Edgar Hofmann, saxophones, arabian clarinet, bass clarinet
  • Stephan Lamby, tenor saxophone
  • Alvaro Pena Rojas, vocals
  • Tomas Perez, percussion
  • „Sadato“ Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, saxophone
  • Mia Zabelka, violin
  • Bruno Steiner, trompete
  • Paul Amrod, keyboards
  • HF Coltello, guitar
  • Mike Robertson, bass
  • Hendrik Weissmann, keyboard
  • Wolfgang Merker, sax
  • Sexo, saz

ART WORKS

  • Sonia Ushiyama Souto

MANAGEMENT

  • Richy Richter/HEUTE music productions
  • Uli Balss/Jaro Medien GmbH

SOUND ENGINEERING

  • Manfred Ostermay
  • Thomas Nickel
  • K.H.Backes
  • Ivan P.Lang
  • Gunni Heidler
© 2026 THE BLECH