Music of Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Switzerland
has long had a distinct cultural identity, despite its diversity of German
, French
, Italian
, Romansh
and other ethnicities. Religious and folk music dominated the country until the 17th century, with growth in production of other kinds of music occurring slowly.
(circa 1486-1554).
The first music conservatory in the country was founded in Geneva
in 1835. Composers like []] and festivals like the Fête des Vignerons helped establish a classical music tradition, and the Swiss Musicians Association was founded in 1900.
The twentieth century saw a rise in the prominence of Swiss composers, amongst them Othmar Schoeck
, Ernest Bloch
, Frank Martin
, Rolf Liebermann
, and perhaps most famously Arthur Honegger
, whose portrait of a steam train, Pacific 231
, has entered the core repertoire. Both Martin and Honegger spent much of their careers in other European nations: Martin in the Netherlands
and Honegger in France
. Prominent contemporary Swiss composers include Klaus Huber
and Heinz Holliger
(who is also an oboe
virtuoso).
In 1918 the conductor Ernest Ansermet
founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
, which became the focal point for musical innovation in Switzerland, and remains the country's most famous orchestra. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra
is an ad-hoc ensemble which has been formed in several incarnations for the eponymous music festival
. Its most recent formation, by the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado
, has been met with critical acclaim; unlike earlier incarnations, it now draws musicians from all over the world.
prior to the 19th century. Some 16th century lute
tablature
s have been reconstructed into authentic instrumental arrangements, however, the first major source of information comes from 19th century collections of folk songs, and work done by musicologist
Hanny Christen. One of the oldest varieties of folk music was the Swiss song Kühreihen, an agricultural Alpine song in the Lydian mode
. Traditional instruments included alphorn
, hammered dulcimer
, fife
, hurdy-gurdy, rebec
, bagpipe, cittern
and shawm
.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Swiss folk music was largely performed by ensembles made of itinerant musicians and solo acts using an instrument, with only a few duos. In the 1830s, however, the Swiss military
was reorganized, leading to the formation of brass band
s that used modern instruments. These instruments, mostly brass or wind, were built much better than those played by itinerants, and musicians brought them back to their villages. Local players joined these ensembles, which played dance music for festivals and other celebrations. Dance styles included schottisch, mazurka
, waltz
and polka
.
In 1829, the accordion
was invented in Vienna
, and it had spread to Switzerland by 1836. The accordion was popular because it was relatively easy to play and cheap to acquire, and took only one musician to play the melody and accompaniment. By the 1850s, the accordion was an integral part of Swiss folk music, and semi-professional ensembles were appearing to play at large social dances. Alongside the brass bands came string instruments like the violin
and double bass
; string bands soon began to displace the older brass bands. The accordion, however, did not make an appearance in these dance bands until about 1903, and it eventually replaced the two violins which had become standard.
Following World War I
, Switzerland became more heavily urbanized, and music moved to cities like Zurich
. Rural folk music became the most popular style for middle-class audiences, and musicians like Joseph Stocker became renowned across the country. Stocker knew his audience liked the exotic appeal of rural music, and so he bought traditional costumes from Unterwalden
for his band. This was the beginning of laendlermusic.
In the urban areas of Switzerland, folk music began to mix with new styles, like jazz
and the foxtrot
, while the saxophone
replaced the clarinet. Beginning in the 1930s, the Swiss government began to encourage a national identity distinct from Germany and other neighbors. Laendlermusic became associated with this identity, and grew even more popular.
Following World War II
, however, laendlermusic quickly grew less popular with the influx of imported styles. The field also grew less diverse, with more standardized band formats and only four or five dances in the repertoire. By the 1960s, trios consisting of two accordions and a double bass were the most common format, and many Swiss people felt it was a civic duty to preserve this tradition and guard it against change. They have largely succeeded in preventing change, but the field has grown stagnant and much less popular. There are still popular performers, such as Res Schmid, Willi Valotti, Markus Flueckiger, Dani Haeusler, and Carlo Brunner, but the total fanbase has shrunk enormously.
During the late 1990s, and especially in the 2000s from around 2008 to the present, the family band Oesch's die Dritten, a yodeling family from the Bernese Oberland, have been enjoying wild success with their performance of Swiss folk music. Their format is a small accordion, played by Has Oesch, a guitar, an electric bass, and a large accordion. They are fronted by their attractive daughter, Melanie Oesch. Melanie's youthful beauty, high energy, and beautiful voice for yodeling and singing have won many fans from Switzerland, surrounding countries, and many part of the world, including the United States.
region is a major center of folk music. While other parts of Switzerland adopted the accordion (Langnauerli and Schwyzerörgeli
) in the 19th century, Appenzell kept the violin and hammered dulcimer. Appenzell Quartetts were popular throughout Switzerland playing string quartets adding Austrian influences to popular acclaim. More recently, the band Appenzeller Space Schöttl has added psychedelic and other avant-garde influences to the music.
