Back in the eighties, in a small village called Breendonk, a group of young belgian people tried a new direction with a combination of samples, synths and guitars: The Arch, a four piece, was formed in mid 1986. Their music can be described as a cross between electronic body music and guitar rock with each instrument maintaining its individual sound.

Photos Fred van Hoof

The Arch sent their first demo, “Revenge Revival”, to Dirk Ivens’ Body Records and the track appeared on the compilation “Expo 87”. Ludo Camberlin (Anything But Records) immediately felt the potential of the band too and released a new “Revenge Revival” mix and 3 other tracks on Anything But Records. The first Arch EP, “As Quiet As” was a fact. It was clear The Arch had to focus abroad where their music was called crossover.
It appeared to be the right decision. They had gigs in places other beginning bands could only dream of: Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Zagreb, Belgrade, Budapest etc. The first album, “A Strange Point of You” (1988) was also released on Anything But Records, and then Antler-Subway became their record company. After “The Only Thing” in 1991 The Arch split. Months became years but in 1997 a German label released a new album called “In Sofa” and afterwards a compilation and a double compilation cd was available over there.

The Arch can now look back at a 20 years catalogue of good songs. Some of our favourites are “Revenge Revival”, “Ribdancer”, “No Noise” and of course – probably their most famous song, inspired by the junk book “Christiane F.”- “Babsi Ist Tot”.

2011: This year in september, a new album will be released on the German label Echozone, followed by concerts in Sofia, Vienna, Bucarest, Budapest, Barcelone, Madrid, Cologne, Munich, Seatle, Canada…