In 1981, Ronald Reagan, a former movie cowboy, became President of the United States of America, the Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Cape Canaveral for the first time and MTV went on the air with "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles.

40 years later, Katrin Achinger and Matthias Arfmann have siftet through the complete works of their band Kastrierte Philosophen (castrated philophosers).

The result is not only the extensive compilation "Jahre", but also the successive digital re-release of the complete back catalogue - and there are even two new songs.

A crazy journey through time that tells more about the present than the past. So there are great things to come: the Hamburg group Kastrierte Philosophen released a total of eleven albums during their active period.

These albums feature independent music in the broadest sense, announcing boundless curiosity and openness, combining Velvet Underground coolness, shoegazing, spoken word, rave, electro, minimal pop, chanson, reggae, new wave, dub, Genilae Dilletanten, lyrics in German and English (Spanish and French).

Afterwards, Achinger and Arfmann spent a whole year dealing with their musical past, which in this way became their present again.

This enthusiasm automatically led to the desire to add something to the body of work. Katrin Achinger had written a text to which the best-of now owes its title "Jahre".

"She sent the words to me and I thought it was great, it triggered so much," says Arfmann.

"Suddenly our history together was in front of me again, and the rest went by itself. "It's about the time that has passed, about yesterday, today and tomorrow - and about the friendship that remains.

On the Best Of, the new songs frame 15 classic songs from the KP catalogue like "Liquid Sky", "Toilet Queen" or "Skin & Pain".

It has become a wonderful, quite representative and very exquisitely made selection, not least for a first contact.

And even though this is of course also a service for the many old fans of Kastrierte Philosophen, it is absolutely worthwhile to (re)discover this band in 2023.

Matthias Arfmann ran the Turtle Bay Country Club (music project) after the Kastrierte Philosophen and is successful as a producer with his own studios for Blumfeld, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Absolute Beginner, Jan Delay, Fischmob, Advanced Chemistry and Seed, among othersKatrin Achinger has released several solo albums and is still active and on tour with her backing band The Flight Crew.