Arvo Party Copyright 1988 - 2024

Samples from Arvo Pärt's Miserere, ECM New Series 1430.
This is what can happen when two people, a guitar, a CD player, The Might Casio SK1, a cassette tape of a friend walking through Vienna and Dortmunder Union beer meet late at night. When people ask "what is Vergiftung all about", Brady and I play stuff like this for them.

If you haven't noticed by now, Vergiftung flirts with the "pop" side of things, but music like Arvo Party is our roots, and it is what we would like to do more of - working with sequencers is a bit of a curse in that once a drum line, or anything else is in the machine, the song structure is pretty much fixed. Here is the ancient history of Vergiftung.

Occasionally, we start something new with no idea where it will end and just do it. The results are usually rewarding.

However, when people ask "when are you playing live again", we have a bit of a problem. You see, people at concerts expect a drummer. Seeing how we have only used a real drummer on one tune so far (Orbit), this leaves 2 (or 3) guys standing onstage appearing naked to the expecting audience. (the last time we played, we covered some BIG boxes with wrapping paper to be placed onstage - get it? stage presents?)

Add to it that we would like to present people with more "difficult" music like Arvo Party and have them not throw stuff at us and you can see our dilemma.

What is Vergiftung? All you find here and more. We are capable of much, and have considerable contempt for run-of-the-mill, well, you know. Radioland. That place. Good for a laugh but not much more. What're 3 to do in the face of it all? Alex Chilton is near-death.

Give up?

Hell no.