Shamall

The project "Shamall" around the musician and alternative rock music DJ Norbert Krueler was founded in 1986 as a club project. With the first hits "my dream" and "feeling like a stranger", which reached rank 9 in the german dj top 40 charts, Shamall became very quickly well-known in the disco scene. Despite Norbert's happiness about Shamall's sudden fame, he couldn't really get used to this style of music. Since his childhood he was affected by bands like Pink Floyd, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Deep Purple, Alan Parsons, King Crimson, Caravan, Tangerine Dream and other bands from the psychedelic rock scene.
Because Shamall didn't want to be categorized as "disco project" in perpetuity, Norbert thought about his musical ambition and was looking for an intellectual challenge. According to his inner call, Shamall created 1989 the debut album "journey to a nightmare" in a way which gave direction to the musical future of Shamall. On his subsequent albums Shamall always made an effort to bring in new musical elements, to avoid being pigeonhold. Norbert was accompanied by several musicians of the years.
Since the foundation in 1986, Shamall released biyearly a new album. The answer to the question what motivation is driving Norbert, still making music after releasing so many albums seems logical, even in view of being quite successful, as he turned his back on disco music: "I make music for music's sake and stopped thinking about the question if Shamall will earn commercial success. How should my fans like the music of Shamall, if I don't? So I rate each composition with emotional criteria. As I did it for my current work "is this human behavior". Of course I could say: "This album is innovative, brilliant and not to beat. But what should I say about my next cd? Every serious musician strives to do his best to give, so for me. This is a matter of course for each of my works. Naturally I try to avoid repetitions by bringing in new influences. And I set a high value to deal with socio-critical or political issues in my lyrics, which are as important as the composition itself."
Like its predecessors "ambiguous points of view" and "questions of life", Shamall's current work "is this human behavior" is apparently affected by well-known bands from the alternative rock scene of the 70s and 80s. A hallmark of those bands was their love to make music and to experiment with sounds, both is also abound on "is this human behavior".
"But my fans needn't to fear too experimental excesses. The melody itself is still in the foreground and may not disappear behind too much technology or extensive technical skills of single musicians, who ends in themselves. Heart, culture and brainpower shall always be consistent with each other.
Especially the new album contains 156 minutes of goosebumps and breathtaking soundtrips...."