Band photo: Till Mayer
With seven highly acclaimed albums and live shows at renowned international festivals, Frequency Drift built a steadily growing international fan base for themselves. Lead by Andreas Hack and Nerissa Schwarz, the band’s distinctive style blended captivating cinematic music, outside-the-box instrumentation and female vocals.
Frequency Drift: 2008 – 2019
Formed in Bayreuth, Germany by classically trained keyboard player and multi-instrumentalist Andreas Hack, the band released their debut, Personal Effects Pt. 1, in 2008 via Musea. The conceptual work about the tragic story of two sisters in a futuristic setting was inspired by films like Bladerunner and Ghost in a Shell. The follow-up album, Personal Effects Pt. 2 was released by Cyclops in 2009 and once more showcased Frequency Drift’s talent for powerful, soulful melodies and atmosphere.
The 2011 album Ghosts… saw the first notable appearance of later band member Nerissa Schwarz (electric harp) as guest composer and musician, as well as an evolution towards an enthralling, melancholic mixture of art rock, ambient, folk and metal. …Laid to rest (2012, Gentle Art of Music) continued this path with world music influences and an even more varied instrumentation, featuring gemshorn, flute and clarinet alongside the harp and violin.
The international success of their albums earned Frequency Drift an invitation to play live at the 2012 edition of “Night of the Prog” festival on the famous Loreley open-air stage, a performance called one of the highlights in 9 years of NOTP by the festival’s manager in the German magazine Eclipsed.
Frequency Drift’s 5th album Over (2014) established a writing collaboration between Andreas and Nerissa and was marked by further experimentation with electric harp soundscapes and keyboard textures. An ambitious and eclectic work, Over offered a unique mixture of old school progressive rock, postrock, pop, classical and world music. In the same year, Frequency Drift released Summer, a wistful collection of previously unreleased songs, and was joined by drummer Wolfgang Ostermann, who brought fresh rhythmic drive to the music.
In the following years the band performed live at renowned international festivals, including Summer’s End (UK), 2 Days Prog + 1 (Italy) and Progdreams (NL), and as main act at the live club De Pul (NL).
2016 saw the release of their 6th album Last. Stranger and darker than its predecessors, yet still highly melodic, with stunning artwork and evocative lyrics, it was Frequency Drift’s most cohesive and cinematic work to date. Despite their obvious love for album titles suggesting death and finality, Frequency Drift stayed alive and kicking through several line-up changes.
In 2018, Frequency Drift released Letters to Maro. Melodic and experimental at the same time, the band’s final album offered a glorious roller-coaster ride of melancholy, lightness and energy, rhythmic sophistication, innovative soundscapes and catchy vocal lines.
In 2019, Frequency Drift were nominated for the prestigious Progressive Music Awards, another highlight in the band’s career. In the same year, Frequency Drift announced that there would not be another album or live performance. The band’s core members continue to work in other projects, both solo and collaborative ones.
Frequency Drift’s last line-up was:
Irini Alexia: vocals
Andreas Hack: keys, synths, guitar, bass, mandolin
Nerissa Schwarz: electric harp, mellotron, synths
Wolfgang Ostermann: drums, wavedrum
with:
Michael Bauer: additional guitars and live guitars
Marco Geipel: live bass