Norbert Krueler

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Norbert's guestbook:
I was born on 6th December 1957 in Emsdetten, Germany. From the beginning music was my passion, and i used every source of noise to let it sound like music. therefore i had a lot of trouble with my parents as everybody can imagine. Anyway .......
Actually i wanted to check out the sound of my guitar, as i put a microphone inside the body of my stringed instrument and listened to the distorted, strange sounds coming out of the amplifier tube of my old radio. Well....this was the birth of Shamall in 1968. From the first distorted sounds until the foundation of Shamall some years should have been passed, but since that day i developped a neverending longing for new, experimental sounds. The years have been passing by and from the early 'til the mid-seventies me and my guitar were seen on different stages.
i wrote lyrics, composed songs, sung and played guitar. i shared the stages with popular german rock bands like Kraan, Birthcontrol, Guru Guru, Rufus, Grobschnitt, Kin Ping Meh and many more on festivals and concerts. Although all these live-acts were very exciting, but i realized after a while, that my future won't be very promising without a contract with a record company. As discotheques became popular in the mid-seventies, i swapped acoustic guitar and microphone for a dj console and worked in several german clubs, first at "Albatros" in Mesum, shortly after at the Aladin-Music-Hall in Bremen. Because of my work i had a strong influence on the progressive alternative rock music scene over 25 years and multiple generations.
Because of my predilection for progressive music, i started many efforts to give a chance to innovative bands. i played a lot of music from unknown artists in my club. my whole work was a neverending voyage of discovery, pursueing for new variations of rock and pop in combination with classical elements. Even in the seventies i created various styles of mixes: short versions, extended versions, special versions from each record i bought. But as i did "pitch-shifting" with a song from Jimi Hendrix in the year 1978 (still with tape at that time ), i recognized, although all these re-mixes are exciting to listen, but not really innovative.
So i decided to make my own music again. Artists like Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Eloy, Can, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Neu, Harmonia Deluxe and Mike Oldfield inspired me and the technical progress of synthesizers and keyboards lent me wings to produce rhythmic experimental compositions for my club audience, which were never been published, however for technical reasons.
At that time (meanwhile in the eighties) the project was still nameless. For me, it was much harder to find a convenient name than the technical transfer of my musical ideas, because nothing could express the feelings i associated with my music. The illumination came as i made a journey to Egypt, a world, where the last 2000 years have passed without leaving traces. As i stood alone in the desert, far away from civilization and comfort, i became conscious, that the dry landscape appears only dreary when regarding it superficially. If one looks more attentive, the hidden detailed work of nature reveals itself: If the desert gets in touch with water, it awakes overnight to new life and transforms into fruitful oases and food-donating habitat. Deeply impressed by the interaction of nature with the elements of Mother Earth i wanted to pass on these feelings in my music: my tunes should be carried by vivacious rhythms, which leave enough space for many experimental details.
A few months later, the first 12"-Single was released. With the help of the musicians Detlef Reder and Michael Jaspers i composed the titles "My Dream", "Caligula" and "Karin". This was in 1986.
But despite commercial success (DJ Top 40 rank 9), it became clearly for myself, that Shamall would commit to the genre "Italo-Disco" if i would produce another release in this style. Thus the musical way would be marked: commercial pop with limited possibilities to develop musical ideas. But the original idea of the foundation of Shamall was to create music for the heart, which should be as timeless as the pyramids of Gizeh. After "Feeling like a stranger" i decided to change the musical direction of Shamall completely.
Since "Journey to a Nightmare", which was the first longplayer release in 1989, i try to meet an intellectual challenge with every new album and get over a musical barrier, which i hadn't managed before. With the help of different musicians all over the years i produced 11 albums until my current release "Questions of Life".
Currently i work on different popular and classical side projects.