SEK – press page

CURRENT RELEASE

Title: Wallensteins Garage

CatNo.: EOM118V

Release Date: 30 October 2026

Formats: LP+CD

Playing Time:  41:09

Barcode: 811521011181

ALBUM DOWNLOAD:

request per e-mail HERE.

ALBUM STREAM:

RELEASE INFO

DEUTSCH

Vier Jahre brodelte es im Berliner Untergrund: Nach zwei DIY-Tape-Releases durchbrechen SEK die Flanke und präsentieren mit Wallensteins Garage ihr erstes Album auf Vinyl – ein Debüt, das gleichermaßen Geschichtserzählung, Konzeptalbum und ausufernde Jam-Session ist.

SEK – benannt nach den Anfangsbuchstaben der Nachnamen ihrer Mitglieder – vereint drei Musiker, die seit Jahren in der Berliner Underground-Szene aktiv sind. Paul-Willy Stoyan (Gavial, Jacke Schwarz), Georg Edert (Elder, Gaffa Ghandi) und Lucas Kazzer (Gaffa Ghandi, Borders Down) bringen ihre unterschiedlichen musikalischen Hintergründe zusammen und entwickeln daraus eine gemeinsame Sprache zwischen Improvisation, historischer Erzählung und druckvollem Rock. Was die drei verbindet, ist weniger ein gemeinsamer Stil als die Lust am Ausprobieren: ausufernde Proben, lange Improvisationen und die Suche nach Klanglandschaften, die ebenso sperrig wie eingängig sein können.

Was 2022 während des pandemiebedingten Lockdowns mit stundenlangen Jams begann, entwickelte sich in den vergangenen vier Jahren zu einer eigenwilligen Mischung aus Psychedelic Rock, Krautrock und einer Prise Prog. Die Band selbst nennt diesen Sound augenzwinkernd HOR – Historian Oriented Rock: Musik, die historische Stoffe nicht illustriert, sondern in Klang übersetzt.

Die Inspiration für die Songs stammt aus dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg (1618–1648), insbesondere aus dem Leben des böhmischen Feldherrn Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein und den Ereignissen rund um die Schlacht bei Lützen (1632). Doch SEK begnügen sich nicht mit einer historischen Nacherzählung. Stattdessen entsteht ein fiktionaler Rahmen: Wallenstein sitzt in seiner Garage, restauriert sein ausgestopftes Schlachtpferd Amore Mio und blickt auf die Ereignisse seines Lebens und der Schlacht zurück. Aus dieser absurden, beinahe surrealen Ausgangssituation entfaltet sich eine Reflexion über Erinnerung und Geschichtsschreibung. Wie und warum erinnern wir an Schlachten und Kriege? Wann wird Geschichte zur Fiktion – und wann Fiktion zu einer Form historischer Wahrheit? Was bleibt, was geht verloren, und wie lässt sich all das musikalisch erzählen?

Das musikalische Arsenal ist ebenso vielseitig wie die erzählte Geschichte: verfuzzte Gitarren mit wabernden Delays treffen auf einen galoppierenden Bass und treibende Drums, getragen von träumerischen Keyboards. Immer wieder öffnen sich freie, fast chaotische Passagen, in denen Harmonie und Rhythmus auseinanderbrechen – wie Schlachtordnungen, die im brutalen Nahkampf ihre Form verlieren. An anderer Stelle schaffen sanfte Mandolinenklänge Momente der Ruhe, bevor sie sich in schwere, schmerzvolle Trauermusik verwandeln, inspiriert von Doom und Drone Metal. Zwischen hypnotischen Grooves, improvisatorischer Freiheit und cineastischer Dramaturgie erschaffen SEK einen Sound, der Vergangenheit nicht nachstellt, sondern neu erfahrbar macht.

Die Platte erscheint auf Exile On Mainstream als schwarzes Vinyl mit beigelegter CD sowie digital. 

