This medieval band was founded in 1889 as a two piece, after Castus and Venustus managed to escape out of former Eastern Germany. They made it to London, where Venustus visited the School Of Furniture, a school where instruments were built. He shared his experiences in building bagpipes, in order to learn something about other instruments, while Castus earned money with playing in the streets of London. When they returned to Germany in December, they founded CORVUS CORAX. The first appearances already spread their name, because their way of interpreting medieval music was something totally new in the former western part of Germany.
Back in the days of the old DDR, they had played together with Meister Selbfried in a band called TIPPELKLIMPER. While they did some recordings for a fairytale movie, they had the chance to record some of their medieval stuff for the first time. These takes finally ended up on the “Ante Casu Peccati” album, which was released in 1989.
In autumn 1989 Meister Sebfried also founded a group called ZUMPFKOPULE. When Corvus Corax (the duo) saw them live for the first time, fusion plans directly were made. So, in spring 1990 the rehearsed together, in order to play some medieval festivals in the summer under the banner CONGREGATIO. They played almost everywhere in Europe: Amsterdam and Amersfort (NL), St. Chartier and Avignon (F), Brisghella (I), Vienna (Aut) and so on…
With the end of the year coming nearer they started producing their first real album, which should be released in spring 1991, still under the name CONGREGATIO.
In 1991 Meister Selbfried joined as a real member. The band travelled a lot, but for the first time outside of Europe. Most of the time, they were in Japan to bring the medieval music to the people there. In 1992 Brandan joined the band as the fourth musician. But this was still not enough. Therefore Donar was asked to take over the drums. So, the rest could concentrate on their bagpipes.
In 1993 CORVUS CORAX made it to Jordania and Damaskus, which was a very special trip for the guys, because the medieval music is also deeply rooted in the oriental culture in a way. The rest of the year they spent their time on the usual medieval markets and in libraries looking for new songs. As a result they worked out a completely new program and enough material to record a new album: “Inter Deum Et Diabolum Semper Musica Est” (Latin for “between god and devil there is always music”).
1994 started off with a real highlight: CORVUS CORAX were invited to play at the carnival in Venezia in front of thousands of people.
In winter 94/95 they went into the libraries again, studying some stuff for their new record. It was called “Tritonus” and dealed with the role of ‘diabolus in musica’.
In 1996 a guy called Teufel replaced Venustus. Teufel had known the band well berfore, because his doll theatre group PULLARIUS FURZILLO played at the same medieval markets like CORVUS CORAX did. According to these changes in the band, some ideas for evaluating the musical direction came up. A single called “Tanzwut” was recorded. It combined the medieval side of CORVUS CORAX with some modern techno stuff. Originally this was planned as a side project, but the guys had so much fun with it they founded a real band called TANZWUT, which is quite popular these days.
In the beginning of 1997 a guy called Jagbird joined the band as the second drummer. According to the live experiences the guys made with TANZWUT, they made some changes in the CORVUS CORAX appearances: more playing concerts, less performing on medieval markets. It’s easier to play just once a day instead of making music four times a day for just 30 minutes.
In 1998 Jagbird decided to leave the band. His replacement: Hatz. In July two gigs were played at a castle called “Wäscherburg”. Both concerts were recorded for a live CD, simply called “Live”.
Also in 1998, “Viator” saw the light of day, written and recorded as usual, between all the concerts. In October CORVUS CORAX went on tour for the first time. Now they played in small clubs and had the opportunity to use some fog and light effects, which helped them to visualise their music. After this success the second tour already started off in December. Donar left the band, his replacement was well known: Jagbird. With Herr Pöttner a third drummer joined at the same time. So, now the balance between bagpipes and drums was on the right level. Unfortunately Herr Pöttner left again very soon. Jean took his place.
The first months of 1999 belonged to TANZWUT. Then the whole summer the band was travelling around playing here and there; for example at the Kaltenberger Ritterturnier with an attendance of over 100.000 people. The tenth anniversary of CORVUS CORAX was celebrated with two tours in October and December.
Winter 2000 is studio time again. The band was chosen to write music for an exhibiton of Sandro Botticelli. During these session the new material for the new record was born, too. The album “MM” was a limited fan edition of these recording sessions. The “real” album “Mille Anni Passi Sunt” is released a bit later in 2000. As a special feature Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prinz Kretzulesco, familar connected to the famous Dracula, sang some parts in Romanian language.
In 2001 CORVUS CORAX played on their first metal festival in Wiesen/Austria. They did well, despite of being surrounded by bands like Judas Priest, Atrocity and Holy Moses. After a few songs the audience was into the sound of bagpipes and drums. Again there were some changes at the drumming position: Jagbird is replaced through Harmann der Drescher, Strahli takes Jean’s seat.
Nevertheless CORVUS CORAX are asked by some other bands, musicians and DJs, if they could use some of their special Middel Age melodies and weird bagpipe sounds. Result: the remix album “In Electronica”, released in 2002.
After having recorded one verse of the most famous German traditional ever - Walter von der Vogelweide’s “Palästinalied” - for a special project with the same name, they began to work on their new record. It was named “Seikilos” and hit stores in October 2002. Again some problems with the line up occurred, so that in the end the band has now five musicians playing the pipes and three doing drumming. The latest release was a DVD called “Gaudia Vite” in 2003, filled with live material, which was recorded during the “Seikilos” tour in 2002, and a lot of bonus material.
But be sure…there is a lot more to come!