Contriva

We were schoolmates when we met each other in 1997. Since then we released various 7"s and 10"s as well as two LPs, "Tell Me When" (2000) and "If You Had Stayed." (2003), both Monika Enterprise (CD) /Lok Musik (LP). Contriva's music is mostly instrumental, however, this does not means vocals are always absent. In case we're asked to describe our music we like to answer: "Its just singer / songwriter music mostly without a singer".

Our actual interest is to create pop music that makes a human voice unnecessary. It may be never 100% like that, but this is what keeps us trying. Even if there are no storys or statements, pictures can bloom in someones mind.

From the very beginning, people tended to bring our music in the context of travelling. Probably, thats why in 1997, together with schoolmate Jens Alder, we founded our own vinyl label called "lok musik" (lok = locomotive) for the release of Contriva's first 10" "Zimt".



Since then, each of us has also made other musical experiences with solo and non-solo projects like "Mina", "Jersey", "Masha Qrella", "Britta", "NMFarner", and "the Notwist".This is what caused the rather long break after "If You Had Stayed.", but did not put us off from recording our third album "Separate Chambers" (out 2006 on Morr Music). After some touring in Europe in 2006 and 2007 with Andreas Haberl (Jersey, The Notwist, Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra and others) as our live drummer, we are now working on a collaboration album with Chessie which we hope to put out in 2010.