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NECRONOMICON from Aachen, Germany, was one of the very few progressive rock bands using German lyrics. The band was founded in 1970 by Walter Sturm (guitar/vocals), Norbert Breuer (guitar/vocals) and Gerd Libber (bass). Only a short while after the founding, Harald Bernhard (drums) and, after that, Fistus Dickmann (keyboards) joined the project. The band's name, Necronomicon, was taken from a book written by H.P. Lovecraft. They were the first German band to choose this name, long before the appearance of the contemporary metal trash band bearing the same name.

In 1971Detlev Hakenbeck took over the bass, and in 1972 Bernhard Hocks became the band's bass player. During the first years, Necronomicon mostly covered songs by John Mayall, Pink Floyd, Ten Years After, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple. The lyrics of their first own works were written in English as well. They even thought about releasing some of them on an LP with the title "History of a planet." Yet, before the record would have been released, they began to do their lyrics in German written by Norbert Breuer, with the purpose of drawing more attention to topics they felt were important at the time: thoughtless abuse of nature, overspill population, exploitation, injustice and violence.

In the spring of 1972 they had six tracks, which they recorded at a very small studio in the Dutch town Kerkrade on a Revox double track tape machine. The LP was mastered by the Carl Lindström GmbH, Cologne, and 500 copies were pressed. The title "Tips zum Selbstmord" (How to commit suicide) isn't meant as an instruction on how to end one's personal life; it rather refers to mankind, which is devastating the earth, and thus destroying its own basis for living. With the self-made cover they had something extraordinary in mind: it folds out five times and, in consequence, has six squares, which build a cross when completely unfolded. While one of its sides is blank, the others are covered with drawings by Harald Bernhard. This unique concept of the band's name, the music, the lyrics, and the record's title found its completion with this design and the according illustrations. In the discography, there's an image of the unfolded cover. On the LP's orange label there's written in black, Best Prehodi F 60.634. This is a fictitious creation of their own, compiled by the initials of the band members' last names (Norbert Breuer's name was slightly "adjusted" for improved readability). Financially, the whole LP project was chiefly supported by Hubert Herwartz, a friend of the band.

In 1973 Dieter Ose inherited the keyboards from Fistus Dickmann and on the bass was Gerd Libber again, one of the founders. Walter Sturm, who in the meantime had quit the band for one year to play with Rufus Zuphall, rejoined the band in 1974. In the very year they wrote and presented some new songs, they had a glossy leaflet for promotion purposes. It said:
"Our music is meant to even reach an audience, which, if ever, only rarely considers war, social problems or pollution in their lives. This is also why we decided to use German lyrics. Characteristic for the style of our music, as far as a categorization can be made, are classics, jazz, folk, and rock influences. Polyphonic singing is used as an important element of the sound."

In 1976 Necronomicon split up, but some of its members didn't get to terms with this final solution and went on under the old name. These were Walter Sturm, Harald Bernhard and Dieter Ose. On the bass Bernd Oppitz now joined the group. An important change was that they used English lyrics during the following years. The final split of the group eventually came in 1981. After the untimely death of Dieter Ose in August 2007,existing recordings of the program were published on the CD "Strange Dreams" in 2009.

2010/2011 NECRONOMICON IS COMING BACK. Since 2010 we started playing again with mostly the original cast of band members (Harald Bernhard, drums; Norbert Breuer, Git.; Gerd Libber, Bass; Walter Sturm, Git.). On the keyboards now Helmut Herzog is providing our as near as original Sound. In 2013 Karl Swiontek joined the group with flute and sax.

We have made professional studio recordings of songs we composed between 1972 and 1974, which never had been documented in good quality. Later on, we are planning to add new compositions to these songs. The new vinyl LP "HAIFISCHE" (Sharks) plus CD as bonus was published on December 22nd 2012 and introduced during a concert. Like our 1972 LP this again is a privately financed issue in limited edition. For further details please visit the intro and discography pages of this website.

December 2016 Double-VINYL-LP "NECRONOMICON Live in Concert 1973".
Im June 1973 the head of the "New Gallery - Collection Ludwig of Modern Art" invited NECRONOMICON for a concert on occasion of an art exhibition. The concert was recorded on a stereo tape which was forgotten during the next decades. Only in 2014 the tape was rediscovered in the archives of the Aachen Ludwig Forum of Modern Art, the successor of the "New Gallery". The recording quality was so good that NECRONOMICON decided to publish this 40 year old document on the Double Vinyl LP Live in Concert 1973.