, or beat music, was popular, peaking in 1968 with the release of Les Sauterelles' "Heavenly Club". Swiss Rock popularity began in 1957, when the Hula Hawaiians incorporated rockabilly
, setting the stage for the early 1960s boom. The Francophone section of Switzerland soon found itself dominated by French stars like Johnny Hallyday
, and soon Swiss artists like Les Aiglons
, Larry Greco and Les Faux-Frères became major artists.
1964 saw Beatles-inspired pop take hold on the continent, displacing the earlier instrumental rock and inspired musical battles in Basel
, the capital of Swiss rock. Swiss bands in the same mold included The 16 Strings and Pichi
, and German-speaking acts soon dominated the field. Zurich
then became a center of innovation, drawing on Chris Lange
's blues
-roots explorations, Heiner Hepp's Bob Dylan
-inspired folk and Toni Vescoli's pop fame. Other Swiss artists of the period included R&B act The Nightbirds from Locarno, light rock stars The Wild Gentlemen, The Blue Sounds and pop band Marco Zappa & the Teenagers. In 1967, artists like Mani Matter
, Franz Hohler
, Sergius Golowin
, and Kurt Marti
began establishing Swiss-German dialect rock, glorifying their distinct national identities. While others like Roland Zoss
and Tinu Heiniger sang on in German.
By 1968, Swiss rock was dying, and artists were exploring sonic innovations. Basel's Barry Window, for example, used soul
and Indian music
to make rock
, while The Sauterelles explored psychedelia.
, blues and other genres were combined with socially aware lyrics, outlandish solos and macho posturing. The first band of the progressive rock boom was supergroup
Flame Dream, Krokodil
, and The Shiver and Brainticket
soon followed. Sinus Studio in Bern, and engineers Eric Merz and Peter McTaggart, became the center of innovation by the mid-1970s, however.
1973 saw the first commercial release of dialect rock with Rumpelstilz's "Warehuus Blues"; the band broke into the mainstream in 1976 with the release of the reggae
-influenced chart-topper Füüf Narre im Charre.
Later in the decade, hard rock
became popular and Toad
soon established a Swiss scene with the debut single, "Stay!", setting the stage for the 1980 explosion of Krokus
, the most popular rock band in Swiss music history. Whilst bands like The Swiss Horns, Red Devil Band and Circus from Basel continued the music in a more experimental form, expanded Swiss Punk
bands the musical boundaries. Already in 1976 a small group of Swiss-punks began to adapt the American and British punk rock scene. Bands like Kleenex, Dieter Meier
, The Nasal Boys, Troppo, Mother's Ruin, TNT, Dogbodys, Sick, all from Zurich
, as Glueams (Bern), Sozz (Büren), Crazy (Lucerne
), Bastards and Jack & the Rippers from Geneva
represent the Swiss Punk & Wave scene of the late 70’s.
Kleenex
- beside the British bands The Slits
and The Raincoats
- one of the first three female bands of the Punk era, published in November 1978 their first single/EP with four songs. With the mixture of art-school, glamour and punk noise they attempted the attention of John Peel
and became the first Swiss Wave export hit. They reached the UK-Charts and got a contract with Rough Trade Records
.
, mostly known for their progression of style and Avant-garde take on extreme music started in the early 80's as Hellhammer
and soon became a leading heavy metal
band in Switzerland. They together with a few other bands laid the foundation of modern metal in Switzerland. Related to Celtic Frost, is the technical
thrash metal
trio Coroner
who were roadies for Celtic Frost. The late 80's saw black metal
band Samael
being formed which converted into an industrial metal
band.
At the beginning of the 80s Swiss New Wave
bands developed their own individual music style and some of them became internationally famous, especially Kleenex/LiliPUT
and Yello
in UK and the USA, or Grauzone
and mittageisen
in Germany. Grauzone
reached the Austrian and German charts with their NDW-hit “Eisbär”. mittageisen
published in January 1985 the 12” automaten “ with a new Electro sound". The single found the way into the legendary John Peel
show on BBC1 and became an Indie-Disco hit. Other remarkable Swiss Post-punk
/ New Wave
bands are Blue China, The Vyllies and The Young Gods
. Formed in 1985 by vocalist Franz Treichler, the group used digital sampling
to create an intense amalgamation of classical and rock music and became pioneers of industrial music
. The English music-press react enthusiastically and Melody Maker
elected the record as „The Album of The Year“.
