Now based in Berlin, De/Vision is composed of 2 members, Thomas Adam and Steffen Keth. Often considered as the Germans ' Depeche Mode ', they distanced themselves from their "elder brothers" with the album Monosex [1998], which marked a turning point in their career, for it gave them a proper and original style.
Though they enjoy quite a big popularity in Europe, they remain almost unknown in France, even though they are one of the Synthpop scene leaders.
Their music is mostly made of electronic sounds, great melodies, sometime symphonic and often rhythmic.
They defined themselves as a Progressive Pop band

Native of the city of Darmstadt in Germany, the band counted four members when it was created in July 1988: Thomas Adam, Steffen Keth, Markus Ganßert and Stefan Blender.
Another important person was Lorenz Macke, the manager which supported them during a long period of time.
None of them had specific musical knowledge, however, they knew from the beginning that they wanted to make music using machines, that they would call “soft techno”.

Their first gig took place in Darmstadt, where their first demo “Live at the Golden Krone” was recorded.
The boys self-produced their first single, the cult “Your hand on my skin”, rare vinyl of De/Vision. They are then no more than three, given that Stefan Blender had already left the band.
Having difficulties finding a label they finally decided to invest in order to found their own recording label: SPR. Another single is released, a maxi CD, untitled “Boy on the Street”.
At the same time, they began a huge tour all over Germany, playing before bands such as Die Krupps, Psyche and Camouflage.

As they began to enjoy a certain popularity, they ended up signing with the label Strange Ways Record, in 1993. This collaboration gave them the opportunity to record the single “Try to forget”, the first hit of the band.
Later on, De/Vision released their first album World without End, which one delighted the first fans of the band but left the specialized critics quite disappointed, as they only saw a copy of Depeche Mode, made in Germany.
In 1995 came the second album Unversed in Love, not really innovating, it sounded a lot like the last one. Nevertheless, it contains beautiful and sweet songs such as “Dress me when I bleed”, “Moment we shared” or “Blue Moon”.
To please the fans, they made Antiquity, a compilation of some unreleased tracks, and then a box CD+VHS of the tour, Live Moment We Shared.

1996 is an important year for the band, with the release of Fairyland, a sort of UFO in De/Vision’s discography, with its almost childish sonorities, ubiquitous throughout the album. But this atmosphere hides much darker lyrics which creates a sometimes strange contrast. This album gained a great success and definitely moved away from the three others. The single “I regret” still remains one of their greatest hits. The single version is different from the album version, harsher; it is a kind of introduction to the following album Monosex. The success of Fairyland permits them to sign with a bigger label, WEA, and as for the previous tour, a box CD+DVD Fairylive is out in 1997.

In 1998 Monosex is released and defined the new De/Vision as we still know it now. Obviously, there is a before/after Monosex. Each song carries strong emotions and it is very difficult to say if one song is more representative than the other, for they are all a crucial part of the album. You can find melancholic songs like “Drifter” or “Back in my life”, some dance floor songs like “Slave to Passion” or “Hear me Calling”. But above all, songs with insistent melodies like “Deliver me”, “New Drug” and “Strange Affection” which draw attention in live. Notice that from the tour of this album, on stage the band is accompanied by a guitarist, Lars Baumgardt, who gives an additional strength to most of the songs.
At the end of the year, the album ZEHN is released and it marks the end of D/V’s contract with Strange Ways Record. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the band, it acts as « Best of » of the beginning of their career. A tour also follows the release of this album.

Monosex’s successor, VOID, differs from the previous album thanks to more aggressive sounds than ever before, introducing heavier beats, songs more rock like with guitar parts on many songs : “Re-invent yourself”, “Foreigner”, “Freedom”… Like Monosex, it is released by WEA.
Steffen’s voice is more modified/altered on the majority of the songs, which gives a colder side to the album’s atmosphere.
On VOID, some songs are quite dark as “Give in” or “Hope won’t die” and it emphasizes the cold atmosphere of this album. Besides, VOID deceives some of the oldest fans puzzled by these changes. It is the same reaction among some fans during VOID tour since the band is completed by a drummer, Achim Färber, which puzzle them.

Year 2000 is also synonym of numerous difficulties. WEA does not renew the contract with the band. But above all, this year is marked by the leaving of Markus Ganbert. The fact that he left the band is justified by artistic divergences with Steffen and Thomas, these latters did not want to agree with Markus’ idea of making a music more pop. There might be more than artistic divergences, nevertheless, the band never talked a lot about the subject. According to some interviews, we know that Thomas kept in touch with Markus, on the other hand Steffen and Markus never talked to each other since this separation.
At the same time, Steffen collaborates with the band « Greencourt » with the single “Shining” which becomes number one of the dancefloor charts in Germany. They renew this collaboration with a second single “Take my breath away” but this one is not as successful as the first.

After several negotiations, De/Vision signs with the record company Drakkar. There are now no more than two, Steffen and Thomas, which gives the idea of the title of the album to come in 2001 : TWO.
TWO is more introspective, made just after many troubles : Markus’ leaving, the lost of the contract with WEA, the previous album which did not have unanimous backing, but also personal troubles, in particular health troubles of the singer which put back the realisation process. Taken as a whole, it is sweeter with a lot of ballads, the singing of Steffen is clearer and his voice is less modified compared to what has been done with VOID. Nevertheless, there are a few punchier songs like “Blindness” or “Uncaring machine”.

