The band name "Technoir" came into Steffen's mind while watching the film "The Terminator", in which a club with this name played a role. In the following time he produced the album "Sea Level" in his home studio. "Sea Level" features dark, almost frightening hard electro sounds, but has never been released. Together with Stephan Kalwa from Plastic Noise Experience the very atmospheric instrumental album "Eigenspace" was recorded, also unreleased. Knowing not to create something new with hard electro and dark and distorted male voices, Steffen started looking around for a female singer which he found in Julia Beyer that he met in 1999 at a concert of the band Inside (defunct project of Psyche singer Darrin Huss) where Julia was singing background vocals.
With a lot of both musical and live experience made prior to Technoir, Steffen and Julia began developing new songs as a team. The first song they recorded was "Last Tears". Julia had been singing in several bands before joining Technoir (e.g. Inside) where she could make use of what she learned from many years in a professional choir. Steffen is not a newcomer on the scene either: He has been live-keyboarder for electro-heroes Plastic Noise Experience and comes from a musical family in which a classical piano education is both obligatory and cherished.
Shortly after sending out the first demos, they found a partner in the German label Bloodline. The first releases "Requiem" (MCD 27.08.2001) and "Groundlevel" (CD 15.10.2001) hit the German alternative charts immediately, also the press showed themselve impressed. This also attracted the attention of bigger companies and so in 2002 Sony published a very danceable Coverversion of the Killing Joke-Song "Love Like Blood" which has been produced by Olaf Wollschläger under the project name Blacklight feat. Technoir. The Single was released on vinyl and is featured on the well-known and very popular Dream Dance-Compilation 25. In the same year the duo could present themselves on bigger festivals like the Eurorock Indoor and the Wave-Gotik-Treffen.
In 2003, Julia joined the reborn Eternal Afflict and contributed vocals to the album "Katharsis" whereas Steffen supports again the Band Plastic Noise Experience at live gigs after a long break. After the appearance of Eternal Afflict on the Pluswelt Festival in 2004, Julia left the band to fully concentrate on Technoir.
Besides writing new songs, Steffen also proved his remixing skills with providing intriuging Technoir-versions of songs from bands like Psyche, Eternal Afflict, O.V.N.I. (Seize side-project) and Agonised By Love. Meanwhile Julia has been in demand as a guest singer with adding some soaring vocals to Melotron's "Folge mir ins Licht" that soon became a proper single and club hit. Furthermore, she delivered guest vocals to releases of In Strict Confidence, Rotersand and Distorted Reality. After the release of the "Manifesto EP" in August 2006, the band has now in stock their second album "Deliberately Fragile".
In the meantime, Julia Beyer left Technoir in 2008 to join the heavenly voices band Chandeen and collaborated with English band Mesh on the song Who Says from their album A Perfect Solution.
Aeons
Technoir Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And leave a trace of tears
The noise comes in again
And brings a smile into my life
It all gets better now
So trust your faith and follow me
Strange aeons know that you are here
The darker side of me
That you'll sometime get to know
There are secret here
That I can't reveal myself
These lyrics from Technoir's song "Aeons" speak about the fleeting nature of impressions and their ability to leave an emotional impact on us. The first two lines describe how impressions can fade away but still leave a trace of tears. However, this emotion is not forever as the "noise" comes in again and brings a smile into the singer's life. The chorus encourages us to trust our faith and to follow the singer because there are strange aeons present and we need to catch the sense of fear that they create.
Towards the end, the lyrics take a darker turn as the singer talks about the darker side of themselves that the listener will get to know at some point. They mention that there are secrets that they cannot reveal themselves, adding a layer of mystery and intrigue to the overall tone of the song. The lyrics, therefore, portray the emotional complexities and mysteries of the human experience, both the good and the bad.
Line by Line Meaning
Impressions fade away
Memories eventually disappear
And leave a trace of tears
Causing sadness and sorrow when reflecting on them
The noise comes in again
Life's struggles continue to arise
And brings a smile into my life
Yet moments of happiness and joy still exist
It all gets better now
Things are looking up
So trust your faith and follow me
Have confidence and believe in my guiding direction
Strange aeons know that you are here
Unknown and unforeseeable forces recognize your presence
So try to catch this sense of fear
Attempt to grasp and understand the impending danger or unease
The darker side of me
My hidden and imperfect self
That you'll sometime get to know
Eventually you will come to understand me fully
There are secret here
There are things I keep hidden
That I can't reveal myself
That I am unable or unwilling to disclose
Contributed by Leah B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Red Crystal
This music will stay for Aeons