1983 saw the Ex-Trem Normal release "Warum" and "Welcome to Switzerland", which revolutionized Bernese rock by adding distinctive dialect trends. They were followed by Züri West
and other bands.
Since the 1980s Swiss jazz has continued to form. Notable exponents of the Swiss jazz scene are saxophonist Fritz Renold
or trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti
. Stephan Eicher
is a popular folk rock musician, rising to prominence in the mid 1980s and gaining a popular following across Europe in the 1990s.
from Basel was the first one to rap in a Swiss German dialect. Sens Unik
from Renens (a suburb of Lausanne) are one of the most important rap groups, merging hip hop with influences from many other styles. Even their first EP included a track in Spanish, due to MC Carlos's Spanish and Galego heritage. Electronica is also part of the Swiss musical experience, Yello
's first album came out in 1979, in the 1980s, Touch El Arab
scored a hit in several European countries with the song "Muhammar". Producer Pat Jabbar
from Basel established his own record company Barraka el Farnatshi in the late eighties; dedicated to music from the Arabic world (especially Morocco) mixed with dance music from the west.
One of the most popular Swiss singer and performance artists is DJ Bobo
, born René Baumann.
Emerging in the early 90's, the band Gotthard
evolved to become the leading Swiss rock group and one of the most acclaimed bands in Europe. With a total of 8 studio albums, 2 compilation albums and 2 live albums (one of which unplugged), they changed their style from hard rock to adult contemporary rock. They are presently very popular in Switzerland, but also in Germany, Austria, Italy and Brazil. Singer Steve Lee
was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 5, 2010, and the band's future is unclear.
Swiss-German band Metallspürhunde, The Dandies
, Paysage D'Hiver
, and the Celtic Metal
band Eluveitie
. Thomas Gabriel Fischer
recently split up Celtic Frost
and formed a new group, Triptykon
, playing a black/doom style similar to recent Celtic Frost material.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
has long had a distinct cultural identity, despite its diversity of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Romansh
Romansh
Romansh is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian and French...
and other ethnicities. Religious and folk music dominated the country until the 17th century, with growth in production of other kinds of music occurring slowly.
Classical music
One of Switzerland's earliest composers was Ludwig SenflLudwig Senfl
Ludwig Senfl was a Swiss composer of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and was an influential figure in the development of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in...
(circa 1486-1554).
The first music conservatory in the country was founded in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
in 1835. Composers like []] and festivals like the Fête des Vignerons helped establish a classical music tradition, and the Swiss Musicians Association was founded in 1900.
The twentieth century saw a rise in the prominence of Swiss composers, amongst them Othmar Schoeck
Othmar Schoeck
Othmar Schoeck was a Swiss composer and conductor.He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of operas and instrumental compositions including two string quartets and...
, Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
, Frank Martin
Frank Martin (composer)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
, Rolf Liebermann
Rolf Liebermann
Rolf Liebermann , was a Swiss composer and music administrator born in Zurich, and associated with several different musical genres. His output included chansons, classical, and light music. His classical music often combines myriad styles and techniques, including those drawn from baroque,...
, and perhaps most famously Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
, whose portrait of a steam train, Pacific 231
Pacific 231
Pacific 231 is an orchestral work by Arthur Honegger, written in 1923. It is one of his most frequently performed works today.The popular interpretation of the piece is that it depicts a steam locomotive, an interpretation that is supported by the title of the piece. Honegger, however, insisted...
, has entered the core repertoire. Both Martin and Honegger spent much of their careers in other European nations: Martin in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Honegger in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Prominent contemporary Swiss composers include Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...
and Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...
(who is also an oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
virtuoso).
In 1918 the conductor Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.- Biography :Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Although he was a contemporary of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer, Ansermet represents in most ways a very different tradition and approach from those two musicians. Originally he was a...
founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is a Swiss symphony orchestra, based in Geneva at the Victoria Hall...
, which became the focal point for musical innovation in Switzerland, and remains the country's most famous orchestra. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an ad hoc seasonal orchestra, based at the annual Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. The Lucerne Festival had featured a resident orchestra as far back as 1938, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the first concert of that ensemble. From 1943 until its disbandment in...
is an ad-hoc ensemble which has been formed in several incarnations for the eponymous music festival
Lucerne Festival
- History :The festival was founded in 1938 with a series of concerts in the gardens of Wagner's villa conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who had formed an orchestra with members of different orchestras and soloists for the concert...
. Its most recent formation, by the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
, has been met with critical acclaim; unlike earlier incarnations, it now draws musicians from all over the world.
