TWO HEADS

Richard Palmer-James and Erich Schachtner first met about 10 years ago as members of a Bavarian blues-rock band. After 4 years with this sextet, the two musicians devoted themselves to their duo-programme Blues Meets Classical, playing unplugged instrumental music ranging from classical to folk to jazz. Some 90 concerts and a CD-release later, Erich and Richard are taking a new show on the road under the project name TWO HEADS, presenting songs composed during their recent years playing together, along with a few interpretations of pieces from Richard's decades of activity as a freelance songwriter.

Richard Palmer-James: vox | steel-string and resonator guitars | mandolin

Erich Schachtner: vox | nylon- and steel-string guitars www.twoheadsmusic.de [email protected] RICHARD PALMER-JAMES ______

Songwriter and guitarist

Born 11th June 1947 in Bournemouth, England

Plays guitar since 1961; self-taught

1965–1968 University of Wales; BA degree in fine art and English literature

Professional musician since 1968

First professional band TETRAD (with John Wetton) disbands after a year in summer 1969

1969–1970 Founder-member of SUPERTRAMP; guitarist and lyricist on the group’s first album Supertramp (A&M 1970)

Lives in Germany since 1971

1971–1978 Composes and produces film-music for features, plays and series for German TV 1972–1973 Guitarist and lyricist with German/Czech jazz-rock formation EMERGENCY; Metronom/Brain album Get Out To The Country (1973) 1972–1974 KING CRIMSON lyricist; EG albums Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), Red (1974) Since 1978 Full-time freelance lyric-writer for rock, pop, and dance acts; over 400 published titles; Top Forty chart appearances in Germany, Italy, and France with LA BIONDA, GILBERT MONTAGNÉ, AND PATRICK DUFFY, PETER KENT, , MOTI SPECIAL, MICHAEL CRETU, SANDRA, HADDAWAY 1985–1987 Guitarist and lyricist with mainstream rock band MUNICH; Intercord albums The Other Side of Midnight (1986), You Never Know (1987) Since 1997 Digital audio pre- and post-production work, such as the retrospective album John Wetton and Richard Palmer-James: Monkey Business 1972-1997 (Blueprint 1998) Since 2005 BLUES MEETS CLASSICAL: plays guitar and mandolin in acoustic duo concerts (“From John Dowland to Django Reinhardt”) with classical guitarist Erich Schachtner; appearances in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy 2007 First appearances of the 4-piece RICHARD PALMER-JAMES BAND in Munich (Backstage) and Koblenz (Cafe Hahn), leading to –

Since 2011 – the TWO HEADS project: singer/songwriter concerts in duo with Erich Schachtner ERICH SCHACHTNER ______

Guitarist and composer

1993 After initial autodidactic steps, classical guitar tuition in lutenist/guitarist Peter Dechant's class at the College of Music, Altötting, leading to studies under Franz Halasz in Augsburg and Flavio Cucchi in Florence; followed by participation in Eliot Fisk's master class at the Mozarteum, Salzburg

2001-2005 Lead guitarist in blues-rock band BLUESGATE (with Richard Palmer-James)

2002 Plays for The Finnish composer EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA in Helsinki; orchestra engagements with the Munich Symphony and others

2004 Starts a series of contemporary dance projects with his wife Dana Schachtner: String Balance (2004), Anne im Tal der 1000 Tropfen (2008), Spiegel (2010), Homo LuDance (2011) 2005-2010 More than 90 duo-concerts with Richard Palmer-James unter the motto BLUES MEETS CLASSICAL in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy 2007 Lead guitarist with the newly-formed RICHARD PALMER-JAMES BAND, appearing in Munich (Backstage), Koblenz (Café Hahn) 2009 Forms the tango-duo TICO TICO with accordionist Melanie Barth; concerts in and around Berlin and Potsdam; performs in Palais Lobkowitz in Prague and the Munich Herkulessaal with excerpts from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni 2010 Opens for US rock band MR BIG in the Tonhalle, Munich accompanying the hang artist CIFERENCE; joins the KEMAL UND METIN KAHRAMAN Kurdish folk music ensemble; concerts in Hamburg, Vienna, Istanbul; appearances accompanying the Munich dialect songwriter REINHARD VINZENZ GAMPE; duo-concerts with the Scottish viola-player AIDAN BURKE

Since 2011 New singer/songwriter programme with Palmer-James – TWO HEADS; composes and produces music for the film BirAdimÖtesi together with Kemal Kahraman and the singer Mavis Güneser; composes and produces jingles for KTM motorcycles, Red Bull beverages, and ORF (Austrian State Television)