Founded in November of 1989 and consisting of only 2 members, Corvus Corax has since risen to become one of the biggest, and perhaps best neo-medieval bands in Germany. With 5 bagpipe players and 3 percussionists, their energetic, dynamic and hypnotic melodies have swept across Europe, earning them the title �die K�nige der Spielleute� (the Kings of Minstrels.) They can now be seen performing regularly at both medieval markets and rock festivals alike and have released approximately 15 albums to date (as well as having contributed or composed music for various film and television programmes.) The following timeline chronicles the many important highlights in their exciting and busy career.

You can also click here for some brief but interesting facts about Corvus Corax

- In February: Castus, Meister Selbfried (Koll) & Venustus (Wim) work on the DEFA film �The Goose Princess and her Faithful Horse Falada� (based on the story of �The Goose Maiden� by the Brothers Grimm) with the group Tippelklimper in Babelsburg. In the film they appear as minstrels.

- In November: Castus & Venustus (Wim) officially form Corvus Corax in Holland.

- In December: The band performs their first shows in Bath & London. Between Christmas and New Years Eve they perform with the band Zumpfkopule (which had been formed earlier that Fall by Meister Selbfried.)

- Corvus Corax�s 1st cd, Ante Casu Peccati is released.

- The cd Congregatio (Latin: Partnership/Fellowship), a collaboration between Corvus Corax & the band Zumpfkopule (which features Meister Selbfried) is recorded.

- Meister Selbfried (Koll) officially joins the band.

- Corvus Corax performs at various festivals throughout Europe.

- In July: The band appears at the International Bagpipe Festival in St. Chartier, France.

- In March: �Congregatio� is released.

- In April: Corvus Corax spends 11 weeks performing in Japan. In Obihiro, they perform at a German theme park called "Gl�ck Okoku" ("Hapiness Kingdom.") During their stay, the band also performs a duet with the Japanese opera singer Maisko which consists of Schubert�s �Heider�slein� and Corvus Corax�s �Por Coi Bat Mes Maris.�

- In September: Corvus Corax organizes and holds their first (of 25 total) Medieval Market Spectacles at the Spandau Citadelle in Berlin, Germany. The market features artisans and craftspeople as well as various performers and entertainers of all kinds, everything from jugglers to fire eaters.

- Der Heilige Sankt Brandanarius (Brandan) joins Corvus Corax, as does Bo Widbusch (who under the name "Pullarius Furzillo" occasionally performs with the band as a puppeteer and hurdy-gurdy player.)

- Now consisting of 4 bagpipe players, the band realizes they are in need of a drummer and thus Donar von Avignon joins the line up as well.

- Throughout August & September: "Mittelalter jetzt"("Medieval Now"), a video portrait of the band is filmed. Live footage for the film was recorded at the Burgfest at the Citadelle in Berlin.

- In the winter months: The band performs in Amman, Jordan. The trip, which included a stop in Damascus, was especially interesting to the band. (The reason for this being that much of the music of the middle ages had it's roots in middle eastern & oriental culture and many medieval instruments were either copies of, or at least influenced by, instruments native to the middle east which were brought back to Europe during the crusades.)

- "Inter Deum et Diabolum Semper Musica Est" (Latin: Between God and the Devil [there] is Always Music) is recorded after spending the rest of the winter months searching (and researching) for new material. The cd is released later in the year.

- In July: The band performs for the first time at the Kaltenberg Knight's Tournament (one of the biggest of it's kind in the world.) They will perform here yearly from this point on...

- In February: Corvus Corax performs at the Carnivale in Venice (Italy.) The concert is filmed by the BBC and used in their TV production entitled "Crusades", which is hosted by Terry Jones.

- The band appears for a second year at the Knight's Tournament, as well as at various other faires and medieval markets, including their own at the Spandau Citadelle.

- Again Corvus Corax spends the winter months researching and gathering material for a new cd. "Tritonus" (Latin: "Tritone", which is an interval in music that is composed of three whole tones; one of the two strong dissonances in the diatonic scale, it was called "diabolus in music" or "the devil's interval" during the baroque period) is released later in the year.

- The band performs various concerts in both Spain and France.

- The band composes/performs music for a television production about Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German knight and poet, and one of the great Minnes�ngers of the middle ages (although he is perhaps most famous for his work "Parzifal," one of the famous legends of the Holy Grail.)

- Venustus (Wim) leaves the band briefly and is replaced by Teufel, who had been a puppeteer and friend of the band for some time, and who becomes a permanent member of Corvus Corax even once Venustus (Wim) returns.

- During the winter months: The band experiments with the fusion of medieval music and modern techno and rock. In April, Tanzwut, the band's side project, is born. You can find out more about Tanzwut on their homepage (which is in German) or at neinnein.tk (which is in English.)

- The band performs for the first time at Paul Kaisser and Margit M�ller's castle, the W�scherschl��le, where they will afterwards perform yearly.

- Donar von Avignon leaves the band.

- The band performs with various guest drummers. They persuade Donar to return for a few shows and his membership with the band will be on-again-off-again until 1998, when he permanently takes his leave.

- In the summer: Jagbird joins the band as a bass drummer. He is also in and out of the band until about 2001.

- The band performs for the first time at the "Festival of Minstrels" at the Castle Wertheim in Wertheim, Germany. They will return to the festival yearly.

- In April: Corvus Corax plays their first rock festival, the Mediawave Festival, in Gyor, Hungary.

- Jagbird leaves the band for a spell, and is replaced by Hatz (who becomes a permanent member from this point on.)

- In July: The band performs 2 concerts at the W�scherschl��, which are recorded and released soon afterwards as the cd "Live auf dem W�scherschl��" ("Live from the Washer-Castle".)