Folk music
Due to a lack of detailed records, little is known about Swiss folk musicFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
prior to the 19th century. Some 16th century lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
tablature
Tablature
Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches....
s have been reconstructed into authentic instrumental arrangements, however, the first major source of information comes from 19th century collections of folk songs, and work done by musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
Hanny Christen. One of the oldest varieties of folk music was the Swiss song Kühreihen, an agricultural Alpine song in the Lydian mode
Lydian mode
The Lydian musical scale is a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. This sequence of pitches roughly describes the fifth of the eight Gregorian modes, known as Mode V or the authentic mode on F, theoretically using B but in...
. Traditional instruments included alphorn
Alphorn
The alphorn or alpenhorn or alpine horn is a labrophone, consisting of a natural wooden horn of conical bore, having a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece, used by mountain dwellers in Switzerland and elsewhere...
, hammered dulcimer
Hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
, fife
Fife (musical instrument)
A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer...
, hurdy-gurdy, rebec
Rebec
The rebecha is a bowed string musical instrument. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and 1-5 strings and is played on the arm or under the chin, like a violin.- Origins :The rebec dates back to the Middle Ages and was particularly popular in the 15th and 16th centuries...
, bagpipe, cittern
Cittern
The cittern or cither is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval Citole, or Cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki and cittern...
and shawm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...
.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Swiss folk music was largely performed by ensembles made of itinerant musicians and solo acts using an instrument, with only a few duos. In the 1830s, however, the Swiss military
Military of Switzerland
The Swiss Armed Forces perform the roles of Switzerland's militia and regular army. Under the country's militia system, professional soldiers constitute about 5 percent of military personnel; the rest are male citizen conscripts 19 to 34 years old...
was reorganized, leading to the formation of brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s that used modern instruments. These instruments, mostly brass or wind, were built much better than those played by itinerants, and musicians brought them back to their villages. Local players joined these ensembles, which played dance music for festivals and other celebrations. Dance styles included schottisch, mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
and polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
.
In 1829, the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
was invented in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and it had spread to Switzerland by 1836. The accordion was popular because it was relatively easy to play and cheap to acquire, and took only one musician to play the melody and accompaniment. By the 1850s, the accordion was an integral part of Swiss folk music, and semi-professional ensembles were appearing to play at large social dances. Alongside the brass bands came string instruments like the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
; string bands soon began to displace the older brass bands. The accordion, however, did not make an appearance in these dance bands until about 1903, and it eventually replaced the two violins which had become standard.
Following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Switzerland became more heavily urbanized, and music moved to cities like Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
. Rural folk music became the most popular style for middle-class audiences, and musicians like Joseph Stocker became renowned across the country. Stocker knew his audience liked the exotic appeal of rural music, and so he bought traditional costumes from Unterwalden
Unterwalden
Unterwalden is the old name of a forest-canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy in central Switzerland, south of Lake Lucerne, consisting of two valleys or Talschaften, now organized as two half-cantons, an upper part, Obwalden, and a lower part, Nidwalden.Unterwalden was one of the three participants...
for his band. This was the beginning of laendlermusic.
In the urban areas of Switzerland, folk music began to mix with new styles, like jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and the foxtrot
Foxtrot (Dance)
The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
, while the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
replaced the clarinet. Beginning in the 1930s, the Swiss government began to encourage a national identity distinct from Germany and other neighbors. Laendlermusic became associated with this identity, and grew even more popular.
Following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, however, laendlermusic quickly grew less popular with the influx of imported styles. The field also grew less diverse, with more standardized band formats and only four or five dances in the repertoire. By the 1960s, trios consisting of two accordions and a double bass were the most common format, and many Swiss people felt it was a civic duty to preserve this tradition and guard it against change. They have largely succeeded in preventing change, but the field has grown stagnant and much less popular. There are still popular performers, such as Res Schmid, Willi Valotti, Markus Flueckiger, Dani Haeusler, and Carlo Brunner, but the total fanbase has shrunk enormously.
During the late 1990s, and especially in the 2000s from around 2008 to the present, the family band Oesch's die Dritten, a yodeling family from the Bernese Oberland, have been enjoying wild success with their performance of Swiss folk music. Their format is a small accordion, played by Has Oesch, a guitar, an electric bass, and a large accordion. They are fronted by their attractive daughter, Melanie Oesch. Melanie's youthful beauty, high energy, and beautiful voice for yodeling and singing have won many fans from Switzerland, surrounding countries, and many part of the world, including the United States.
