ELASTE was, above all, a state of mind — somewhere between post-punk gloom and pop avant-garde, between subversion and style. When Thomas Elsner, Michael Reinboth and Christian Wegner founded the magazine in Hanover in 1980, punk’s big bang had barely faded, the Cold War was still casting its shadow, and the three, barely out of their teens, were determined to push back against the cultural grey zones around them.
“We were beginners, dreamers, who somehow managed in no time to meet and feature some of the most important artists, musicians and personalities of our era. That may have been our greatest achievement,” recalls Thomas Elsner, today a creative director and back then the magazine’s art director. Across its lifespan, ELASTE became both detector and mirror of the pop and subcultural reorientations of early-’80s Germany. Each of its 16 large-format issues was a surprise, restlessly redesigned and brimming with energy.
“ELASTE chronicled an entire phase of repeated cultural upheaval, technical innovation and social change,” says Michael Reinboth, now head of the label he founded Compost Records.
The list of names ELASTE featured or interviewed exclusively reads like a roll-call of avant-pop royalty: Andy Warhol, Kraftwerk, Pedro Almodóvar, Mick Jagger, Boy George, John Lydon, Duran Duran, DAF or the artist Charles Wilp.
Original photography includes portraits of David Bowie, Depeche Mode, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Keith Haring and Klaus Nomi, shot by the likes of Ellen von Unwerth, Sheila Rock, Marc Lebon and Eamonn J. McCabe. Contributions come from writers such as Giovanni di Lorenzo, Jon Savage, Thomas Meinecke and Klaus Walter.
A new best-of volume brings them all back together: Over several years, the magazine’s founders and editors, Thomas Elsner and Michael Reinboth, have compiled the most iconic original photographs and articles from the 1980s, alongside contemporary texts that contextualise, reflect and retell — across 560 pages. The magazine’s award-winning design and its often self-shot photography all fed into its cult status — now showcased in Elaste. 1980–1986, with an iconic Andy Warhol cover shot by Thomas Elsner in the early eighties.
As the blurb once again puts it:
“ELASTE was rebellious but never dogmatic. Glamorous without flaunting it. Subtly political, without becoming loud or preachy. From 1980 to 1986 it experimented, reimagined, remixed. This book looks back — at the pioneering spirit, the people and the stories behind the magazine. It shows how ELASTE first challenged the mainstream, and then helped shape it. Elaste. 1980–1986 is the soundtrack of an attitude, played out between two covers.”
TRACKLISTING:
- Fred und Luna – Ich steck den Kopf in die Wand
- Gorilla Aktiv – Kopf Und Bauch
- Fred und Luna – Es geht voran
- Indoor Life – Archeology (Mathias Schaffhäuser Redux feat. Jorge Socarras)
- The Members – The Model
- Some More Crime – Sex Is Not Right
- Indoor Life – Searching (Original Version)
- Indoor Life – Madison Ave.
- Burnt Friedman – Eiserne Ferse (1987)
- Gorilla Aktiv – Kopf Und Bauch (Beine Mix)
- Fred und Luna – Mach, was du willst
- Indoor Life – Voodoo (Full Length Version)
- Tomasz Guiddo – Pain In My Heart feat. Louie Austen (Curses Remix)
- Levin Goes Lightly – Nightclubbing
Order the book here
Listen to the Mixtape here
Press release courtesy of Compost Records
