Dagmar Krause

Dagmar Krause (born 4 June 1950) is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-garde rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bea

Dagmar Krause (born 4 June 1950) is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-garde rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hans Eisler. Her unusual singing style makes her voice instantly recognisable and has defined the sound of many of the bands she has worked with.

Dagmar Krause was born in Hamburg, Germany on 4 June 1950. She began her professional career at the age of 14 as a singer in Hamburg clubs on the Reeperbahn. In 1968 she was invited to join The City Preachers, a contemporary folk/protest group formed in 1964. Half-jokingly, Krause described them as a German version of The Mamas & the Papas. She contributed vocals to their 1968 album Der Kurbis, das Transportproblem und der Traumtänzer (The Pumpkin, the Problem of Transport and the Dream-dancers), a spin-off from a German TV show. The City Preachers broke up in 1969, but their lead singer Inge Rumpf and Krause reunited in 1970 to record I.D. Company, the name of a studio project where each vocalist sung lead on and determined the direction of one side of the LP (Krause's side indicated her future direction with its avant-garde slant).