CREDITS:

guitars: Paul-Willy Stoyan

drums: Georg Edert

Bass: Lucas Kazzer

keyboards: Benjamin Butter

additional keyboards on Auftritt zu Pappenheim: Fabien de Menou

Recorded and mixed by: Fabien de Menou

Produced by: Fabien de Menou + SEK

Mastered by Stefan Brueggemann at Mastering Room Berlin

Artwork by Benjamin Butter

Photos by Tony Petraschk

All songs written and performed by SEK

ENGLISH

For four years, SEK have been simmering beneath the surface of Berlin’s underground music scene. After two DIY cassette releases, the trio now breaks through with Wallenstein’s Garage, their first album on vinyl – a debut that is equal parts concept album, historical meditation, and expansive psychedelic rock journey.

SEK takes its name from the initials of the members’ surnames, following the naming tradition of classic jazz ensembles. The trio consists of Paul-Willy Stoyan (Gavial, Jacke Schwarz), Georg Edert (Elder, Gaffa Ghandi), and Lucas Kazzer (Gaffa Ghandi, Borders Down), three musicians with long-standing roots in Berlin’s independent rock scene. Bringing together backgrounds in heavy psych, progressive rock, punk, and experimental music, they have forged a collective sound driven by improvisation, curiosity, and a shared fascination with storytelling through music.

What began during the COVID lockdowns of 2022 as marathon jam sessions gradually evolved into a distinctive blend of psychedelic rock, krautrock, and progressive rock. The band jokingly refers to this hybrid as HOR – Historian Oriented Rock: music that doesn’t merely reference history, but transforms it into immersive sonic narratives.

The album draws its inspiration from the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), one of Europe’s most devastating conflicts. Fought largely across the territories of present-day Germany, the war began as a religious conflict between Protestant and Catholic states before evolving into a prolonged political struggle involving most of Europe’s major powers. It left vast regions depopulated and reshaped the political landscape of the continent, making it one of the defining events of early modern European history.

At the center of Wallenstein’s Garage stands Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (1583–1634), the Bohemian military commander who became one of the war’s most influential and controversial figures. Several songs revolve around the Battle of Lützen in 1632 – one of the conflict’s most famous engagements, remembered both for its enormous human cost and for the death of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus. Yet SEK are not interested in historical reenactment. Instead, they construct a fictional frame: Wallenstein sits alone in his garage, restoring his taxidermied war horse, Amore Mio, while reflecting on the battle and the choices that shaped his life.

From this deliberately absurd and surreal premise emerges a meditation on memory, mythmaking, and historiography. Why do societies commemorate wars and battles? At what point does history become fiction – and fiction become another way of understanding history? What is remembered, what disappears, and how can music capture the fragile boundary between the two?

The band’s musical vocabulary is as expansive as its subject matter. Fuzz-drenched guitars soaked in swirling delay collide with galloping bass lines, driving drums, and dreamlike synthesizers. Moments of hypnotic groove give way to passages of near-total chaos, where rhythm and harmony dissolve like military formations collapsing in close combat. Elsewhere, delicate mandolin melodies emerge before unfolding into slow, grief-stricken soundscapes inspired by doom and drone metal. Moving effortlessly between improvisation, cinematic atmosphere, and crushing heaviness, SEK create music that does not simply revisit history – it invites listeners to inhabit it.

The record will be released on Exile On Mainstream on black vinyl, bundled with a CD and digitally.

CREDITS:

guitars: Paul-Willy Stoyan

drums: Georg Edert

Bass: Lucas Kazzer

keyboards: Benjamin Butter

additional keyboards on Auftritt zu Pappenheim: Fabien de Menou

Recorded and mixed by: Fabien de Menou

Produced by: Fabien de Menou + SEK

Mastered by Stefan Brueggemann at Mastering Room Berlin

Artwork by Benjamin Butter

Photos by Tony Petraschk

All songs written and performed by SEK

LINER NOTES

The following text appears as the gatefold liner notes of Wallenstein’s Garage. It expands upon the album’s fictional narrative while intertwining it with historical accounts of the Battle of Lützen (1632). Throughout the text, excerpts from Golo Mann’s landmark biography Wallenstein are quoted (presented here in English translation for reference), creating a dialogue between documented history and the fictional world imagined by SEK.

