L’Ambassadeur Des Ombres – Tape­to­pia 015 – Strike Me If I Shreik LP

The name L’Ambassadeur des Ombres goes back to the French sci­ence fic­tion comic “Valé­ri­an et Lau­re­li­ne”. The Ambassa­dors of the Shadows com­bi­ned pop appeal and expe­ri­men­ta­ti­on as the sound­track to the zero hour of their gene­ra­ti­on in the GDR’s waning days. The music was made in a children’s room, but the edi­fice of ide­as was a demo­li­ti­on site.

L’Ambassadeur des Ombres exis­ted as a hybrid of the wave bands Die Visi­on and Neun­ta­ge. The open ensemble’s fami­ly tree can howe­ver be tra­ced back to buried DIY pro­jects such as the Mahls­dor­fer Wohn­stu­ben Orches­ter, Zer­stör­te Umwelt and dark-wave prot­ago­nists Felli­ni Pro­sti­tu­tes or Nontoxic.

In the short time of their exis­tence in 1988/89, L’Ambassadeur des Ombres did not give a sin­gle con­cert. The tape “Strike Me If I Shriek” was cir­cu­la­ted among fri­ends and musi­ci­ans only as an on-request work report – it’s a long over­due discovery.

The tape­to­pia series, using the ori­gi­nal lay­outs and track lists, publishes cas­set­te edi­ti­ons from the GDR under­ground of the 1980s, espe­ci­al­ly from the “wal­led-in” sce­ne in East Ber­lin. More than three deca­des after their initi­al “release”, most of the­se tapes…  more