FAITHUL BREATH

                                                                                                                                           Side A
                                                                                                   Autumn Fantasia
                                                                                                    Fading Beauty
                                                                                                   Lingering Cold

                                                                                                        Side B
                                                                                                        Tharsis

In 1980 after Faithful Breath had disbanded, Sky Records released an SP "Morderbiene / Keep me away" (SSS 106). Horst Stabenow and  Heinz Mikus
formed Hurricane with Uwe Otto on drums. They changed the name of the group in 1981 into ... Faithful Breath. This time, the group played hard rock.
In 1987, Faithful Breath disbanded. But we came back to the first line-up of the group in their progressive incarnation. I had a contact with second  line-up
group's drummer. I asked him about old time. So, you have a little interview with:

                                                                       JURGEN WERITZ

(Author-A) - You with M.von Buttlar wrote lirycs to songs from "Fading Beauty".
                   Why did you write about wanishing, autumn of life ?
(Jurgen Weritz-JW) - It was some kind of lyrical ambition, we have always been surching
                              for some mystical themes, so that's why

(A) - The picture from the cover is very intriguant. Could you tell me more about it?
(JW) - The picture from the cover was the property of Boggi. He came from Poland and the picture
          reminds us a little bit to Fading Beauty ...

(A) - What did you and your friends from the group do after split?
(JW) - Horst and  Heinz formed their new Band -Hurricaine, later on Risk (both heavy metal).
          I began to work in advertising an Boggi built up his managing company Drakkar.
          He was very successful with several great bands like Risk, Rage, Nightwish and he is
          still managing several groups. Renate Heeman ... No idea ! Never seen again !
          J.Renfordt is sucessful since 1980 with his very commercial music and he is working
          on the radio. Walter Sheuer was a member of the first line-up. I met him two years ago
          when we have had a concert with my actual band EN-1. He's playing in group called
          Savage 4.

(A) - And what happened with M.von Buttlar?
(JW) - Manfred has finished his Medicine studies. He worked in hospital in Oberhausen.
          Now he is working in his own medical practice.

(A) - Jurgen, could you tell me what are you doing now?
(JW) - Follow to EN-1  (link: EN-1). _____________________________________________________________________________________________

   All information I've got from Jurgen Weritz. He send me photo from Faithful Breath's last gig in 1980.
                                                                  Thank you very much, Jurgen. It is generous of you to give me so much of your time.

                                                                  __________________________________________________________________________

                                                 Update_______2010

It is so obvious that time flies, but I feel obliged to use the idiom here. So, in 2007, Jurgen wrote me, that Garden of Delights, based in Bochum,
issued a CD edition of Back on my Hill (CD 134). The CD included all the songs from Back on my hill as well as the stuff from Morderbiene /
Keep me away. The album is accompanied by a thick booklet that includes a huge number of photos and a lot of biographical information. At this
point, I d like to thank Jurgen Weritz for sending me the album!

In the same 2007, a Polish rock journalist, Wojtek Chamryk, reached me, as he was preparing his article about Faithful Breath. Wojtek asked me
to assist him in writing the group s biography, as well as help him contact the band (to interview them). The whole stuff was published in March 2008
the Polish edition of Heavy Metal Pages. The whole magazine is in Polish.

In 2008, all the former members of the group gathered in one place, In order to attend an exhibition of Boggie Kopec's paintings. As it turned out,
the great manager is also a gifted artist. After many years his dreams finally came true and he puts out his own works.
www.kopec-arts.de

