Pendler

Pendler was formed in 2005 as a recording project by Sabine Marte, Markus Marte and Oliver Stotz. The idea was to combine the strengths of the individual members (all coming from diverse cultural scenes – video-art, performance, weird folk, electronic music, post-rock …) into an amalgam of sounds and vision. Simplicity was a goal but so was artistic freedom and a lust for experiments. Soon after the recordings of what would become their first release You Come to Me (2006), they started to work out ways to perform their highly structured and studio-based music in a live context. The addition of video works (most of them made by Sabine and Oliver) who were supposed to act not as “visuals” but as a “fourth member” of the band, made them a full-range multimedia performance group, with a heavy lean on pop and folk idioms.
Encouraged by an all growing and devoted fanbase and numerous successful concerts in the following years, they set off to record their second release We Went From Destriuction in 2009, with a clear focus on more beat-driven and pop-oriented material and darker yet deeper lyrics by Sabine, creating images of aspects of the monstrous feminine and modern day alienation. Still the overall tone of their second release was much lighter and had a more “folky” touch than it`s predecessor. A tour through Austria, Germany and Czech Republic followed.
Right now Pendler are preparing their 2010 tour in slovakia and czech republic after having played many one-off concerts. Winter will have them working on new material for their next release.

P.S.
The name: Pendler means “commuter” and is a german word for both the special sort of trains that bring people to and from their work (mostly from the suburbs into town and back) and the people who have to travel long ways to work. Pendler took the name not only because of the fact that the band members really have to travel through the whole of Austria to meet up, but even more because it felt like a good symbol of their music – always stylistically shifting and never really getting to a destinctive place – thus keeping a certain blurriness in their songs.
Apart from Pendler Oliver is also playing guitar in the live-band of austrian electronic pop-act Gustav. Markus plays in psychedelic folk band Mose and Sabine was a part of femploitation-genderfuck-band Sv Damenkraft, and a critically acclaimed video artist in her own right.

RELEASES:
2006: You Come To Me (LP/CD – Karate Joe Records)
2009: We Went From Destruction (LP+CD – Karate Joe Records)
2015: Hey Translators (LP+CD – Karate Joe Records)