photos by Toni Petraschk
Exile On Mainstream Records welcomes German progressive rock outfit SEK to the label, set to release their debut LP, Wallensteins Garage, on October 30th. Today, the label unveils the cover art, track listing, preorders, tour dates, and lead single, “Auftritt zu Pappenheim.”
For four years, SEK has been simmering beneath the surface of Berlin’s underground music scene. After two DIY cassette releases, the trio now breaks through with Wallensteins Garage, a debut that is equal parts concept album, historical meditation, and expansive psychedelic rock journey.
SEK takes its name from the initials of the members’ surnames, following the naming tradition of classic jazz ensembles. The trio consists of guitarist Paul-Willy Stoyan (Gavial, Jacke Schwarz), drummer Georg Edert (Elder, Gaffa Ghandi), and bassist Lucas Kazzer (Gaffa Ghandi, Borders Down), three musicians with long-standing roots in Berlin’s independent rock scene. Bringing together backgrounds in heavy psych, progressive rock, punk, and experimental music, they have forged a collective sound driven by improvisation, curiosity, and a shared fascination with storytelling through music.
Wallensteins Garage was recorded and mixed by Fabien de Menou, produced by Fabien de Menou and SEK, mastered by Stefan Brueggemann at Mastering Room Berlin, with photography by Toni Petraschk and cover artwork by Benjamin Butter (Gavial) who also provides keyboards on the album, with additional keyboards on “Auftritt zu Pappenheim” by Fabien de Menou
“Auftritt zu Pappenheim” is one of the three long tracks on the record and the song with the most experimental and jazzy edge to it. Developed via on-stage-jams during the band’s 2024 Germany Tour, the close to freeform heavy improvisational mid-section depicts the chaos of battle in all its senseless tragic and brutality.
Listen to SEK’s “Auftritt zu Pappenheim” on YouTube HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
Exile On Mainstream will release Wallensteins Garage on black vinyl bundled with a CD and digitally on October 30th. Preorders can now be placed at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
Additional previews, a video, and more from the record will be unveiled over the weeks ahead.
Wallensteins Garage Track Listing:
1. Wallensteins Garage
2. Die Schlacht bei Lützen
3. Amore Mio
4. Auftritt zu Pappenheim
5. Amore Mios Ende
SEK has booked a run of tour dates across Germany preceding the album’s release, with shows running from October 9th through 17th, including a hometown release show for the record. All confirmed dates are listed below, and additional live plans are in the works for the coming months.
SEK Tour Dates:
10/09/2026 Aaltra – Chemnitz, DE
10/10/2026 Neue Zukunft – Berlin, DE *record release show
10/13/2026 Ostpol – Dresden, DE
10/14/2026 secret show/ask a punk
10/15/2026 KuBa – Jena, DE
10/16/2026 Bunter Hund – Zittau, DE
10/17/2026 Kulturhof – Lübbenau, DE
What began during the COVID lockdowns of 2022 as marathon jam sessions gradually evolved into a distinctive blend of psychedelic rock, Krautrock, and progressive rock. The members of SEK jokingly refer to this hybrid as HOR – Historian Oriented Rock: music that doesn’t merely reference history but transforms it into immersive sonic narratives.
Wallensteins Garage draws its inspiration from the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), one of Europe’s most devastating conflicts. Fought largely across the territories of present-day Germany, the war began as a religious conflict between Protestant and Catholic states before evolving into a prolonged political struggle involving most of Europe’s major powers. It left vast regions depopulated and reshaped the political landscape of the continent, making it one of the defining events of early modern European history. At the center of Wallensteins Garage stands Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (1583–1634), the Bohemian military commander who became one of the war’s most influential and controversial figures. Several songs revolve around the Battle of Lützen in 1632 – one of the conflict’s most famous engagements, remembered both for its enormous human cost and for the death of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus.
Yet, SEK is not interested in historical reenactment. Instead, they construct a fictional frame: Wallenstein sits alone in his garage, restoring his taxidermied war horse, Amore Mio, while reflecting on the battle and the choices that shaped his life. From this deliberately absurd and surreal premise emerges a meditation on memory, mythmaking, and historiography. Why do societies commemorate wars and battles? At what point does history become fiction – and fiction become another way of understanding history? What is remembered, what disappears, and how can music capture the fragile boundary between the two?
The band’s musical vocabulary is as expansive as its subject matter. Fuzz-drenched guitars soaked in swirling delay collide with galloping bass lines, driving drums, and dreamlike synthesizers. Moments of hypnotic groove give way to passages of near-total chaos, where rhythm and harmony dissolve like military formations collapsing in close combat. Elsewhere, delicate mandolin melodies emerge before unfolding into slow, grief-stricken soundscapes inspired by doom and drone metal. Moving effortlessly between improvisation, cinematic atmosphere, and crushing heaviness, SEK creates music that does not simply revisit history – it invites listeners to inhabit it.
SEK:
Paul-Willy Stoyan – guitar
Georg Edert – drums
Lucas Kazzer – bass
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