SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE FUN

German keyboardist/vocalist Yogi Lang first encountered guitarist Karlheinz ‘Kalle’ Wallner in 1988 when the latter was playing in a band called Incubus. Eventually renamed Violet District, the group released their sole album, Terminal Breath in 1992, with Lang producing. Based 40km north of Munich in Freising, that group met with only modest success, disbanding by the late 90s.

“We did this thing together, and then we had contact and talked from time to time,” Lang recalls. “But I was [mostly] in the studio working, and Kalle was playing guitar. We met again in 1997 and talked about going back on stage.”

An opportunity for a live gig came up, but the musicians found themselves short on time to prepare. “So we jammed over old Floyd songs, because this was what we had in common,” Lang recalls. The group focused on material from the period before Pink Floyd, and , all key tracks on the road to the eventual masterwork of . “And this is how RPWL was born,” Lang says with a hearty laugh. “Four crazy guys that only played four songs, but for two hours!”