The name Mahlsdorfer Wohnstuben Orchester was a rather benign code name for marginal music from a peripheral district of East Berlin. The project also functioned as a reservoir for bands including Neuntage (tt 006), Die Vision or L’ambassadeur des ombres (tt 015). The present MWO compilation for tapetopia was distilled from the tapes “Nightfever In Mahlsdorf” (1987), “TOt” (1988), “Abgrund” (1988) and “Window” (1989). All four tapes had remained unreleased and copies were made only when friends asked.

If the band had been active at the same time not behind but in front of the Iron Curtain, they would likely have been able to release records and their songs would hold a place in the canon of the West German subculture. This contains a whole bunch of maybes of course, since the Mahlsdorfer Wohnstuben Orchester burgeoned in the shadows of the wall. Now, more than 30 years later, it is celebrating its debut.

The tapetopia series, using the original layouts and track lists, publishes cassette editions from the GDR underground of the 1980s, especially from the “walled-in” scene in East Berlin. More than three decades after their initial “release”, most of these tapes have yet to be heard on either vinyl or CD, even though they made an audible mark in the canon of GDR subculture. Despite the tiny original editions of the time, many of the bands were considered cult in countercultural circles, which made them highly suspect in informed circles.