Surreal scenes, surprising parallels, and fateful events have been typical of GÖRL's story from the very beginning. It all started with a profoundly earthly problem: Sometime in 2019, the washing machine of Frankfurt DJ and producer Sylvie Marks broke down. With laundry scattered across several bags, she sat on the U5 subway line on her way to the laundromat. In this less than pleasant situation, she suddenly recognized another passenger. That guy back there on the subway, wasn't that Robert Görl?

The classically trained drummer and keyboardist Robert Görl founded the legendary post-punk group Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) with Gabi Delgado in 1978. He is a central figure in the history of European electronic music. With radically minimalist, iconic sequences, brutalist-sounding drums, and provocative aesthetics, DAF laid the foundation for EBM, industrial dance, and techno. They achieved timeless hits such as "Der Mussolini," "Verschwende Deine Jugend," and "Kebab Träume."

Sylvie Marks, in turn, was the first and for a long time the only female resident DJ at the legendary Frankfurt club Dorian Gray. Later, as a producer, she released international club hits on influential labels like International Gigolo and Bpitch Control and performed at festivals such as Roskilde and in some of the world's most important clubs. And now, suddenly, Robert Görl was standing in front of her. On a subway.

A few Facebook messages and a couple of coffees later, it was clear: there were numerous connections, mutual acquaintances. Görl and Mark's lives had repeatedly crossed unconsciously, so it was almost a miracle how late they had met.

Since that fateful day on the subway, Robert Görl and Sylvie Marks have enjoyed a sparkling creative partnership, culminating in the release of their first joint album as GÖRL, »Dark Silver Moon Light«.

Before that could happen, however, something crucial occurred. After the meeting, DAF initially planned to record a new album in the Frankfurt studio of their longtime musical partner HAL9000, which had been arranged by Sylvie Marks. During this early phase, Gabi Delgado tragically died in March 2020. "That was a total shock, completely out of the blue," says Robert Görl.

For a long time, it was unclear what the future held, until Görl and Marks decided to realize one last DAF album based on their existing ideas, also as a tribute to Gabi Delgado and the legacy of this unique band. Thus, "Nur noch einer" (Only One More) was released in 2021, the final DAF album.

After this painful yet artistically enriching experience, it was finally clear that they wanted to continue down the path they had chosen together. Due to various legal disputes, it was certain that the name DAF would not be available for the new project. It wouldn't have been appropriate anyway. "We could never have been a band," says Sylvie Marks. "For me, it was always clear: I can't just put on a DAF boot that doesn't belong to me and doesn't fit."

In this complex situation, another coincidence occurred, which in retrospect proves to be a stroke of luck. An old button with the name Görl on it rolled off his desk in Görl's apartment. It had been produced years ago for a solo project and, as if by magic, landed right at Sylvie Marks' feet. Suddenly, there it was: the name for their band.

GÖRL is short, concise, iconic. The name evokes DAF's aesthetic tradition while simultaneously transcending it into the present and future. And from an English perspective, it even hints at Sylvie Marks' involvement as, well, a girl, as the two of them say.

“I wouldn’t have thought of it myself,” says Robert Görl. “When you spend your whole life with a surname like that, you don’t necessarily find it particularly special; someone from the outside had to come along, and that was Sylvie.”

DAF invented a sound that had never existed before. How profoundly Robert Görl shaped it is now clearer than ever. Listening to "Dark Silver Moon Light," it becomes evident that Görl wrote the music for the vast majority of DAF's hits, thus decisively influencing the band's style. Furthermore, he developed a distinctive musical signature in his solo and other projects, which is indelibly inscribed on this album. The patented GÖRL sound is as vibrant and captivating as ever and has stood the test of time flawlessly.

The fact that this sound is so immediate and powerful today is largely thanks to Sylvie Marks' expertise. "I have a slight tendency towards perfectionism and I know a lot about singing," she says. "I was able to contribute both very well, and so we jumped in at the deep end together."

Sylvie Marks started out on the piano, later becoming a keyboardist, then a DJ and producer. Her extensive experience is directly reflected in the production of "Dark Silver Moon Light." The album sounds transparent and exceptionally clean, giving it a tremendous urgency. The individual tracks of the ten collaboratively written songs are sharply separated, and it is precisely this transparency that lends them an impressive depth.

The foundation of GÖRL's music lies in Robert Görl's iconic sequences. "The sequence is always the first thing; it's always been that way for me," he says. "I work tirelessly on such a sequence for an entire day. It can be an abstract bass or guitar line that I continually refine and bring to its essence."

In Sylvie Marks' refined style, these sequences sound more urgent than ever before.