Project Pitchfork is a German dark wave, electronic rock group from Hamburg… Read Full Bio ↴Project Pitchfork is a German dark wave, electronic rock group from Hamburg, Germany.

History

Project Pitchfork was formed by Peter Spilles and Dirk Scheuber. After agreeing to work together, they picked the project's name by choosing a random word from the dictionary. The band gave their first performance in Hamburg in February 1990 and released their demo, "K.N.K.A", in August. In May 1991, their debut album "Dhyani" was released. The band's second album, "Lam-'Bras" was released in February 1992 and yielded the first vocal appearance of Patrica Nigiani. Six months later, the band's third album, "Entities" was released. The band switched labels to Off Beat for their 1994 release "Io". The album featured two singles, "Renascence" and "Carrion", and marked the first time the band entered the German Charts. The album was followed by a lengthy German tour.

In 1995, Project Pitchfork established their own label, Candyland Entertainment, through which they would release the majority of their material. 1995 also saw the release of two EPs, "CH'I" and "Corps d'Amour", and one album, "Alpha Omega". The year finished off with a tour supported by Rammstein. The next Project Pitchfork studio album "¡Chakra:Red!" was released in 1997. It was the first album since "Dhyani" to be written as a group effort, rather than by Peter Spilles alone, and the first to include Jürgen Jansen as a permanent band member.

Right after their first US tour in 1998, Project Pitchfork returned with concept album "Eon:Eon", their first while signed to label EastWest. The album yielded three singles, "Steelrose", "Carnival", and "I Live Your Dream". With the support of Eastwest, an imprint of the major label Warner Music), the band had greater resources available to produce videos for their music, which led to their being the first gothic industrial band to receive airplay on music TV in Germany. The video for "Steelrose" earned the band a nomination for an Echo Award for Best Video National. In 2001, the band released their eighth studio album "Daimonion" and supported the album with a European tour. In 2002 the band released the "NUN" trilogy which consisted of album "Inferno" and EPs "View From a Throne" and "Trialog". This earned the band another nomination for an Echo Award, this time for Best Alternative Act National.

Project Pitchfork returned with album Kaskade in 2005. In February 2009 the band released "Dream, Tiresias!" which received praise from electronic music magazine, ReGen. In 2010 the band's follow up album "Continuum Ride" was released along with a video to support the song "Beholder." "Continuum Ride" was inspired by the band's US tour in 2009, particularly their experience of Detroit, whose dilapidated skyline led to a more "dark and destructive" sound than that of their previous album.

By 2011 Project Pitchfork ceased operating their Candyland label, having since begun releasing their work on the Trisol label.

The band released "Quantum Mechanics" in 2011 as well as a video for the album's second track, "Lament". Later that year the band released a compilation album titled "First Anthology". In 2013 the band released their fourteenth studio album, "Black", and a music video to accompany the song "Rain". In June 2014, the band announced via their official website a new album titled "Blood". To promote the record the band held a pre-release show in Hamburg. The album was released in September and featured a music video for "Blood-Diamond (See Him Running)" edited by Peter Spilles himself.

In 2016, Project Pitchfork released their "Second Anthology", a double CD that included one new track, several unreleased rarities, and many re-recorded and remastered tracks. Also in 2016, the band released the album "Look Up, I’m Down There" to commemorate their 25th anniversary. The album was released in two versions: a standard CD release and a special, limited edition double CD wth an 80 page art book containing complete lyrics and a short story by the fantasy author Björn Springorum.

In 2018, the band released the album "Akkretion", the first of what was planned to be a trilogy of albums for release that year. Of the remaining albums of the trilogy, only the second, "Fragment," was released.

Starting in 2019, Trisol began releasing reissues of all the band's material over the previous decade from "Dream, Tiresias!" through "Look Up, I'm Down There".

The Silverthread
Project Pitchfork Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I close my eyes
I regulate my breath
I free my mind and gather myself
Without my body I lean to my left side
I slip out of it
I look back to my body
And the connected silverthread
I see the now visible beings around me

I start my journey
I pass woods seas and fields
I only have to imagine a place
And within the wink of an eye I'm there

I visit a city
I see crowded people
Made unhappy by the greyness
I visit a country
I see starving people
Made hungry by the mighty
I visit a jungle
I see its native people
Made homeless by the greedy

I hear the crying of the world
And I join in

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Project Pitchfork's song The Silverthread describe an out-of-body experience, where the singer leaves their physical body and travels through different places, experiencing the pain and suffering of others. The act of closing one's eyes and regulating their breath is a common technique used in meditation to achieve a state of inner calm and focus. This state of detachment allows the singer to slip out of their body and observe the world from a different perspective. The silverthread mentioned in the lyrics could refer to the cord of energy or consciousness that connects the physical body and the soul, and which is said to be visible during certain hallucinogenic experiences.

As the singer embarks on their journey, they visit different places, each with its own set of problems caused by the actions of others. The crowded city represents the effects of urbanization and the struggles of modern society. The starving country reflects the consequences of political systems that benefit the wealthy and leave the poor with nothing. The jungle and its native people symbolize the destruction of natural habitats by large corporations for profit. The singer hears the crying of the world and joins in because they feel the pain and suffering of others as if it were their own.

Overall, The Silverthread's lyrics express a sense of disillusionment with the world and its problems, but also a desire for change and the possibility of finding a way to transcend the limitations of the physical self.

Line by Line Meaning

I close my eyes
I shut out the physical world

I regulate my breath
I focus on my breathing to attain calmness

I free my mind and gather myself
I relinquish my thoughts and collect my being

Without my body I lean to my left side
My consciousness becomes detached from my physical form

I slip out of it
I start to separate myself fully from my body

I look back to my body
I gaze back at my now-empty physical shell

And the connected silverthread
I observe a translucent thread connecting my being to my body

I see the now visible beings around me
I become aware of the entities present in the astral plane

I start my journey
I begin my travels outside the material world

I pass woods seas and fields
I traverse through different types of natural landscapes

I only have to imagine a place
I simply think about a location to be transported there