ERLEND KRAUSER

GUITAR

 erlands first album "ambrosia" now on cd

The Erlend Krauser Story

Erlend was born July 19th, 1958 in Timisoara, Rumania. At the age of five, he studied the violin, and gained certificates for his efforts. At ten years of age, Erlend decided, the instrument for him would be the guitar, and he set about teaching himself.

His efforts soon paid dividends, and Erlernd was to play with several bands in Rumania, before he joined a group called Phoenix. Phoenix were very big in Rumania, and played to audiences of around 20,000 at football stadiums and sports arenas.

In June 1977, at the age of nineteen, Erlend had a monumental decision to make, and only minutes to make it. The Manager of his band, Phoenix was leaving Rumania, to marry a Dutch girl, he received permission to leave the country. He offered the musicians a chance to escape, but wanted an answer within minutes.

The decision to go was made as quickly as it was offered, soon Erlend was packed inside a Marshall speaker cabinet, loaded into a van, and on the road again, the final destination, West Germany.

So the journey to freedom had begun.

They arrived at the border with Yugoslavia, at Friendship Bridge, here they encountered a six hour wait, Erlend spending the whole six hours, doubled up, inside the speaker cabinet, they could here the footsteps of the soldiers on guard.

Soon they were on the move, step one, the escape from Rumania, had been completed. Once inside Yugoslavia, Erlend left his speaker cabinet home, for some welcomed fresh air.

He returned to his speaker cabinet, as the van crossed from Yugoslavia into Austria, but Erlend decided to walk across the border into Germany.

Erlend left behind his mother and father, grand father, and younger brother Dieter, who he was not to see for thirteen years.

The stowaways firstcrented a house in Osnabruck, Erlend soon obtained German citenzenship, as his mother was German, but his friends did not.

For three years Erlend and Phoenix scraped a living, but only just. Most money earned was invested in the band, at the expense of not paying the rent on their house.  In 1979 Phoenix disbanded.

Erlend started giving guitar lessons, to help pay his way, he also jjoined a group called Madhouse.

His first big break came with a group called Lake. He joined them half way through their 1980 German Tour, and later recorded with them, their hit album, Hot Dam. This was Erlends first taste of the recording studio.

Later in 1980, he started working in Hamburg, and moved their the following year.

Some early work included playing with the Goombay Dance Band, Taco, Ricky Shane and Putting On The Ritz.

Between 1982 and 1984, Erlend worked with a Hamburg group, Roter Mund, he married his girl friend, Nicola, who gave birth to their son, Roman, who is now persuing a career in music.

In 1985, Erlend recorded his first solo album, called Ambrosia, a second soon followed, simply called Erlend Krauser. Both for RCA.

After these two RCA recordings, Erlend switched to the Erdenklang label, three albums are currently available:

TALKIN' GUITAR (1990)

Tracks include the mammounth Fleetwould make hit, Albatross, plus eight original Erlend Krauser compositions.

FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1991)

Eleven tracks, nine Erlend Krauser originals, plus the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever   & teh Doors, Riders Of The Storm

PIONEERS AND HEROES (1996)

Ten tracks, nine originals, plus Steely Dans, Do It Again. One track, gives a credit to Nicola Neubert (vocal). Mrs Krauser, we presume? Yes, ofcourse it is.

All three CDs are available from Peter Boosey Records.

A sixth, CD will soon be available, a compilation of the previous five.

In 1992, Hansi (James Last) was looking for a guitarist, for the album and video, Viva Espana. Hansi sent son Ron, and Tommy Eggert along to a concert where Erlend was playing, they reported back favourably, and Erlend joined Hansi and the Orchestra, in the recording studio for Viva Espana, amd later in Spain for the video shoot.

It was in Spain during the filming of the video, that I first met Erlend, and soon discovered three of his hobbies. A good restaurant, an excellent gormet meal, followed by a fine cigar. And for three nights, after shooting, it was just that.

We met in the coffee shop at the Hotel Radisson in Hamburg, last year, prior to the James Last concert in the Congress Centre. He had enjoyed the 1999 Euro/ German tour and was now preparing for the TV show, to be filmed in Bayreuth at the end of January.

Erlend spends a lot of time, writing and recording music for advertising features. Prior to the German tour, he ad been working with Opel, recording music for their one hundredth birthday celebrations.

When at home he likes listening to his CD collection. Donald Fagan and Steely Dan, being favourites. Mozart features heavily too.

Erlend considers Viva Espana and Well Kept Secret are the very best of James Last. Viva Espana is the best James Last album he knows, an album of superb quality.

His other hobbies, we have already mentioned, good restaurants, good food and good cigars. Golf is high on the agenda, like most other James Last musicians, but Erlend has two other interests, Mr Bean and Cornwall.

I have known for some time, his liking for Mr Bean, as I am one of a few Brits, who have taped Mr Bean's antics for him.

Erlend has a fascination for Cornwall, where he tries to spend as much time as possible. He has a mobile home, wgich he drives cross country from Hamburg to Calais, boards the ferry for Dover, then continues his drive to a farm house, he regularly uses, on the South Cornwall coast.

Cornwall releases all the pressures in his life, and he and the family, thoroughly enjoy being down on the farm.

This interview was concluded in Bayreuth, during the filming of the James Last concert for American television, at that time, Erlend was working on a new album for the Koch label, Good Morning, Good Night, Romantic Guitar.

The Erlend Krauser guitar sound created on stage, comes from his Digitech 2112, mixer computer. He needed seventy one different programmes for the Bayreuth concert, operated by a foot control. In the Cher number, Believe, he uses four different programmes.

We are in the Queens Pub, at the bands hotel in Bayreuth (January 2000), the show is over, the band have one free day in Bayreuth, before the long journey to Bremen. There are two more concerts to do, a Gala in Oldenburg and a concert in Bremmerhaven, and then it's home to Hamburg, to wife Nicola and son Roman, after eight days on the road.

Before we say our goodbyes, Erlend hands over three cartons of CDs, disguised in three super market carrier bags. There were twenty five copies of each of his three CD's on the Erdenklang label, but a couple are missing as he gave them away to a Mexican, who was part of the television crew.

To conclude our story, Erlend would like to thank all the members of the James Last Appreciation Society, particually the British fans, for their continued love and support.