“No one sleeps in the cold November night: not the mercenaries deepening roadside trenches, felling trees, piling up earthworks; not the colonels arguing, encouraging one another, whispering among themselves; not the scouts, who have little to discover; not Pappenheim’s cavalry, setting out from Halle late in the night, the field marshal carrying Wallenstein’s letter in his coat pocket; not the General himself.”
— Golo Mann, Wallenstein, p. 737 (English translation)

Autumn, 1632. Europe has been at war for twenty-four years. At Lützen, twenty kilometres southwest of Leipzig, both the Imperial Generalissimo Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein and the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus see an opportunity. Wallenstein, who regards the Protestant king as a personal rival, hopes that a victory over him will bring his second command as Generalissimo to a glorious conclusion. The king, meanwhile, is advancing through Saxony in pursuit of the Imperial forces. Following an earlier engagement, prisoners report that

“Pappenheim has departed, and other Wallenstein regiments have gone as well; therefore he must now have superiority over the enemy if he advances directly upon Lützen.”
— Golo Mann, Wallenstein, p. 733 (English translation)

The Imperial army is spread widely across Saxony—strong in numbers, yet dangerously dispersed.

On the morning of 16 November, delayed by dense fog, the battle finally begins around eleven o’clock. Sixteen thousand soldiers under Wallenstein face eighteen thousand fighting for the Swedish crown. The battle is immediate, relentless, and unforgiving. Wallenstein’s left flank comes under immense pressure and begins to collapse. Only the timely arrival of Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim prevents disaster. A massive cavalry charge drives the Swedes back, but at a terrible cost: Pappenheim is mortally wounded by cannon fire, and his troops begin to retreat. Only the Croatian regiment continues the assault, penetrating deep into the enemy’s positions, destroying artillery, and sowing confusion to such an extent that

“the connection between the first and second Swedish lines”
“was torn apart.”
— Golo Mann, Wallenstein, p. 740 (English translation)

Wallenstein’s left flank is saved.

At the same time, Gustavus Adolphus rides forward to support his troops. Recognised by Imperial soldiers, he becomes the target of concentrated fire and is struck in the left arm. Unable to control his brown Oldenburg horse, he calls for help, but blinded by fog and gunpowder smoke—and hindered by his poor eyesight—he loses contact with his own men. Imperial cavalry pursue him, kill him with pistol shots, and strip his body of everything, leaving only his naked corpse.

Driven by vengeance for their fallen king, the Swedish soldiers continue the fight with relentless determination. Wallenstein himself is in the thick of the battle, mounted on his beloved mare, Amore Mio. The Generalissimo is wounded in the hip, but survives. Amore Mio, however, is struck as well and succumbs to her injuries. After the battle, Wallenstein has the horse recovered and preserved through taxidermy.

After six more hours of fighting, the battle comes to an end. Nine thousand men lie dead, yet neither side can claim a decisive victory. The Swedish army withdraws, carrying away the body of Gustavus Adolphus, while Wallenstein’s forces remain at Lützen.

These are the events Wallenstein relives again and again, withdrawn from the world and tormented by gout, in his garage. Before him stands Amore Mio, preserved and mounted. He devotes the aftermath of the battle to maintaining the dermoplastic remains of his faithful companion. Here he receives congratulations from the Emperor, the Kings of Poland and Spain, and even the Pope himself. Yet the war is not over. The Swedish army has not been defeated. What, then, remains of the supposed triumph at Lützen? Even the death of the Swedish king—so fervently desired by Wallenstein—brings no satisfaction, for Amore Mio will never gallop again.

Historical quotations adapted from: Golo Mann, Wallenstein. Sein Leben erzählt von Golo Mann. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 4th edition, 1971. Quotations presented here in English translation for reference.

ARTIST PICTURES