Carlos Peron

Carlos Peron (b. Carlos Perón in Z?rich, Switzerland), was the son of a businessman & a landlady, who ran - the first pizzeria in Switzerland - Ristorante Pizzeria Napoli. When four, Carlos was able to bake pizza. The first sounds he recognized was that of a telephone dial selector & Caruso's O Sole Miothe. During pre-school / primary school years, he often visited the sculptors Otto M?ller & Silvio Mattioli (K?nstlerhaus, Z?rich) - where he learned abstract thinking. From the first primary class, onwards, he studied classical flute.

After finishing secondary school he trained to become a coffee businessman.

Musical beginnings - The first single he got was ?Tom Dooley' performed by The Kingston Trio. It was a gift from his niece Beatrice Tschanz. In 1964 he started to collect electronic music as a collector. In the 60s he saw a concert by the famous composer Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Verkehrshaus in Lucerne. The cycle ?Kommunion und Intensit?t' (Communion and Intensity) influenced Carlos Per?n so much that he started his own electronic music concept. He started with a Grundig TK24L to record noise pictures and laughing orgies. He played these sounds at New Years Eve to his teachers. The reaction was conflicting. His first solo album ?Impersonator I' is full of these musique concr?te trifles.


Bands and studios
Carlos Per?n started as a keyboard player in the new wave band URLAND in Z?rich. He played with drummer Sternini, bass player Ron Styler and guitarist Boris Blank.

After the split of the band Carlos Per?n founded the TRANCEONIC studio in Z?rich together with Boris Blank. In this experimental studio the two developed what would later on become the famous Yello sound.

1978: Carlos Per?n and Boris Blank made a trip to USA to sell their music to the US music industry. They visited RCA in Los Angeles and The Residents in San Francisco.

After returning to Switzerland Dieter Meier showed up and sung on a demo of the fragmentary track I.T. Splash. Carlos Per?n was euphoric, but Boris Blank was skeptical - he would rather have a female singer.


Yello
In 1979, the studio moved to Dieter Meier's atelier at the Rote Fabrik, and later on the trio Yello was founded. Also the first maxi single of Yello came out (with ?I.T. Splash' and ?Glue Head') on the label Periphery Perfume which was managed by Peter Preissle.

In 1980, Yello rejected a record contract offered by Klaus Schulze; they preferred a contract with Ralph Records in San Francisco, owned by the Residents. The first Yello album, Solid Pleasure, came out and it was a boom. In 1981, Carlos Per?n released his first solo album, Impersonator I, on the label Konkurrenz/Phonogram, and Yello got a long term major deal on Phonogram through the managing director Louis Spillmann.

In the same year, the Yello album, Claro Que Si, and the soundtrack to Dieter Meier's film, Jetzt und Alles, came out, and also Yello's first video (to the track "The Evening's Young"). In 1983, Carlos Per?n released the soundtrack to the film, Die Schwarze Spinne, by director Mark M. Rissi on the label Milan Disques. At the same time, Yello issued their third LP, You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess.


Post-Yello
In 1984 Carlos Per?n left Yello in order to realize many outrageous solo works, and he founded the label Kristall sound.

In 1985 he released his first oratorio ?Die Sch?pfung der Welt; oder 7 Tage Gottes', again on Milan Disques. On the same label he published the video soundtrack to the bone hard war movie ?Commando Leopard' by famous producer Erwin C. Dietrich starring Klaus Kinki and Lewis Collins - Carlos Per?n was consequently the first one who extracted a music video from a motion picture in order to promote it.

The success was phenomenal. In the USA Carlos Per?n got the first McDonalds campaign. From 1985 on he developed the gold project which was finally sold to TELDEC worldwide. In 1988 Carlos Per?n started the Impersonator series on the label ?Play It Again, Sam' in Brussels.

In 1990 Carlos Per?n composed the music for German comedian Harald Schmidt for his show Schmidteinander and he also acted in three episodes of the show.

From 1991 on Carlos Per?n worked with label owner Lothar G?rtner of Strange Ways Records. He produced solo works and also bands like Wolfsheim, Sielwolf, The Cain Principle, Stalin, Cyrus, Recall and many others. In this phase he created the so called fetish soundtracks like Terminatrix and La salle blanche.

In 1998 Carlos Per?n brought the forgotten singer/songwriter Joachim Witt to Lothar G?rtner. The idea to produce a single with the singer Peter Heppner of Wolfsheim called Die Flut came to Carlos Per?n and Lothar G?rtner during a typical fishmeal with loads of white wine at the St. Pauli Landungsbr?cken in Hamburg. Jochachim Witt was euphoric and begun to work. Unfortunately Lothar G?rtner died a premature death in December of 2005.

From 2006 on the music company SPV releases Carlos Per?n's entire solo works on Revisited Records worldwide.

He also works independently with opera librettist Osberth LcLellan on ?Das Musical der >>0<<', ?Die Oper des Saladin' and other stuff. At Revisited Records Carlos Per?n is in good company with artist like Klaus Schulze, Amon D??l II, Holger Czukay, KRAAN and Pete Townsend of The Who. Carlos Per?n is working worldwide as a music producer and some people say he is acting with the singers and musicians like a prison warden - perhaps one reason why his various projects seem so mature.

Sites: Discogs.