                                                                      _______________________________________________________________________

                                                         MENU            FAITHFUL BREATH in Polish             LINKI

                                                                             ____________________________

FAITHFUL BREATH  came into being in 1967 in Bochun. Everything started in  the autumn of 1967, when a guitarist and vocalist Heinz Mikus (21.9.1952)
and bass guitarist Horst "Piet" Stabenov (4.10.1952) left their pretentious group  Magic Power  in order to form Faithful Breath together with three other
people; namely two guitarists: Reinhold Immig and Walter Scheuer and a drummer Jürgen Fischer. For a few weeks Georg Grebe replaced Horst
Stabenov and it was him who was responsible for the name Faithful Breath. Boggie Kopec also came from Magic Power. Ulrich Bock, who played the flute
and the saxophone hone joined them some time later. At the beginning of 1969 the guitarist Reinhold Immig left the group, and in the autumn the drummer.
Many people were tested in order to replace them, but it didn't work. Finally, at the beginning of 1971 they borrowed Jürgen Weritz (10.12.1953, Bochun)
from the group Mama Werwoll  (he early been in group called Crash) whose seat was in Witten  and who for two years played in the two groups at the
same time. In the late summer the flutist and saxophonist Ulrich Block also resigned because he was sick. In spite of that, the four of them still played new
pieces.At the end of 1972 the guitarist Walter Scheuer had to resign aswell. He was replaced by a keyboard player Manfred "Carl" von Buttlar (2.1.1955)
who played the organ and the melotron and who directed the group towards progressive  rock. He had classical piano education. He also came from the group
Mama Werwoll, which ceased to exist after his leaving. Where did this strange name come from? It consisted of parts of the names of the following four
artists: Manfred von Butler, Diethelm Weritz, Jürgen Weritz and Martin Wollschläger. Faithful Breath started to play so well and their compositions were so
good that soo it provided the opportunity to bring out a LP. So, at December of 1973 the band arrived in Cologne (Köln) to Tonstudio an Dom and recorded
the first longplay. Renate Heemann from Witten was a backing singer on this occasion.
                                                                                            LP "Fading Beauty"
                                                                                     FB AA 6963233 FB / 1974 /Kopec

The record was released at the beginning of 1974 by a private publisher as  Fading Beauty  and the initial print run was 1500 copies. The cover of the record
was prepared at a poorly equipped printing house Opa Laube in Witten, but without assemblage and sticking. The picture on the front was supposed to be
colourful, but it remained only brown. The record itself was made  in Diepholz. In the newsletter which was then sent to the organizers Lutz Meyer, a friend
of the band, wrote:

The music of Faithful Breath goes round gloomy and dramatic issues such as the end of the world, lapse of time, fear. In their newly created LP they show in
a very convincing way how they can express such problems in music. One side of this LP is entirely devoted to the legend of huge bird Tharsis, according to
which the earth is an egg of this bird. One day the nestling of the bird will be hatched. The increasing earthquakes foretell that the time is approachin
Faithful Breath prove that they are able to subordinate their music virtuosity to such issues.This is the reason why listeners are fascinated.Live transmission
enhances the performance due to intentional optical effects; the translations of the lyrics prepare the audience for an amazing journey to the world of legends.

When the brown edition was sold around 1975, the LP was reprinted, but this time Opa Laube provided a blue cover.It also
received an indication to Boggie Kopec's Music Publishing House. The subscription number and the label remained the
same. The blue cover varies: it might be matt or shiny. It is not surprising as they produced only a few hundreds of copies
at a time and the way of printing might be changed each time. The matt cover seems to be earlier and rare. The picture on
the back looks the same as in the first edition, but it is blue, then the background is also in blue. All in all they produced
between 3500 and 5000 copies in brown and blue editions.The additional edition (Cade CSM 10002 FB) is rather puzzling.
German record label, Amber Soundroom, reissued vinyl record in 2004 (No.AS LP 034). The Edition of CD (nowdays
unavainable) appeared in the USA in 1991 (The Laser's Edge LE 1011) and reissued in December, 2005 by German
record label Garden of Delights (CD112). In May 1977, the group came back to studio.The line-up: Jurgen Weritz
-drums, Jurgen Rendortd-vocal, Heinz Mikus-guitar, Manfred von Buttlar-keyboard. They recorded a new stuff in
Rhein-Ruhr Studio in Bochun. They recorded two songs: Stick in your eyes and Back on my hill. This time, the group
was changing the style to symphonic rock.