Martial industrial band Laibach have revealed details on their new album.

Wir sind das Volk (Ein Musical aus Deutschland) will be released on March 25 via Mute Records. The record features music from the theatrical production Wir sind das Volk, which is based on the writings of late playwright Heiner Müller. In 1984, Laibach composed music for the play Heiner Müller’s Quartet, which led to a meeting with Müller the following year. Laibach and Müller agreed to collaborate with each other, but it didn’t come to fruition. Fortunately, the band were contacted by International Heiner Müller Society head Anja Quickert about doing a project based on Müller’s writings.

The band said this about working on the production:

“We followed Heiner Müller’s own strategy of cutting and rearranging the material, taking his text and putting it into another context, rebooting it with music, in order to drag the audience into it or alienate them from it. Music unlocks the emotions and is therefore a great manipulative tool and a powerful propagandistic weapon. And that’s why a combination of Heiner Müller, who saw theatre as a political institution, and Laibach, can be nothing else but a musical.”

Quickert also said:

“This project finally brings together what should have happened a long time ago: Laibach and the German playwright and poet Heiner Müller together. The myth of the nation cannot be buried as long as ghosts undermine its foundation. ‘Dialogue with the dead must not be interrupted until it is revealed which part of the future was buried with them.’ Welcome to the abyss of the nation!”

Pre-orders for the album can be made here.

Laibach will deliver more performances of the Wir sind das Volk production this year. Tour dates can be seen below. Tickets are on sale to the general public right now.

Wir sind das Volk (Ein Musical aus Deutschland) tracklisting

1. Philoktet

2. Der Vater

3. Medea Material

4. Ich bin der Engel der Verzweiflung

5. Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne

6. Ordnung und Disziplin (Müller versus Brecht)

7. Traumwald

8. Lessing oder Das Ende der Aufklärung

9. Im Herbst 197.. starb… (instrumental)

10. Ich will ein Deutscher sein

11. Ich war die Wunde

Laibach tour dates

March 25-28 – Berlin, Germany – HAU Hebbel am Ufer

April 2 – Zagreb, Croatia – Vatroslav Lisinski Hall

April 8 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Cankarjev Dom

April 28 – Hamburg, Germany – Kampnagel

June 23-24 – Maribor, Slovenia – TBA

July 2 – Novi Sad, Serbia – TBA