Appenzell
The rural AppenzellAppenzell
Appenzell is a region and historical canton in the northeast of Switzerland, entirely surrounded by the Canton of St. Gallen....
region is a major center of folk music. While other parts of Switzerland adopted the accordion (Langnauerli and Schwyzerörgeli
Schwyzerörgeli
The Schwyzeroergeli is a type of diatonic button accordion used in Swiss folk music. The name derives from the town/canton of Schwyz where it was developed. Oergeli is the diminutive form of the word Orgel...
) in the 19th century, Appenzell kept the violin and hammered dulcimer. Appenzell Quartetts were popular throughout Switzerland playing string quartets adding Austrian influences to popular acclaim. More recently, the band Appenzeller Space Schöttl has added psychedelic and other avant-garde influences to the music.
1960s
Later in the 20th century, in the 1960s, rock and rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, or beat music, was popular, peaking in 1968 with the release of Les Sauterelles' "Heavenly Club". Swiss Rock popularity began in 1957, when the Hula Hawaiians incorporated rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
, setting the stage for the early 1960s boom. The Francophone section of Switzerland soon found itself dominated by French stars like Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to one of the most popular French female singers: Sylvie Vartan...
, and soon Swiss artists like Les Aiglons
Les Aiglons
Les Aiglons were a 1970s Guadeloupean cadence band. They were the best selling Antillean band with their record Cuisse-La, until the release of Kassav's Zouk-La Se Sel Medikamen Nou Ni...
, Larry Greco and Les Faux-Frères became major artists.
1964 saw Beatles-inspired pop take hold on the continent, displacing the earlier instrumental rock and inspired musical battles in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, the capital of Swiss rock. Swiss bands in the same mold included The 16 Strings and Pichi
Pichi
The Pichi or Dwarf Armadillo is a small armadillo that is the only member the genus Zaedyus. The range of the Pichi is from central and southern Argentina , west to the Andean grasslands of Chile and south to the Strait of Magellan.Its body is approximately long with a tail of 4-6 inches...
, and German-speaking acts soon dominated the field. Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
then became a center of innovation, drawing on Chris Lange
Chris Lange
Chris Lange is a New Zealand local rally driver. He made his debut in 2005 originally driving a 1996 Mitsubishi Mirage in the South Island Rally series winning the 1600cc 2WD class....
's blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-roots explorations, Heiner Hepp's Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
-inspired folk and Toni Vescoli's pop fame. Other Swiss artists of the period included R&B act The Nightbirds from Locarno, light rock stars The Wild Gentlemen, The Blue Sounds and pop band Marco Zappa & the Teenagers. In 1967, artists like Mani Matter
Mani Matter
Mani Matter was a popular Swiss singer-songwriter...
, Franz Hohler
Franz Hohler
Franz Hohler was born on 1 March 1943 in Biel/Bienne. He lives as an author and cabaret performer in Zurich. He is the author of one-man programs and satirical programs for television and radio. He has written theater pieces, children's books, stories and novels. In 2002 he received the Kassel...
, Sergius Golowin
Sergius Golowin
Sergius Golowin was a Bern writer, myths researcher, librarian, and publicist.- Life :Sergius Golowin was born in 1930 in Prague, Czechoslovakia...
, and Kurt Marti
Kurt Marti
Kurt Marti is a Swiss theologian and poet. His poetry often has theological and religious aspects to it. He is also known for "dialect literature" said to have intellectual quality.- References :...
began establishing Swiss-German dialect rock, glorifying their distinct national identities. While others like Roland Zoss
Roland Zoss
Roland Zoss is a songwriter and novelist.Zoss studied anthropology and literature in Bern and Avignon.After dozens of albums and books the poet made success in Europe in 2004 with the album Härzland with Swiss German translations of the Leonard Cohen song First We Take Manhattan and the Elvis...
and Tinu Heiniger sang on in German.
By 1968, Swiss rock was dying, and artists were exploring sonic innovations. Basel's Barry Window, for example, used soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and Indian music
Music of India
The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...
to make rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, while The Sauterelles explored psychedelia.
1970s
Progressive music formed by the 1970s, when jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues and other genres were combined with socially aware lyrics, outlandish solos and macho posturing. The first band of the progressive rock boom was supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
Flame Dream, Krokodil
Krokodil
Krokodil was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922. At that time, a large number of satirical magazines existed, such as Zanoza and Prozhektor...
, and The Shiver and Brainticket
Brainticket
Brainticket is a little-known experimental krautrock band.-History:Brainticket originally formed in 1968, consisting of members of Belgian, Swiss, and German descent...
soon followed. Sinus Studio in Bern, and engineers Eric Merz and Peter McTaggart, became the center of innovation by the mid-1970s, however.
