Songwriter und guitarist Richard Palmer-James, a founding member of the rock group Supertramp, moved to Germany in 1971. He worked in Munich on the composition and production of music for films and TV until his activities as a lyricist – for such diverse acts as King Crimson, La Bionda, Mireille Mathieu and Haddaway, among others – took priority, resulting in over 400 published titles. In the 90s, however, he returned to playing guitar regularly, and with the help of the resonator guitar and mandolin has begun to rediscover in blues and folk music the sources of his musical inspiration.
Erich Schachtner studied with Prof. Franz Halasz at the Augsburg College of Music before joining Prof. Eliot Fisk’s master class at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His career started in 2002 when he played in Helsinki for the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, who has described him as a major performer of contemporary music. Engagements with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, and recordings with the Second German Television Service (ZDF) followed. Contemporary composers such as Fredrik Schwenk (Hamburg) and Juha Koskinen (Helsinki) are currently writing solo works for him, and Erich is pursuing a career as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe