Who is Munju?

Auf Deutsch

One could say that Munju was one of the most outstanding German Bands ever!

Munju can be described as a post "CAN' and "KRAFTWERK" generation band and played originals only.

The core of the band -- Dieter Kaudel/guitars, oud and vibraphone, Wolfgang Salomon/bass and keyboards und Thomas Römer/drums and trumpet-- played and toured together for 10 years and led Munju through their journey of different musical inspirations and styles.

The journey began as an instrumental fusion rock band in 1976 and slowly crossed over towards highly advanced rock with some German vocals. In their later years a touch of avantgarde was added into their repertoire (i.e. on their last album "Le Perfectionniste") .

Let's start from the very beginning:

The first Munju team consisted of Jürgen Benz on saxophone/flute, Wolfgang on bass, Dieter on guitars and Thomas on drums.

Jürgen had just quit his job with Missus Beasty and returned to his hometown Würzburg. He was looking to form a new band. Wolfgang and Thomas used to play together in the local rock band "Pozzokko" with guitarist Bernhard Potschka (later Nina Hagen Band and Spliff). Dieter played with "Neffe Bruno", an experimental band with Thomas' younger brother, percussionist Rainer Römer, who later persued a career in classical music and co-founded the renowned "Ensemble Modern"

The newly formed Munju created an energy and sound the audience instantly loved.

They became part of the independent musicians owned record label & distribution "Schneeball" together with Embryo, Missus Beastly, Ton Steine Scherben and many more.

Munju was first and foremost a touring live band. They played way over 1000 gigs in the 10 + years of their existence. Most of the gigs took place all over Germany and the highlights were tours through Italy, Sicily, Sweden, Austria, France, Spain and Switzerland.

Munju recorded two albums with their original line-up, but shortly after the second album, "Moon You," (1978) Jürgen left the band.

Alto Pappert (Kraan) on saxophone joint the group as a guest for one concert tour. After that, Munju developed their special sound and skills as a trio.

In 1979, Saxophonist Fred Lamberson from San Francisco became the fourth man. The next project was Munju's 3rd and most successful album, "Brot + Spiele". With this line-up, Munju toured Italy and Sicily, gave lots of radio and television interviews and also teamed up with "ZAMLA," an independent band from Upsala, Sweden for two big concert tours all the way through Germany and Sweden. Radio Malmoe broadcasted a Munju live concert.

In 1982 Fred left the band and returned to San Francisco.

Again, Munju performed as a trio until they met Peter Haas, a keyboarder from Berlin. Peter joined the band for about 9 months.

Within this time (1982-1984), Munju recorderd several videos in studioproduction and live.

After Peter left, Eddie Rüdel, a young guitarist from Würzburg, became the 4th member. With this line-up, Munju recorded their 4th album, "Le Perfectionniste" in 1984.

In January 1986, Dieter left the band to focus on his new business K&K Sound.

Later that year, Munju wrote and performed the music for the Faust ballet production at the Stadttheater Würzburg. For this project, Munju was joined by Burkard Schmidl on keyboard.

For another tour through Germany and France, Wolfgang, Thomas and Eddie were joined by Klaus Englert on trumpet.