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With his roots in gipsy culture, Stephan Eicher emerged from the late-1970s punk generation to chart a uniquely wandering path between melancholy ballads and electronic influences. After a solo career, by the late 1980s Eicher had opened up to more classical influences, ranging from string quartets to medieval instruments, and experimented with world music.
Stephan Eicher was born on 17 August 1960 in the town of Münchenbuchsee near Bern, in German-speaking Switzerland. Stephan’s father is a jazz violinist and has gipsy origins. In fact the whole family is musical: both his brothers play jazz or pop music.
As a teenager, Stephan studies at an art school in Zurich where he learns video, computer-aided composition and other cutting-edge techniques.
He starts performing at age 17 with his first band, the Noise Boys. Two years later he founds the techno-punk band Grauzone with his younger brother Martin. Their first studio recording, the single “Eisbar”, sells 500,000 copies in Germany and Switzerland.
After self-producing a solo mini-album “Les filles du Limmatquai”, Stephan Eicher completes his first LP “Chanson bleues” in late 1983. His passion for computers fashions the distinctive “Eicher sound” of the early tracks, which also betray the influence of 1980s electronic bands like New Order and the Pet Shop Boys. The album is a runaway success, but Eicher remains largely unknown.
In 1984, he performs at the Printemps de Bourges festival and then at the famous Paris nightclub Bains-Douches, on June 20th. Around the same time, Stephan Eicher meets Philippe Constantin, a talent scout and producer (of Etienne Daho, Starshooter and Valerie Lagrange among others) thanks to whom he records his second album “I tell this night” ( Constantin went on to become artistic director, then CEO of Barclay; he died in 1996).
First hit single "Two people in a room"
"Two people in a room" shoots to the top of the charts, and in March 1986, Stephan Eicher plays to a full house at the legendary Olympia in Paris.
His highly distinctive voice and unique style are hugely successful in France and Switzerland, and every new concert tour wins him new fans. Not to mention the fact that he both writes and sings in three languages: English, French and German.
In 1986, French rock critics award him a “Bus d’acier” for the album "I tell this night".
Eicher and Djian, a meeting of minds
In 1989, Stephan Eicher has a new LP titled "My place", and a single, "Sois patiente avec moi". For once there is not a computer within earshot: he even sings to the strains of a string quartet, surprising many fans of his early work.
This album also unveils the first lyrics written by the writer Philippe Djian (author of the novel 37°2). They will continue their fruitful collaboration on all the singer’s future albums.
In 1991, Stephan Eicher becomes an international star with his latest album, "Engelberg", named after the Swiss ski resort where he records the songs, not in a recording studio, but in the town’s abandoned casino, only slightly adapted for its new purpose.
As usual he includes songs in French, German and English, but the real novelty comes from the track "Hemmige" written in Bernese dialect, which reaches the European charts. Another song on the LP achieves record breaking sales: "Déjeuner en paix" sells over two million singles worldwide, a large portion of these in the Swiss canton of Zürich alone.
He plays to delirious crowds in two sold-out concerts at the Olympia on 11 and 12 January 1992.
Non ci badar
In the summer of 1994, Stephan Eicher performs 114 concerts. This provides the raw material for the live album "Non ci badar, guarda e passa" (Don’t stop: look and walk on) released toward the end of the year.
In July 1996, Stephan Eicher is invited to appear in the famous Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where he performs with the Romanian gipsy band Taraf de Haïdouks, among others.
In December 1996, he releases “1000 vies” an album recorded in Italy, Switzerland (at Eicher’s home in Lugano) and France. “Oh Ironie” is an immediate hit, soon followed by “Forever”, a high-pitched soul ballad, and “Der Rand der Welt”, with Senegalese folksinger Ismaël Lô.
Louanges
Three years after “1000 vies” Stephan Eicher releases a new opus titled “Louanges”, again recorded in the old casino in Engelberg (like the eponymous album) with lyrics by Philippe Djian.
Hotels
In July 2001, on the main stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Stephen Eicher performs solo for the first time since 1984. A selection of musicians joins him onstage, including a 14-piece orchestra, a gipsy trio and the Kaos String Quartet, as well as a few old friends like the Lost & Found Orchestra and Paul Personne.
The concert prefigures the release in October 2001 of a double-CD compilation titled “Hotels”.
In early 2002, he composes the music for the movie "Monsieur N." directed by his friend Antoine de Caunes.
On the road again in Europe
Stephan Eicher releases a new studio album in the summer of 2003. “Taxi Europa” returns to Eicher’s rock music roots, but includes a few slower tracks too. The Swiss musician turns again to his lyricist of choice, Philippe Djian. The songs blithely mix several languages – French, German, Italian. Guest appearances by German pop star Herbert Grönemeyer, arranger Benjamin Biolay, French diva Maurane, folk musician Tinu Heiniger singing in Bernese dialect, and French comedienne and virtuoso whistler Micheline Dax, contribute to the wonderfully varied atmospheres created by each of the tracks.
On 21 February 2004, Stephan Eicher is nominated for the French Césars awards in the “best soundtrack” category for the film "Monsieur N.". He then drives “Taxi Europa” all over Europe, charming audiences in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France (namely at the Festival de la Cornouaille in July), on a musical journey that meanders down rock, folk and pop paths without ever losing its way.
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