Studio-Album
Released: 1998
The previous two albums were puristic instrumental, no vocals. On “Drei” they changed this concept: Das Holz did not only invite great guest instrumentalist, this time they added 3 guest singers also: Sven Regener (Element of Crime). Susie van der Meer and Alexander Veljanov (Deine Lakaien).
So now Das Holz describe themselves like so: “All we need is 2 violins, 1 chello, 1 sampler, 1 trumpet, 1 bass, 1 sequencer, 1 double bass, 2 synthesizers, 1 organ, percussion, 1 vocoder, 1 guitar, 1 carillon, drums. And 3 singers”.
The result of this, the album “Drei” (“Three”) could not be described better than this journalist did:
“This is so beautiful, I could cry. I almost had to take the CD out of the player. Sometimes so much delicateness and beauty does you good: it prooves that there’s a few people left, who live under different time rhythms and values, and who set something against the dictatorship of mass marketing. … Their approach of working with lots of “wood” and “real” instruments shows their confidence in art. Art has got something to do with ability, and Das Holz have plenty of that. The cover version of Cohen’s “Suzanne” is such a piece that can make you cry, cause it’s too sad and too beautiful to be true. Other cover versions reveal, how odd and sarcastic Das Holz can be as well: I suppose, Alexander Veljanov couldn’t resist lending his voice to that violin-version of “Alice” (Sisters of Mercy), as well as to the even more weird cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. But the genious of Das Holz really becomes apparent in their own compositions. Their pieces (a.o. a broken-hearted one with Element of Crime’s Sven Regener) show an immense understanding of the emotional qualities of each instrument, the communication between the instruments, their quarrels, cheering and moaning. Das Holz is an exceptional band, and “Drei” is an exceptional album.”
(Black Magazin)