Fraktus - DVD

Film: It's about time! Finally FRAKTUS, the forefathers of techno, get the appreciation they deserve. Over 25 years ago, the trio split up in a falling out. And although their musical influence can still be heard everywhere today, FRAKTUS themselves have almost completely disappeared from the collective memory of the music scene. Until now. Because now music manager Roger Dettner, who looks amazingly like actor David Striesow (Three), has set himself the lofty goal of bringing FRAKTUS back together and reminding the world of the great sound tinkerers of the early 1980s.

Fraktus accompanies Dettner on his revolutionary endeavor. The documentary reviews the band's short but intense history, from their formation to their only chart success, Affe sucht Liebe, to initial tensions and the disastrous concert in Hamburg in November 1983 that finally put an end to the FRAKTUS chapter. But even though the band no longer existed, their sounds had a lasting impact on the techno scene in particular. In interviews, numerous musicians such as Westbam, H.P. Baxxter from SCOOTER, Jan Delay, Marusha or Dieter Meier from YELLO reveal why the music world would look very different today without FRAKTUS.

The sadder it is, of course, what has become of the geniuses of yesteryear: singer Dickie Schubert runs an internet cafe, Bernd Wand works in his parents' optician shop and desperately tries to launch FRAKTUS II with mum and dad. And finally Bernd Wand wastes his talent on Ibiza with the production of commercial Eurodisco ballermann hits for C-celebrities like Willi Herren. Although the three once broke up in a quarrel, Dettner actually manages to persuade them first to meet together, and then even to work together again. But the first recordings and a festival appearance turn out to be a disaster. In Fraktus, filmmaker Lars Jessen documents the desperate attempts of misunderstood geniuses to get the career they cheated themselves out of after more than 25 years. While the first part of the film offers an interesting excursion back to the 80s and traces the band's history briefly but in great detail, the attempt to reanimate FRAKTUS becomes increasingly chaotic and takes on almost tragic features. Here the film also leaves the realm of the ordinary documentary and becomes a similarly idiosyncratic work itself, just as the trio's music was (and still is). Whether or not their comeback will be a lasting success remains to be seen. Fact is, FRAKTUS are a phenomenon in their own way, which is simply fun to discover. Clearly: if the band didn't really exist, it would have to be invented. Because a world without FRAKTUS would look a lot greyer - unless FRAKTUS II would finally make it out of the living room of the Wand family and onto the stages of Germany. But you can't have everything!

Picture + Sound: Fraktus is one of the few cases where even audiovisual shortcomings have to be praised. That's because the band's old videos have been given such a perfectly vintage look that you're inclined to think they really are works from the '80s. The footage documenting the band's comeback attempt presents itself with decent image sharpness and a very coherent color scheme. The sound can convince especially in the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix with a rich mix of the songs, but also the dialogues sound very powerful and well understandable from the speakers. Good!

Extras: The DVD offers the inclined FRAKTUS fan a lot of worth seeing extras. It starts with a worth seeing Making of (approx. 37 min.), which throws an absolutely promo-free view on different phases of the shooting. If you thought the film was a real documentary until this point, you'll be proven wrong. The film continues with FRAKTUS private (approx. 13 min.), which consists of interviews with the band members filmed on Ibiza. Furthermore, there are some nice outtakes (approx. 6 min.) and a visit to the FRAKTUS members from 2007 (approx. 14 min.), as well as five music videos and a whole 14 cut scenes on the extensive additional program. Very good!

Conclusion: That Fraktus is not a real documentary, but a so-called mockumentary, should no longer be a secret. But especially in the first half of the film the story of the band with music videos and interview clips in the 80s look was so authentically implemented that actually only the sometimes quite bizarre and towards the end more and more exaggerated humor betrays that FRAKTUS did not really exist. Great fun, which especially fans of electronic music of the 80s should not miss. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp