le_redacteur   |    Thursday, der 3. December 2009

Part Two

Die Haut and Christoph Dreher

The band got their name from the title of Curzio Malaparte’s novel, La Pelle, which translates into “Die Haut” in German (and ‘Skin’ in English). Christoph Dreher, Remo Park, Martin Peter and Thomas Wylder started this Berlin Post Punk band in 1982 as an instrumental ensemble. Their international guest vocalists caused a sensation: Nick Cave, Kid Congo Powers, Anita Lane, Debbie Harry, Mick Harvey, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Blixa Bargeld, Lydia Lunch, and Alan Vega all appeared with the band. The group’s instrumentalists rotated regularly too with Christoph Dreher and Remo Park forming the constant core of the group until 1985. After Park jumped out of his ’skin’, Dreher and the rest of the band brought out another album (Spring) in 1997 .

Prior to his work with Die Haut (almost wrote fore-Skin…. wink,wink) Christoph Dreher had studied political science and philosophy at the Free University in Berlin, and he later graduated from the DFFB (German Academy for Film and Television in Berlin) the year the band was formed.

Professor Christoph Dreher has been teaching at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart since 2001. Of special interest to pop and film fans are his activities as music scene maven: he’s a film producer, author and director (The London Pop Explosion, Beck – Permanent Mutations, Fantastic Voyages, OK OK – Der Moderne Tanz , just to name a few of his films). He has also gained recognition for his work curating Styles in Motion – State of the Art in Music Videos for the Goethe Institute in Los Angeles.