Lali Puna
Biography
Lali Puna are from Munich, Germany. The band was brought to life by Valerie Trebeljahr
(who sings and plays keyboards), because it was her (plus a four-track-recorder) building
Lali Puna’s core in early 1998. Having a lot of time on her hands after her all-girl-band LB
Page had split up, she used the four-track as a kind of band replacement. Then came
Markus Acher, relaxing from his Notwist and Tied & Tickled Trio duties (and from living in a
house with Mr. Morr) and thus he became Lali Puna’s second member. After some of those
early four-track-recordings were released on the beautiful “Snooze”- 7-inch-ep on
Hausmusik, it became clear that this music should also be played on stage. And so
drummer Christoph Brandner (Tied & Tickled Trio, Console) and keyboarder Florian Zimmer
(ISO 68, Fred Is Dead) completed the band’s second incarnation. Following another sweet
single, “Safe Side” on the belgian Kraak-label, the band released their 1999 debut album
“Tridecoder” featuring nine excellent examples of how nice things can fall into place.
Words for all tracks were written by Valerie, partly in english, partly in portuguese which
could be traced back to Trebeljahr’s school days in Lisbon.
The album was recorded by Albert Pöschl (Echokammer) who also mixed it together with
Mario Thaler (Uphon studio). Vinyl was released as a co-production of Morr Music and the
Hausmusik label, the CD was released by the renowned US label Darla. The album was an
instant success, if not a quiet revolution in the electronic music world, being obviously
pop-song-oriented while still displaying a certain electronica aesthetic, and thus helping
morr music finding its identity. It also brought Lali Puna to the attention of a lot of wellknown
fans and supporters of which some turned into collaborators. The band worked with
Tim Simenon aka Bomb The Bass resulting in the release of the „Clear Cut“ ep on Morr
Music. Lali Puna did some remix work with Two Lone Swordsmen and Lowfish as well. Being
the great live act they are, Lali Puna played in places as distant as Bratislava, San
Francisco, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Barcelona’s Sonar festival.
Most of 2001 was spent working on their second album which finally appeared as „Scary
World Theory“ in september of that same year. Artistically as well as commercially, this
album was even more successful than its predecessor. They also released a remix-7-inch
for Morr Music’s „a number of small things“-label and they have been touring Germany and
Europe extensively at the end of 2001. In the fall of 2002 Lali Puna went on their first us
tour and shared a van with Morr Music label mates and friends Styrofoam and Opiate. Only
a few months later, Florian Zimmer left Lali Puna in order to focus on his main project Iso
68. He was replaced by Christian Heiß.
In the summer of 2003, Lali Puna released their „Left Handed“-EP on Morr Music, which
displayed a significant musical progression as Lali Puna started using electric, distorted
guitars which could not be heard on earlier releases. This helped shaping a yet more
diverse and dynamic sound without neglecting Lali Puna’s past regarding their fragile and
beautiful electronic compositions. All the way through 2003 Valerie Trebeljahr and Markus
Acher have been busy writing new material for their third full length album which was
recorded at the Uphons Studios and eventually has been mastered at famous Abbey Road
Studios in London in december 2003. „Faking The Books“, as it is called, will be released in
april 2004 on Morr Music, followed by an extensive european tour.