A little time before the release of TWO, De/Vision organizes a special event in collaboration with the TV channel VIVA 2, in the form of a unique concert, an acoustic concert for the very first time. Thomas and Steffen are accompanied by Lars [playing guitar], Achim [playing drums] once again, and also Josef Bach [who will become the producer of the following album] playing the piano. This concert is immortalized thanks to a CD released in 2002 and a DVD in 2004.
In addition to this album Unplugged, the double album Live 95&96 is also released in 2002. It gathers together the two previous lives [Live moments we shared and Fairylive], which are really hard to find in their old release.
In the same year, the album Remixed is released : a lot of their first songs are remixed by José Alvarez-Brill [JAB]. Some of those versions will replace the original ones in live, in particular for “I regret” or “Moments we share”. A double CD limited edition with remixes made by other artists like « Beborn Beton », « Psyche », « Colony 5 », « T.o.y. » or « Chandeen ».

At the beginning of January 2003 the new album is finally released after the year 2002 which was full of releases but without real novelty. It is untitled Devolution , released once again with Drakkar.
It offers a more electronic approach than its predecessor, but keeping the sweet side that you could find listening to TWO. Though it begins with a quite harsh song, “Sadness”. On the whole, the album is homogeneous, “Digital dream” is the song which seems to distance itself from the rest of the album. The singing of Steffen is sometimes clearer, for example in the beautiful song “A new dawn”, sometimes it is vocoderised like in “Drifting sideways” or “Far too deep”.
The following tour is a great success among the fans, it is then decided to release a new live album.
Summer 2003 marks an important separation between D/V and Lorenz Mäcke who is the manager that accompanied them from the very beginning. According to both sides, a common vision for the future was not possible.

Released in 2004 with Drakkar, 6 Feet Underground is really surprising, it innovates and it impresses thanks to a very diversified tracklist. It has lots of common points with Monosex, and almost each title has got the potential of a single. The album is very various : there are compos with catchy melodies like “Aimee”, “I’m not enough” and slow songs like “6 Feet Underground”, “You are the one” and also songs more experimental like “Take me over” or “Beside you”.
The 6 Feet Underground tour brings a more spectacular dimension to the album's tunes, it seems like most of the songs are composed with the idea of a live configuration with drums and guitars. Nevertheless, Achim Färber decides to leave his part as drums live support at the end of this tour.

Then comes Subkutan, released again with Drakkar early 2006. This new D/V album maintains somehow the line of 6 feet underground, it is however more homogenic than his predecessor. Except almost instrumental tracks “Subtronic” and “E-shock” which are punchier, most of the songs are slow, it might be the slowest album of De/Vision. Anyway, many songs highlights from this homogeneity : A more explosive “Addict”, “My own worst enemy” with a catchy chorus or “In dir”, the second song of the band that contains german lyrics after “Endlose Traüme” in 1995. It's however difficult to stand out Subkutan songs, all are really good songs and make Subkutan one of their greatest achievement. Some could however reproach to Subkutan its flaccing side and again the fact that this album goes more progressive and get away from their original synthpop style.
This flaccing side won't appear live as most of the Subkutan tracks show up higher energy with the help of Lars on guitars and now Markus Köstner on drums.

The end of 2006 makes the entrance of the Best of :
This one is only composed of songs from Monosex era to Subkutan era. The major parts of their greatest hits [like “Digital dream”, “Foreigner”, “Aimee”, “Strange affection”...] are included even if big missings can be noticed [“I'm not enough” or “New drug”].
Limited edition, it contains a second CD with a selection from their most popular remixes [by 'Mesh', 'JAB', 'T.O.Y.' among others]. The only exclusive contents from this Best of is mainly the new song “Love will find a way”, and some exclusive remixes in CD2. There's also the song “Breathless” on CD2 that was only released on the goth compilation CD: Schattenreich vol.3.
This Best of ends an era, but not De/Vision's career, far from it ! the best is yet to come !

Last in date to be released with Drakkar, NOOB is following in the last quarter of 2007. It is produced by Josef Bach and Arne Schumann with whom they ever work together at the production since 6 feet underground [and even before]. This shows us once more signs of harmony between this 4. Which is particuliar to this album is that for the first time Schumann & Bach composed and wrote a lot of the songs from NOOB for D/V. The result of this, is a well performed album which contrasts with 6 feet underground and Subkutan. As a matter of fact it is actually more Synthpop influenced than these 2, with sounds inspired by the 80's used in an original way. Major tracks are rythmed, up-tempo sometimes even dance-floor [“Flavour of the week”, “Life is Suffering”]. We retain also the flowing “Deep blue”, or heady songs like “The far side of the moon”, “What you deserve”. This last album is a real success for De/Vision as NOOB pleases both old school fans and their last ones.
Close to the album's release, the band goes on tour to promote NOOB in Germany accompanied by Lars Baumgardt and Markus Köstner. The last show of the german tour has been filmed in Berlin, however there's still no plan to release a new live DVD. Thanks to NOOB success, the band is touring worldwide but just the two of them, with electronic sets in many different places in the US, South America, Europe, Russia, Israel...

In may 2008, the band organizes a special venue in Berlin in order to celebrate their 20th anniversary. They played an electronic set with many songs they didn't play for a very long time like “Free from cares”, “Take me to the time” or even “Call my name” but also of course classicals like “Try to forget”, “Your hands on my skin” and more recent tracks such as “Aimee”, “Digital dream” and “New drug”.
Since 2009 De/Vision is on the road again, back to the US in The Alliance Tour with Seabound in January, then they will start a new tour in Europe :
20 Jahre Live. These shows will be like the one done in Berlin in 2008 set with songs from the beginning until now. After that the successor of NOOB is schedulled to summer 2009... Sun, Summer Sun...

To be continued...