The history of Lothlorien:
 |
Beginning: B. Blanke grew up (in the musical sense) in the nineteen-seventies and hence he was influenced musically by Glitter Rock bands like T. Rex, The Sweet, Slade and by rock bands like Pink Floyd. But he was also influenced by singers - songwriters like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond and German singers - songwriters like Klaus Hoffmann, Reinhard Mey and Mario Hene'. At the age of seventeen B. Blanke began to play guitar on a borrowed old 12-string guitar. In 1980 he got his "first real six string" and he tried to play and sing all the singer - songwriter stuff he knew. |
| Young People: In the same year B. Blanke became member of the backing group of a choir called Young People who just lost their original band. The choir had a few gigs and it was common practice that the backing group played a solo on the concerts. |
 |
 |
The musicians decided to play "Teach you children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. But they needed a singer for that song. So B. Blanke became a lead singer and sang for the first time on a stage in front of an audience. |
| Fynn: From the backing group of the choir an independent band named Fynn emerged and they stayed together after the breakup of Young People in 1981 The band members were H. J. Zachrau (vocals, guitars) B. Blanke (vocals, guitars) B. Brüning (bass) R. Zachrau (drums) M. Böschen (keyboards; as of 1982) |
 |
 |
At the beginning Fynn was a cover band playing songs from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, America, CCR, Queen and so on. But soon H. J. Zachrau and B. Blanke began to write their own songs and B. Blanke became more and more the prime songwriter of the band. Fynn played a lot of gigs but the musically views of the band members drifted apart. |
|
The song writing of B. Blanke became more and more influenced by bands like Pink Floyd and Marillion, the songs became longer, the arrangements became more and more interlaced and the lyrics became darker. So Fynn disbanded in 1983. In 1995 there was a short reunion: H. J. Zachrau and B. Blanke had a few gigs under the name Fynn, where they played their songs in an "unplugged version" and they recorded the song "Poor mans night song" which was published on the album "Come together". (Listen to "A poor man's night song" ) (view a live performance of "a poor man's night song" at a TV-Show 1997 here) |
|
 |
Lothlorien: In 1988 B. Blanke founded a new band named Lothlorien. The band members were B. Blanke (vocals, guitars) K. Bösch (guitar) Bi. Blanke (bass) I. Blanke (Piano, Vocals), M. Böschen (keyboards; till 1995) H. Budde (drums; till 1996) S. Petereit (keyboards; as of 1995) T. Petereit (drums; as of 1997) |
In those years B. Blanke began to put some songs together to tell complex stories and to play this stuff live on stage. Well, the band never got on stage but they recorded four demo CDs and three of these CDs were already applied as a kind of short concept - albums. |
 |
 |
The solo years: After the split of the band in 2000, B. Blanke decided to use the band name further and to publish his music under the name of Lothlorien. In 2001 he began with the recording of his first album. Since this day Lothlorien published four albums: "About stepping stones and lost dreams" (2003), "Just another love song" (2006), "Jigsaw pieces" (2008) and "A night in the city" (2010) |
These CDs are concept - albums. Each album tells a complete story like a film or like a classical opera and the several songs are like chapters in a book. On the recordings B. Blanke playes most of the instruments (guitars, bass, drums, piano, keyboards, harp, mandolin) himself, but there are also a few guest musicians supporting him (for details see lyrics or friends). |
 |
 |
Live: |
|
 |
To be continued