Scaramouche -

Scaramouche was a German art-rock band that released a self-titled album in 1981 on Ohrwurm Records.

Members: Holger Funk (lead vocals), Johannes Hofmann (keyboards), Martin Hofmann (bass), Robby Stein (drums), Tommy Weber (guitar)

Background

Scaramouche formed in the summer of 1976 around keyboardist Johannes Hofmann (b. September 10, 1951), a classically trained teen musician from Hanau influenced by The Nice and Colosseum. He played in several earlier local bands, including Hic Fuimus, whose setlist comprised of Deep Purple, Procol Harum, and Vanilla Fudge covers. In his next band, Tatzelwurm, he introduced a 45-minute original into the setlist.

With broader ambitions in mind, he joined forces with his younger bassist brother Martin Hofmann (b. October 5, 1958) and guitarist Klaus Grün. Drummer Stefan Kleinschmitt soon joined, and the group adopted the name Scaramouche, referencing a 17th-century commedia dell’arte clown popularized by Italian actor Tiberio Fiorilli (1608–1694). Their concept revolved around structured, keyboard-led compositions with poetic lyrics and high-register English vocals, inspired by the compositional ambition of bands like Genesis, Yes, and Queen, as well as baroque influences from J.S. Bach.

After Kleinschmitt left in 1977, Scaramouche recruited 16-year-old drummer Robby Stein (b. September 26, 1961) and later added singer Holger Funk (b. March 18, 1959). The expanded lineup rehearsed intensely and built their own studio setup with Yamaha and Hohner keyboards, Moog synthesizers, and a large drum kit tailored to their arrangements. They incorporated theatrical elements into live shows—elaborate lighting, costumes, and stage effects with up to twelve guitars, six synthesizers, and motorbikes on stage—transforming each concert into a multimedia performance. The band gained a strong regional following through extended sets that merged symphonic passages with rock intensity, making them a popular live act on the Frankfurt scene by the end of the decade.

In 1979, they welcomed second guitarist Tommy Weber (b. August 25, 1957), whose contrapuntal input alienated Grün. As a reconfigured five-piece, Scaramouche purchased a group house in Aschaffenburg and landed a co-production deal with Ohrwurm Records, a nascent local indie.

Scaramouche

Scaramouche released their self-titled album in April 1981 on Ohrwurm.

The album balances concise song forms with selective expansion, placing emphasis on vocal presence and keyboard-led structures. “A Cloud in the Sky” sets the tone with a forward-moving bass line and firm rhythmic accents beneath layered organ and electric piano figures; the band tightens and releases the contours through clearly defined sections.

“Crentcantoe” develops in a slower, heavier cycle where blues-tinged guitar phrases and sustained keyboard chords revolve with steady momentum. The closing “Isn’t It Real” broadens the palette, opening with a prolonged organ prelude that unfolds patiently before the full band enters, allowing space for gradual dynamic rise and a late keyboard solo that soars above the vocal framework.

A1. “A Cloud In the Sky” (6:05) – Describes an escape from worldly distraction through dreamlike detachment and longing for purity. The narrator fixates on a celestial ideal, anchored by the line: “I wanna set over to Lucy in Dover and I wanna fly like a cloud in the sky”—a surreal, possibly symbolic destination that blends personal yearning with escapist fantasy.
A2. “Only Tail the Bait” (4:05) – Reveals a personal collapse beneath the weight of failed ideals and disillusionment, conveyed through the metaphor of chasing empty rewards. “Soon the lights will dim and all the sounds will fade / Heart ain’t gonna beat now it’s all too late” captures the moment of resignation with blunt finality.
A3. “Clown Leaves Berlin” (5:28) – Conjures a portrait of alienation and longing from afar, framed by the departure of a symbolic figure estranged from joy and community. “God damned distance lies between – the clown is living in Berlin” evokes Cold War–era division, possibly referencing the still-divided Berlin of the early 1980s.
A4. “Of Rooms and Open Doors” (4:00) – Expresses a desire for emotional connection and shared healing in a world shadowed by isolation and emotional fatigue. “Look outside the window – so many tearstained eyes / They’re hardly fit to carry the bundles of their lives” poignantly captures the quiet burden people carry unnoticed.

B1. “Find Me” (5:09) – Describes an inner call for recognition and understanding in the midst of emotional confusion and interpersonal illusion. “See your fake emotion, feel yourself in motion” sets the tone for a song about peeling away pretense to reach something sincere.
B2. “Crentcantoe” (7:49) – Conjures a surreal, symbolic journey to a place of self-reckoning, framed in mythic and at times absurdist terms. “Scissors cut Crentcantoe, eleven pieces ‘pon my bed” merges ritual, dream logic, and psychological metaphor in a single hallucinatory image.
B3. “Isn’t It Real” (9:14) – Expresses emotional renewal after disillusionment, portraying love as both danger and revelation. “I’ve thought my mind to be of that certain kind / To keep its master out of misery” opens the song with introspection framed as a defense mechanism slowly breaking down.

Scaramouche self-produced the album in February 1981 at Walldorf Studio with engineer Ferdinand Brendgen. The original release gained local airplay and moved 5,000 units, limited by Ohrwurm’s reach.

Scaramouche features a sepia-toned illustration against a solid yellow background, illustrated by B. Spitzer, whose image depicts a surreal, baroque-inspired structure that merges classical architecture with organic movement. The central hand—framed by curved scrolls, carved ribs, and floral flourishes—plucks a stringed form, suggesting a hybrid of lyre, harp, and violin.

In 1994, the French Musea label issued Scaramouche for the first time on CD, remastered by engineer Jérôme Clerici along with continental trimax classics by Arachnoid, Carpe Diem, Dragonfly, Kaipa, Pentacle, and Terpandre. The second reissue, by Russian archivists MALS, features extensive liner notes and further credits, which attribute Tommy Weber with ‘Space Invaders’ and identify the “Only Tail the Bait” backing vocalist as one Julia Wollny.

“Der Appenzeller”

In 1982, Scaramouche reconfigured with Holger Funk and the Hofmann brothers, joined by relative drummer Herber Hoffman, synthesist Matthias Wolbert, guitarist Gundy Keller, and singer Werner Lohr. Ohrwurm issued their standalone single “Der Appenzeller,” the final Scaramouche release.

A. “Der Appenzeller” (4:36)
B. “Mitten In Der Nacht” (4:40)

The single followed their aborted second album, which languished in a half-finished state after Robby Stein’s exit. Johannes Hofmann later erased the tapes.

Postlude

Tommy Weber and the Hofmann brothers resurfaced in Seconds Out, named after the 1977 Genesis live album as a tribute to that band’s earlier period with Peter Gabriel. In 2003, they self-released Quarter Past Nine, a live performance of four Gabriel-era Genesis epics, plus the Collins-era opening salvo “Dance On a Volcano” and the Gabriel solo epic “Here Comes the Flood.” Martin Hofmann later partook in the Pink Floyd tribute Echoes.

Johannes Hofmann wrote and produced the 1983 Bellaphon electro-pop single “Baby-Funk,” credited to The Bambers.

Robert Stein-Holzheim reemerged three decades later with Superdrama, a double-keyboard quartet. He produced their 2014 CD, The Promise, for Progressive Promotion Records.

Discography: