The first keyboard tracks, that later where used for DVKE where created around 1993. this time richard was a bit sick of only being able to make music in a band and discovered the great new possibilities keyboard music offers. he was finally able to create complete instrumental track completely on his own. As Michael Gregor (member of his other project "summoning") liked those tracks and also had some good keyboard ideas (like the main tune of "Serpents Voice" etc) they formed together "Die Verbannten Kinder Evas". Actually it was michael who found this German line, that means "the banished children of eve", which he found in a renaissance booklet while searching for new lyrics for one of their songs. The name was not supposed to contain some special message, it was just chosen because it suited well to the mood of the music. Finally some of the lyrics where taken from different poets, and others where written by Raymond Wells (the mastermind of "Pazuzu"). Later richard got to know "Nora El Shammah" who decided to do the female vocals together with Richard sister "julia lederer" on the songs in oder to combine them with the clear vocals of michael and richard. DVKE released two demos, all the songs from there were later included in the debut album. Soon after the first one Richard received a letter from swiss label "Witchhunt Recs". And the contractwas signed soon.
In March 1995 the first album of DVKE (self-titled) was released, and it received good reactions.Soon after the release Nora left the band due to lack of interest to this kind of music. Michaelhas left also to concentrate on Summoning, so the band at that time consisted of two people only Richard and Julia. At this time richard got in contact "oliver falk" what started the label "MOSrecords" and soon decided to change the label, in the hope for a better distribution. Being a fan of DVKE, Oliver proposed Richard to compose some vocal tunes for the new Weltenbrand album "Das Nachtvolk".
And the new DVKE album "Come Heavy Sleep" have seen the light in September 1997. The new albumturned to be less "heavy", a more classic and orchestra orientated and much more professionally done. Lyrics were taken from "Pearcy Byshe Shelly", the English poet of 19th century. The reactions on "Come Heavy Sleep" were quite different, from "quite boring" to "highlight of the year". Some old fans believed the debut was better, others were thinking opposite. But sometime after the release the relations between Richard and Oliver sank very much and thus the decision to change label was taken once again. This time it was the Austrian label "Napalm Records", under which "Summoning" was releasing its albums since the debut in 1995. And the changes in the line-up took place once more. Julia was replaced by the new singer "Tania Borsky" who has got a voice much stronger and more in the classical style.
The third album ("In Darkness Let Me Dwell") was out at 22nd o November 1999. It is now less classical and more darkwave with less polyphony, it concentrates more on vocals. All high parts are now sang by Tania, and Richard never sings high (like he did in DVKE, or CHS). This time the lyrics are taken from "Percy Shelly" and "John Dowland". By the way, in the beginning this album was supposed to be called"The Spirit of Solitude" (poem title of shelly), but later, when Dowland's lyrics were taken the name was changed to suit music better.
After that album surely the most hard and unpleasant time for DVKE and any other projects of Richard started. First the previous singer Tania, got kind of passive and lacked any passion for preparing the new tunes richard wrote. the effect was that Tania simply was not able to sing the new tunes and richard had to search for a new singer. a short time after that Richard got in contact with Sinem (base-player of the Turkish black metal band "sadistic spell") and soon realized that her high and classic voice suited very well to the new songs of DVKE. As she had a much higher voice than Tanias and also a wider pitch range richard could start to make more 2 voices-female vocal tunes, and put the dominance of the vocals more one the female part than on the male one. Everything seemed to turn out fine, but then after some serious defeats in a studio in Ankara, she lost all courage and also got more and more passive and week by week, month by moth, the recordings got delayed or the result was to bad for any professional production. as richard does not like to easily give up he waited for 18 months for any perfect result, but then finally gave up and started to deal with "summoning" that was also already delayed for a very long time cause of all those problems with DVKE. after the new "summoning" album was released he got in contact with "Christina", a singer from Greece that was a fan of DVKE. richard heard one of her tracks and immediately decided to make the recording with her. After a very short time she could sing all songs totally perfect, so she flew to Vienna and in only 2 days she recorded all songs. Finally the new CD called "Dusk And Void Became Alive" was finished after a unintentional pause of 7 years.
The new songs are much more polyphonic than the songs on the last album, and also the rhythms are much more tricky, but still the stronger focus on the vocals can be heard. due to the new singer, also the vocal tunes got far more polyphonic, but keeping the very dark style of the last album "in darkness let me dwell".