- From August - September: The band records and masters their cd "Viator" (Latin:"Wanderer") which features a slightly more "modern" take on medieval music.

- From October - December: The band begins their first club tour in October, with a second following in December. The Christmas tour features, for the first time, three drummers (Jagbird, Hatz and a temporary guest drummer, Herr P�ttner.) The band realizes that the three drummers balance the five bagpipes perfectly. Sadly, Herr P�ttner is not free to join Corvus Corax as a permanent.

- Jean (who had worked with band members Teufel and Brandan in the past) joins Corvus Corax as the band's third drummer.

- "Tempi Antiquii" (Latin: roughly "In Former Times"), which consists of material from the band members' various past projects between 1988-1991, is released.

- In October: The band celebrates the 10 year anniversary of Corvus Corax with two concert tours. The first runs from October 15th-30th and the second for three weeks in December.

- During the winter months: Corvus Corax composes music for a short film that will be featured in an exhibition of Sandro Botticelli's illustrations for Dante's "Divine Comedy" at the National Museum in Berlin.

- Also during the winter months: The band records their cd "Mille Anni Passi Sunt" (Latin: roughly "A Thousand Years Have Passed"), which features guest vocals by Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prince Kretzulesco who is purported to be a descendant of Vlad Tepes (the infamous Wallachian prince who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker�s Dracula) on the title track. The cd will also contain information about him in the packaging and a computer game featuring Prince Kretzulesco.

- Corvus Corax creates music for a production of "Everyman", the medieval morality play, for the Summer Theatre in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

- Corvus Corax plays more rock festivals in Austria and Germany. In the summer they play a metal festival in Wiesen, Austria. They appear on the same bill as bands like Judas Priest and Atrocity!

- In the Fall: Jagbird leaves the band, and is replaced by Harmann der Drescher (Norri) and Strahli (who has a rather brief stint with the band.)

- The band holds their first fan-club meeting at the W�scherschl��, which consists of an exclusive concert, buffet, socializing and a performance by the belly dancer Alcharzaar.

- Corvus Corax approaches various bands and DJs (as well as colleagues and side projects of the band members) to remix some of their songs. The product of this, the cd "In Electronica", will be released the following year.

- In March: In the studio, the band produces the Pal�stinalied Project (which had been discussed at the Knight's Tournament the previous year.) The cd features 20 verses of the Pal�stinalied of Walther von der Vogelweide (the original 13 verses plus some additional interpretations.)

- In August: The band begins the studio work on their new cd "Seikilos", which they had gathered material for from their archives and manuscripts earlier in the year. The cd is released later in October.

- Strahli leaves the band to begin his own solo career. He is replaced by Der Kalauer (Patrick), who has been a friend of the band for some time now.

- Brandan also leaves the band after 10 years, to work on other projects (namely Cultus Ferox.) In August he is replaced by Ardor vom Venush�gel.

- In July: The band holds a second fan-club meeting at the W�scherschl��. Added to the list of activities this time around are Corvus Corax/Tanzwut karaoke and an air bagpipe playing contest.

- The "In Electronica" remix cd is released.

- Film production for another video portrait of the band begins. Called "...und lachend zieh'n sie weiter" (German: roughly "...and laughing they continue to wander"), it appears on the Gaudia Vite dvd (which is released in 2003.)

- In late 2002: Corvus Corax had recorded some of their live concerts from the Seikilos tour. They are released in 2003 in cd form as "Gaudia Vite" (Latin: "The Joys of Life") and also as a dvd of the same name, which features not only the live footage, but a video portrait of the band "...und lachend zieh'n sie weiter" (German: roughly "...and laughing they continue to wander") as well as plenty of other bonus material.

- The band composes �Hymnus Cantica� for the Kaltenberg Knight�s Tournament. The song becomes the official hymn of the Tournament and the band members are dubbed the �official musicians of the knights of the round table of Kaltenberg� by Prince Luilpold of Bayern. The song is released in two versions (one by Corvus Corax and one by Tanzwut) on the digipack "Hymnus Cantica", which includes a video featuring footage from the Knight's Tournament.

- In July: Corvus Corax begins work on the Cantus Burana project. The project will involve the interpretation and composition of (for orchestra and choir) secular songs from the medieval codex the "Carmina Burana" (from which the band had drawn songs like "In Taberna" and "Estuans Intrinsecus" in the past.) Venustus (Wim) spends much of his free time in the shop building new instruments for the performances, the first of which (a rehearsal only) would take place in January of 2005. The official website for the project can still be viewed here.

- In September: Venustus (Wim) spends a week in Burghausen with instrument maker Karl Riedel building an organistrum, which will be used in the upcoming Cantus Burana performances.

- In January: Corvus Corax performs their first rehearsal, complete with orchestra and choir, of the Cantus Burana in the Cottbus State-Theatre.

- Corvus Corax are signed to the Noir Record label in the U.S.A. They release "The Best Of", the bands first ever U.S. release, through the label in April.

- In April: Venustus (Wim) and Castus appear as guest bagpipers with the band Schandmaul at the Circus Krone in Munich for a special acoustic show that features orchestral accompaniement.

- In August: The band releases the long awaited cd for their Cantus Burana project. The cd, entitled "Cantus Buranus" consists of 11 songs drawn from the "Carmina Burana" which they interpreted and composed/arranged for orchestra and choral accompaniement (provided by the Cottbus City-Theatre Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Choir.) The cd is also released in a limited edition digipack which features all 11 tracks in 5.1 Dolby Surround as well as additional live video footage. Later in the month, the band holds three performances of the "Cantus Buranus", one at the Wacken Open Air festival and two at the Museum Island Festival in Berlin.