Urland

**Urland** was a New Wave band formed by guitarist Hans-Rudolf Strickler (later known as Boris Blank), keyboardist Martin Müller (later known as Carlos Perón), drummer **Sternini** (real name **Ernst Arnold**) and bassist **Ron Styler** (real name **René Stiefel**) in Zürich, Switzerland in 1976. They evolved from a free jazz group started by Blank, Sternini and Styler in 1974.

## Free jazz band

Perón, Sternini and Styler were all acquainted prior to Perón meeting Blank for the first time in 1972. Blank was introduced to free jazz music by Perón and he soon became a fan of the genre. In 1974, Blank started playing tenor saxophone in a free jazz band of his own with Sternini on drums and Styler on bass. They practised in a rehearsal room found in a basement by Sternini. Perón declined to join the band as he felt that they were too amateurish and that Blank had no real dedication to learning how to play. Blank later moved into a villa in northwest Zürich owned by Sternini and Styler where the band played together in his room on Saturdays.

After taking an extended vacation to Morocco near the end of 1975, Perón returned to Switzerland with several flutes and percussion instruments. Eager to try them out, he finally agreed to join the free jazz band in 1976. He also introduced Sternini to future Yello session musician Felix Haug (a mutual friend of Chico Hablas) as a means of teaching him proper drumming techniques.

## Reformation as Urland

At some point in 1976, the band decided to start playing New Wave music as opposed to jazz and named themselves Urland. To fit with the stylistic change, Blank switched out his saxophone for an electric guitar. Perón initially played piano, but feeling it got drowned out by the other instruments, he replaced it with a Farfisa Syntorchestra. He would soon acquire more synthesizers including a Korg Mini Pops 120P drum machine; this caused friction with Sternini who much rather insisted on using his own live percussion while the other members felt they played better with the drum machine.

Since Sternini didn't turn up to Urland rehearsals very often, the band usually played in a trio formation with Perón handling synths and vocals, Blank on guitar, percussion, saxophone, bells and vocals and Styler playing trumpet and percussion. When not in rehearsals with the other members of Urland, Blank and Perón would also improvise their own pieces of electronic music using Perón's collection of synthesizers. In contrast to Urland's rock sound, their own music was inspired by composers such as Vangelis and Klaus Schulze.

Blank and Sternini reportedly didn't get along well during Urland's existence and following a particularly violent argument between the two where Sternini threatened serious bodily harm with a knife, Urland broke up. Blank and Perón continued to make electronic music on their own as Transonic and collaborated with Styler on the side-project U.R.Q. inspired by their synth improvisations. Transonic would eventually lead to the formation of Yello.

Urland recorded five to six songs during their existence, none of which have seen any form of release. The only song with any available details is "The H'a Monster" which features bizarre lyrics written by Perón during a LSD trip.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Warstad, J., 2018. The YELLO chronicles by JONAS WARSTAD The early years Part I - 1976-1979. Revised ed. EISENBERG édition musicale.