1973 saw the first commercial release of dialect rock with Rumpelstilz's "Warehuus Blues"; the band broke into the mainstream in 1976 with the release of the reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
-influenced chart-topper Füüf Narre im Charre.
Later in the decade, hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
became popular and Toad
Toad (band)
Toad were a Swiss hard rock band, formed by ex-Brainticket members. Their best known songs were a cover of "Purple Haze", "Using My Life" and "Stay".-History:In 1971, European Psychedelic rock band Brainticket released their first album...
soon established a Swiss scene with the debut single, "Stay!", setting the stage for the 1980 explosion of Krokus
Krokus (band)
Krokus is a hard rock/heavy metal band from Switzerland. They enjoyed moderate success in North America during the 1980s.Krokus was founded in Solothurn in 1974 by bassist Chris von Rohr and guitarist Tommy Kiefer...
, the most popular rock band in Swiss music history. Whilst bands like The Swiss Horns, Red Devil Band and Circus from Basel continued the music in a more experimental form, expanded Swiss Punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands the musical boundaries. Already in 1976 a small group of Swiss-punks began to adapt the American and British punk rock scene. Bands like Kleenex, Dieter Meier
Dieter Meier
Dieter Meier is a Swiss musician and conceptual artist who is best known for the electronic music group Yello he formed with music producer Boris Blank...
, The Nasal Boys, Troppo, Mother's Ruin, TNT, Dogbodys, Sick, all from Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, as Glueams (Bern), Sozz (Büren), Crazy (Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
), Bastards and Jack & the Rippers from Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
represent the Swiss Punk & Wave scene of the late 70’s.
Kleenex
Kleenex/LiLiPUT
Kleenex/LiLiPUT is a compilation album by LiLiPUT, formerly known as "Kleenex".Kleenex was Zürich, Switzerland's contribution to the world of female punk. The group started out in 1978 and evolved through numerous personnel changes throughout the next five years, touring with bands such as...
- beside the British bands The Slits
The Slits
The Slits were a British punk rock band. The quartet was formed in 1976 by members of the bands The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The members were Ari Up , who died of cancer in October 2010, and Palmolive , with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members, Kate Korus and...
and The Raincoats
The Raincoats
The Raincoats are a British post-punk band. Ana da Silva and Gina Birch formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.-Career:...
- one of the first three female bands of the Punk era, published in November 1978 their first single/EP with four songs. With the mixture of art-school, glamour and punk noise they attempted the attention of John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
and became the first Swiss Wave export hit. They reached the UK-Charts and got a contract with Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
.
1980s
During the 1980s Switzerland produced a number of metal bands. A Swiss band, Celtic FrostCeltic Frost
Celtic Frost was a metal band from Zürich, Switzerland. They are known for their heavy influence on the extreme metal genres. The group was first active from 1984 to 1993, and re-formed in 2001. Following Tom Gabriel Fischer's departure in 2008, Celtic Frost decided to break up again...
, mostly known for their progression of style and Avant-garde take on extreme music started in the early 80's as Hellhammer
Hellhammer
Hellhammer was an influential extreme metal band from Switzerland, active during 1982–1984. They are regarded as being one of the first extreme metal bands and are a key influence on later black metal and death metal bands.-Biography:...
and soon became a leading heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band in Switzerland. They together with a few other bands laid the foundation of modern metal in Switzerland. Related to Celtic Frost, is the technical
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
trio Coroner
Coroner (band)
Coroner is a Swiss thrash metal/progressive metal band from Zurich. They garnered relatively little attention outside of Europe. Formed in 1983, the band broke up in 1996, but decided to reform 14 years later. The band will perform at multiple live venues and festivals around the world in 2011,...
who were roadies for Celtic Frost. The late 80's saw black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band Samael
Samael (band)
Samael is a industrial black metal band formed in 1987 in Sion, Switzerland.-Biography:Although much of their music from the mid-1990s onwards has incorporated electronic sounds which would best define their genre as industrial metal, they are an early 2nd Wave black metal band and an innovator for...
being formed which converted into an industrial metal
Industrial metal
Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...
band.
