Der Kleine Tod Make Their Debut with Haunting Cover of Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood’s "Sand" [Track and Video]

We first became aware of artist and Grammy-nominated creative director Berit Gwendolyn Gilma via her extensive and acclaimed work with Danny Elfman, and have continued to admire her professional and creative pursuits ever since. Given that, it came as welcome and exciting news that Berit has founded a new project called Der Kleine Tod, which is a collaboration with Christian Fuchs (Fetish 69, Bunny Lake, Black Palms Orchestra). Immediately upon getting a pre-release listen and viewing of Der Kleine Tod’s debut single and video – a haunting cover of Nancy and Lee Hazlewood’s 1968 song “Sand”– we knew this release was destined for a special place in our playlists and hearts here at WMF.

Curious about the “Sand” cover, its accompanying music video, and how the Der Kleine Tod project came into being, we asked Berit for some background info regarding all the above. Berit graciously shared the following new and excusive context to the “Sand” track, video, and Der Kleine Tod project:

“I used to listen a lot to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood when I moved to L.A. I love the mysterious, sensual melancholic sound landscapes. For some reason many avant-garde circles admired their music. My bandmate Christian, who was in a few very successful Austrian bands, and me had the idea of covering “Sand” one night- Einstürzende Neubauten did a cover of it in the 80s. I’m very critical with covers, they really need to be strong to exist as their own. But we gave it a try. I found my voice identity with this song, and really felt the magic happening in the studio. I come from a very subculture, avant-garde arts and music background so my ears are trained for unconventional sounds. I had the idea of introducing some Indonesian gamelan (which I studied at UCLA) and the shofar as a bass line to the song. And of course my speciality: the human theremin, which is the instrumental part of the song. It’s an odd skill to have…but I can do a theremin pretty realistically. It’s my party trick. I think it’s because this gap in my front teeth.”

Berit Gwendolyn Gilma in Los Angeles, CA. Photo: WMF

“The cover got so much good feedback that we felt inspired to found a music project, which we called Der Kleine Tod; it’s German for la petit morte. (I’ll let you google it to find out what it describes).”

“The music video is also very personal to me. We filmed it in my childhood garden- a water plant nursery- with a lot of amphibians and water lilies. It’s an enchanted place, but also ruthless with the laws of living and dying, which not just fascinated me already as a child, but reflects the themes of our project.”

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Polaroids: WMF. Cover photo courtesy Berit Gwendolyn Gilma