Ziguri
Hypnotic Trance-Rock / Psychic Rock-Driving, monotonous beats and bass lines, overlain by floating patterns from an inimitable Echodrive guitar.
Günter Schickert has quite a reputation amongst friends of psychedelic music. He and Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra Temple) pioneered the use of echo guitar. His solo albums “Samtvogel” (1974) and “Überfällig” (1979) have attained cult status. In 1987, he founded with Udo Erdenreich and Dieter Kölsch, friends from the Berlin theatre 100Fleck, ZIGURI EGO ZOO, a musical theatre project which soon evolved into the band named ZIGURI.
ZIGURI initially rehearsed in SO36, the legendary punk club in Berlin- Kreuzberg (subsequently finding themselves entangled in the street battles on Oranien Street which were a regular occurrence at the time). Their first gigs took place in squats, at street parties or in underground clubs, before graduating to venues like Tacheles, der Eimer and Schokoladen. ZIGURI continued playing in this format until 1997, after which only the theatre project remained, lasting until 2002.
Each of the three band members went his own way in the years that followed, signing up to new bands sooner or later. Schickert played with Kölsch in *Ponyhof* and with Erdenreich in the punk combo *HAGEL forte plus*. Both used the same rehearsal space, so the trio often found themselves gathered socially in the original line-up, as it were. One evening, those famous words were spoken: > Let’s put the band together again. <
That was in 2011. And from the first moment on, it was like they had never been apart. Picking up exactly where they had left, Kölsch and Erdenreich hammered out a driving rhythm and Schickert layered his unique echo patterns over the top. They road-tested their live set in two concerts with Damo Suzuki (Can). As ZIGURI played further shows, it dawned on them that younger listeners had bolstered their audience, strengthening the band’s resolve to revive the act as a going concern.
After two records: “Kölsch/Schickert/Erdenreich“ published on Bureau B and “onetwothreefour“ published on Sireena Records, they are looking for new adventures on the ZIGURI Road.
Since 2017 their old friend Zam Johnson is in the band. Zam Johnson is playing synthesizer and percussion and gives the ZIGURI sound a perfect and strong push. Zam Johnson is from Los Angeles and played at the end of the seventies with Gino Vanelli, Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Ray Charles Singers, Red Bone, Iron Butterfly, Tom Petty, Ike Turner, Sweet Inspirations, Barry White and Billy Griffin. He lives since 1987 in Berlin and was with ZIGURI already in the nineties for some gigs and recordings. A wonderful and inspiring musical meeting. Sounds like a lot of fun. Welcome to the show.