At the beginning of the 80s Swiss New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
bands developed their own individual music style and some of them became internationally famous, especially Kleenex/LiliPUT
Kleenex/LiLiPUT
Kleenex/LiLiPUT is a compilation album by LiLiPUT, formerly known as "Kleenex".Kleenex was Zürich, Switzerland's contribution to the world of female punk. The group started out in 1978 and evolved through numerous personnel changes throughout the next five years, touring with bands such as...
and Yello
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronica band consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank. They are probably best known for their singles "The Race" and "Oh Yeah", which feature a mix of electronic music and manipulated vocals, as does most of their music....
in UK and the USA, or Grauzone
Grauzone
Grauzone was a band from Berne, Switzerland active in the early 80s.-History:At the end of 1979 Marco Repetto and GT left the punk band Glueams, to form together with Martin Eicher a new band called Grauzone. Martin had already supported Glueams on their single mental...
and mittageisen
Mittageisen (band)
mittageisen is a Swiss Dark Wave band of the early 1980s.The name refers to "Mittageisen", a single by Siouxsie and the Banshees that makes use of a John Heartfield photomontage on the cover. This picture was originally published on the frontpage of the "Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung / Workers...
in Germany. Grauzone
Grauzone
Grauzone was a band from Berne, Switzerland active in the early 80s.-History:At the end of 1979 Marco Repetto and GT left the punk band Glueams, to form together with Martin Eicher a new band called Grauzone. Martin had already supported Glueams on their single mental...
reached the Austrian and German charts with their NDW-hit “Eisbär”. mittageisen
Mittageisen (band)
mittageisen is a Swiss Dark Wave band of the early 1980s.The name refers to "Mittageisen", a single by Siouxsie and the Banshees that makes use of a John Heartfield photomontage on the cover. This picture was originally published on the frontpage of the "Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung / Workers...
published in January 1985 the 12” automaten “ with a new Electro sound". The single found the way into the legendary John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
show on BBC1 and became an Indie-Disco hit. Other remarkable Swiss Post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
/ New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
bands are Blue China, The Vyllies and The Young Gods
The Young Gods
The Young Gods are a Swiss post-industrial band. The band's lineup has generally consisted of a vocalist, a sampler operator and a drummer. Their instrumentation often includes sampled electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and other samples. The lyrics are depicted in English, French and...
. Formed in 1985 by vocalist Franz Treichler, the group used digital sampling
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
to create an intense amalgamation of classical and rock music and became pioneers of industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
. The English music-press react enthusiastically and Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
elected the record as „The Album of The Year“.
1983 saw the Ex-Trem Normal release "Warum" and "Welcome to Switzerland", which revolutionized Bernese rock by adding distinctive dialect trends. They were followed by Züri West
Züri West
Züri West is one of Switzerland's best-known rock bands. The majority of their lyrics are written in Bernese German.The name is ironic and refers to Bern as merely being a place west of Zürich or as the westside of Zürich....
and other bands.
Since the 1980s Swiss jazz has continued to form. Notable exponents of the Swiss jazz scene are saxophonist Fritz Renold
Fritz Renold
Fritz Renold is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, teacher and festival director based in Aarau, Switzerland.-Early years:...
or trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti
Franco Ambrosetti
Franco Ambrosetti is a Swiss jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer born in Lugano, Switzerland, perhaps most noteworthy for his many albums released on the jazz recording label Enja Records. Ambrosetti's father, Flavio, was a saxophonist who once played sax opposite Charlie Parker...
. Stephan Eicher
Stephan Eicher
Stephan Eicher is a Swiss singer.His songs are sung in a variety of languages, including French, German, English, Italian, Swiss-German, and Romanche and sometimes he even uses different languages in the same piece.His success started in German-speaking countries in the 1980s when as part of the...
is a popular folk rock musician, rising to prominence in the mid 1980s and gaining a popular following across Europe in the 1990s.
1990s
In the 1990s, many rappers and DJs started to influence Switzerland's musical scene. Such as Swizz beatz Black TigerBlack Tiger (rapper)
Black Tiger, born Urs Baur, is the first rapper to rap in a Swiss German dialect, namely Basel German. Those now legendary rhymes appeared on the track "Murder by Dialect" , by P-27 featuring Black Tiger. According to author Pascale Hofmeier, this decision to rap in a local dialect, or "Mundart",...
from Basel was the first one to rap in a Swiss German dialect. Sens Unik
Sens Unik
Sens Unik is a hip hop group from Lausanne, Switzerland. They released their first Album Le VIème Sens in 1991. In 1992 they released Les Portes Du Temps which featured some of the first Swiss Rap hits, like "Fiche", "Rira bien qui rira le dernier" and "A Gauche, A Droite".In 1994, they released...
from Renens (a suburb of Lausanne) are one of the most important rap groups, merging hip hop with influences from many other styles. Even their first EP included a track in Spanish, due to MC Carlos's Spanish and Galego heritage. Electronica is also part of the Swiss musical experience, Yello
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronica band consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank. They are probably best known for their singles "The Race" and "Oh Yeah", which feature a mix of electronic music and manipulated vocals, as does most of their music....
