During his 40-year career, Stephan Eicher has crossed the linguistic divide with a number of hits in French, despite the language not being his own. Eicher also loves using his native Bernese dialect in francophone settings. In particular, his Paris street version of “Hemmige” during the “Fête de la Musique” – to which the crowd sang along – will live long in the memory. Eicher is the most popular Swiss singer in the French-speaking world.
In France, Eicher has worked with singer Miossec, whom he greatly admires, and with ‘le dandy du rock’ Alain Bashung – not to mention Serbian film composer and recording artist Goran Bregovi?, who is a devotee of gypsy culture.
Eicher experimented with sound loops and synthesisers as part of Grauzone, the band he founded with brother Martin. In 2015, during his barren spell, the Swiss toured Europe with nothing but automatic musical instruments for company. In 2019, he played with a brass band. Eicher has also experimented with an array of instruments unusual for a rock singer. For example, he used a cimbalom, a hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes on his album “Carcassonne” – possibly a throwback to his father’s cellar, which overflowed with instruments.
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