About

As this unexpected reissue from Captured Tracks (released under their new Fantasy Memory subsidiary) reveals though, Saâda Bonaire was the concoction of Ralph “Von” Richtoven, a Bremen club DJ who fancied himself a Svengali, never mind that his vision for the group included upwards of 20 musicians at any one time who didn’t speak the same language—much less played the same musical scale—backing up his non-musical fiancée, Stefanie Lange and her friend, both women clad in Bedouin wear. For a group that had one single, this reissue unearths an entire album’s worth of material, produced by dubmaster Dennis Bovell in Kraftwerk’s Cologne studios. As the aforementioned names might attest, it makes for a curious early 80s mutant sound. - Pitchfork