HDR started out as a conventional band formed by Jörg Abendroth (keyboards + programming). Thomas Sindt (guitars) and singer Pete Stohlmann (who receives a worthy commemoration in the song “Für Dich”), but after the death of the original vocalist, it quickly evolved into an open project with the sole purpose of pursuing and creating inventive soundscapes. Abendroth and Sindt found fitting collaborators in vocal artist Marty Kasprzak (of Berlin-based Goth-Rock-veterans Sepulcrum Mentis) and producer Mirco Dalos for the formation of a sonic melting pot which is not reliant on the collaborators being together in one location or even, in some cases, on having met in person. The results of this collaboration are now available on the debut album “Fatal Beauty.”
Quite in line with the project’s puzzling moniker, Happy Dead Rabbit are not easily pigeonholed, genre-wise, either. Is it Synth Pop? Is it New Wave? Is it cinematic mood music … or Electro-Prog with Gothic-elements? In the end, the answer to these questions remains pretty much irrelevant because, in a wide field between Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Pink Floyd, The Cure and Fehlfarben, Happy Dead Rabbit have created their own little sonic universe that is just urging to be explored. Dive in, zone out and let them take you down their rabbit hole!
This still doesn’t answer any of the questions surrounding the rabbit’s mysterious death, of course. Maybe it is not dead after all, but caught in an infinite loop between life and death, just like Schroedinger’s cat. And does it even matter? Thorough consumption of “Fatal Beauty” might provide you with answers … but we must warn you, as there might be unexpected side-effects and inherent addictions (which might also be completely intentional, as the artists openly admit…)
“Fatal Beauty” is available on all major download and streaming platforms through DataFile Music. Follow the Dead Rabbit!