's first album came out in 1979, in the 1980s, Touch El Arab
Touch El Arab
Touch El Arab was a pop/electronica group from Basel, Switzerland, formed by members Philippe Alioth, Christoph Müller and Stefan Hopmann. Their humorous song "Muhammar" was a major hit in Switzerland, France and Italy in 1987 and 1988. Christoph Müller is a former member of Boyz from Brazil and is...
scored a hit in several European countries with the song "Muhammar". Producer Pat Jabbar
Pat Jabbar
Pat Jabbar is a producer, musician and founder of the record label Barraka el Farnatshi. He is of Swiss, Russian and French descent.Born in Hamburg, Germany, he grew up in Basel, Switzerland. In 1984 he discovered Arabic music in Israel. One year later, he went to Morocco, where he met many musicians...
from Basel established his own record company Barraka el Farnatshi in the late eighties; dedicated to music from the Arabic world (especially Morocco) mixed with dance music from the west.
One of the most popular Swiss singer and performance artists is DJ Bobo
DJ Bobo
Peter René Cipiriano Baumann , better known as DJ BoBo, is a Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer and music producer. He has sold 14 million records worldwide and has released 10 studio albums as well as a few compilation albums which have included his previous hits in a reworked format...
, born René Baumann.
Emerging in the early 90's, the band Gotthard
Gotthard (band)
Gotthard is a Swiss hard rock/heavy metal band founded in Lugano by Steve Lee and Leo Leoni. Their last eleven albums have all reached number 1 in the Swiss album charts, making them one of the most successful Swiss acts ever....
evolved to become the leading Swiss rock group and one of the most acclaimed bands in Europe. With a total of 8 studio albums, 2 compilation albums and 2 live albums (one of which unplugged), they changed their style from hard rock to adult contemporary rock. They are presently very popular in Switzerland, but also in Germany, Austria, Italy and Brazil. Singer Steve Lee
Steve Lee (Gotthard singer)
Steve Lee was a Swiss musician and vocalist, best known as the vocalist of the band Gotthard.-Biography:In 1979, The first public concert at the Aula Magna of Lugano-Trevano with the band named Cromo Steve Lee (August 5, 1963 – October 5, 2010) was a Swiss musician and vocalist, best known as the...
was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 5, 2010, and the band's future is unclear.
2000s
Some of the most popular Swiss acts today are the Neue Deutsche HärteNeue Deutsche Härte
Neue Deutsche Härte is a genre of industrial metal. The term was invented by the German music press after the release of the debut album Herzeleid by Rammstein....
Swiss-German band Metallspürhunde, The Dandies
The Dandies
The Dandies are a 4 piece Rock band from Hochdorf, Lucerne Switzerland.- Current line up :*Adrian Weber -Vocals/Guitar*Eric Weber - Guitar/Vocals*Dimitri Schubiger - Bass/Vocals*Fabian Voirol - Drums/Vocals- Biography :...
, Paysage D'Hiver
Paysage D'Hiver
Paysage d'Hiver is an ambient black metal band from Berne, Switzerland, formed in 1997. Sole member is Tobias Möckl a.k.a. "Wintherr", also of Darkspace. Paysage d'Hiver is french and translates to "Landscape of Winter", winter being the lyrical theme for most of Paysage d'Hiver's songs...
, and the Celtic Metal
Celtic metal
Celtic metal is a subgenre of folk metal that developed in the 1990s in Ireland. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal music and Celtic music. The early pioneers of the genre were the three Irish bands Cruachan, Primordial and Waylander...
band Eluveitie
Eluveitie
Eluveitie is a folk metal band from Winterthur, Switzerland. The band formed in 2002 and their first EP, Vên came out in 2003. The band then released a full-length album, Spirit in June 2006. In November 2007, Eluveitie was signed by Nuclear Blast....
. Thomas Gabriel Fischer
Thomas Gabriel Fischer
Thomas Gabriel Fischer , earlier known by his stage name of "Tom Gabriel Warrior", is a Swiss singer and guitarist. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of the death metal style of singing or growling. Together with Bruce Day and Steve Warrior he formed the seminal metal band Hellhammer in...
recently split up Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost was a metal band from Zürich, Switzerland. They are known for their heavy influence on the extreme metal genres. The group was first active from 1984 to 1993, and re-formed in 2001. Following Tom Gabriel Fischer's departure in 2008, Celtic Frost decided to break up again...
and formed a new group, Triptykon
Triptykon
Triptykon is a musical project of Thomas Gabriel Fischer, founding member of the pioneering heavy metal bands Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Apollyon Sun. Fischer announced his departure from Celtic Frost in May 2008 and shortly afterwards revealed his new project would be entitled Triptykon...
, playing a black/doom style similar to recent Celtic Frost material.