In the middle of the Eifel, at the border between North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. A small piece of nowhere with beautiful landscape, lots of forest and plenty of wind, small half-timbered houses, and numerous memories. Of Bobby, the old local pub, or the Jail, the tiny youth center. Both do not exist anymore today. But the bus stop, where only seldom a bus stops. "Like in the old days," says Benjamin Adams and takes a seat. Next to him: Lukas Goersmeyer and Tobias Meyer. The founding members of Hall&Rauch. All three grew up here – in different towns. They met in the sports club and at school. At 15, they founded their first band.
Benjamin refers to his home today as a "pool of tranquility." Tobias also comes and enjoys looking back. He connects a "love-hate relationship" with the Eifel. There is the carefree childhood, growing up surrounded by nature – but also the closeness that you feel when you want to evolve as a teenager, to learn new things. This closeness drove them away back then, all three of them. To Cologne. What always connected them: music.
Hall&Rauch has been around since 2011. And at first, they were exactly that: nothing lasting, a fleeting phenomenon. A working group with a common research field. A collective whose lineup changes constantly. Depending on which project is at hand, which instruments are needed, who has time, what mood is desired. The band was founded just like that, on a whim. "A friend had an exhibition in a gallery off-space and asked us if we knew a band that could perform at the opening," Benjamin Adams recounts. They thought for a moment and quickly decided: "We will be that band ourselves!" They founded Hall&Rauch. Their concerts were more like performances, one-time events. The music very experimental. Or, as they describe it themselves: "Our research field involves engaging with pop music, loose sounds, and poses."
Hall needs sound. And the band members find it everywhere in music history. Sometimes even on a walk through Cologne – or through Forst Nück. By the way, the small piece of forest behind Benjamin's parents' house was musically immortalized on one of the three Cölln albums that were released in 2017. Everything is allowed, no genre prohibited. Even songs and bands that they don’t even listen to themselves. Like on the current album "Happening und Leben", where they transform the rocky hit "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedance Clearwater Revival into an electronic "Lune Maléfique". Their songs often originate from sound snippets and ideas, from quotes and appropriations. Sometimes songs are created accidentally in the rehearsal room, sometimes purely electronically.
A musical eclecticism that may also have its origins in the Eifel – Tobias considers aloud. "In the city, the subcultures are very separated, everyone has their own space – there is little mixing. It was quite different here in the countryside. There was a village party and a tent where everyone met, necessarily. The punks, the metallers, the hip-hoppers, the chart listeners. People exchanged ideas and in the best case, took something away from it." Essentially, Hall&Rauch have never stopped going to village parties. And yet, they have managed to give their music a very urban sound.
In 2018, Hall&Rauch decided it was time for a new development. With a poster, the "Cologne cult band" looked for new members. Malte Pries, a trained jazz guitarist, applied. Just like Leonie Ludwig, who actually also plays guitar. Since her instrument was already taken, she simply switched and has been playing bass ever since. She sees this as a "great enrichment" today. "The instrument inspires me a lot."
With Malte and Leonie, Hall&Rauch became, contrary to their definition, a band with a fixed lineup. "We were eager to do it, you can’t always do everything," explains Tobias. "It's nice to focus on one thing, to get better at it, and to develop further." In September 2021, their new album was released after two years of work. The first work as a stable band. "Happening and Life" is more straightforward than its predecessors. And: more relatable. "That was a conscious step," says Lukas. "To become more homogeneous, certainly also more radio-friendly." However, even a "homogeneous" Hall&Rauch album is never: predictable.
For the album remains a journey. Through music history, across genres and decades. It leads to different places, into different decades. In "Côte d’Azur," for example, into the 80s, where listeners float through the French sun on swinging guitar sounds. Or the pattern room, which, with its dub wallpaper, creates a somewhat quirky Jamaica illusion. And then this: a guitar intro, a recurring melody. The drums kick in, driving the melody forward, out to the stadium, into the (imaginary) audience. Which can soon join in singing, shouting: "Make me like that!" Stadium-ready pop-rock – a must at any good village party. And indeed also "extraordinarily funny," as Lukas sings.
"I think it's great when a band has a sound that is unmistakable," says Benjamin. There is admiration in this sentence. But also a bit of wonder: Why this determination, this voluntary restriction? Because for Hall&Rauch, it is already clear that their next path will take them somewhere entirely different: On stage at the Cologne Philharmonie, where they will perform in the concert series "Round, Podium for Electronic Music." The idea for this came about in 2019. Originally, the performance was supposed to be in March 2020. A week beforehand, the concert was canceled due to Corona. A year and a half later, it was rescheduled. Although "rescheduled" is not quite the right word – because the piece has since become something different. Hall&Rauch have never been particularly good at standing still.
Through the scholarship program "Let's go!" Malte had the opportunity to further develop the piece. Over the months of Corona, the originally planned "Concert for 13 Birds" evolved into the song cycle "Psychoreo," including choir and string quartet. "I thought it was fantastic that not only I but many participants benefited from the scholarship," says the guitarist. Together with pianist Camillo Grewe and the other band members, he wrote new songs and arranged them for double bass, cello, viola, and violin. It is to be opulent. And it’s about time for some opulence after the past months.
For Hall&Rauch, it wasn't just the pandemic that caused a significant disruption. "Just as things were starting up again, concerts were possible again, the flood came," Benjamin recounts. Their home, between the Erft and Ahr rivers, was heavily affected. The parental homes were protected due to their mountain location – but were hardly accessible for weeks. Their rehearsal space in Brühl was flooded. "I waded through there for days in rubber boots, rescuing what I could," Benjamin recalls. But much was beyond saving. Since then, they have been moving from space to space, with friendly bands helping out repeatedly. "But it is quite frustrating. Now the gigs are here and we spend an incredible amount of time hauling our equipment around."
Therefore, they celebrate what there is to celebrate. Perhaps the next path for Hall&Rauch will indeed be into the radio, into the charts. But perhaps they will soon find this path boring again and veer off once more. Where to? We shall see. What is certain is: It will remain different.
