2000 – 2011

The band returned in 2003 with “WAT”, a typically superb Laibach offering launched with suitable bombast. Sung in both German and English, WAT pondered the major topics of the Iraqi War, anti-Semitism, terrorism and the crisis in the modern world. Their single “Tanz mit Laibach” was a minor hit propelled by a suitably tongue in cheek video and was the group’s homage to the electro-pop duo Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF). Laibach also claimed that the album was influenced by The Pop Group. WAT intensified Laibach’s analysis of the traumatic relationships between music and power, art and ideology, life and death. Following the release of WAT, Laibach carried out a major European tour in 2003. The Slovenian language book on Laibach Pluralni monolit (Plural Monolith) by British cultural theorist Alexei Monroe was released simultaneously with WAT and became a best-seller in Slovenia. In 2004 the band released a collection of their best songs under the title “Laibach Anthems”.

This was followed by their first American tour since 1997, which coincided with the 2004 presidential elections. This tour was documented in Sašo Podgoršek’s film Divided States of America, released by MUTE in 2006. October 2005 saw the publication of Interrogation Machine (MIT Press), the English version of Alexei Monroe’s Pluralni monolit. The book was the result of several years of research on Laibach and NSK and analysed Laibach as part of the history of its time.

In 2006 Laibach announced a brand new album release, “Volk”. The follow-up to 2003 WAT, the album was released on Mute on 23rd October and was preceded by a single release, “Anglia” on 9th October 2006. “Volk”, the German word meaning “people” (i.e. people as a nation), is a collection of interpretations of national anthems and includes the national anthem for the NSK State, which Laibach co-founded in 1992. In relation to pop music, which is for the sheep, Laibach present themselves as shepherds disguised as wolves. This grand project saw Laibach utilizing new sonic avenues previously uncharted by the band, but with a result that is Laibach to the core. Each of the tracks is based on and inspired by an original anthem. The tracks are mostly sung in English but also include sections in the relevant languages and guest vocalists. By reinterpreting the music and translating the lyrics of each anthem, the band has not only shown us this common ground, they have also offered up a very pertinent comment on today’s political situation and a warning for future generations. An extensive tour followed with more than 100 live dates throughout Europe and America. Their Volk performance in Trbovlje is documented on the Mute DVD “Dead in Trbovlje” (directed by Sašo Podgoršek).

A new surprise came with the 2008 release of a Laibachian interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous work “The Art of Fugue” (“Die Kunst der Fuge”), titled LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE BWV 1080. The majority of the material had already been created in 2006 for the premiere performance on the 1st of June the same year at the Bach festival in Leipzig. Since Bach did not specify any instrumentation for this work and because he based it on mathematical algorithms, Laibach decided to use computers and software as the key instruments, creating a very special electronic interpretation and suggesting that J.S. Bach could also be understood as a pioneer of electronic, techno, and computer music. A European tour followed in 2008-2009 including a performance in the beautiful and historic surroundings of the Slovenian Philharmonic Society building in October 2008. At the end of October, Laibach entered the world of online commerce in a typically ironic way, launching their long awaited and conceptually provocative web shop Laibach WTC (wtc.laibach.org).

On 18th April 2009 Laibach, in collaboration with the RTV Slovenia Symphonic orchestra and composer Izidor Leitinger presented another spectacular event, this time called VOLKSWAGNER. Based on Richard Wagner’s music, the collaborating artists decided to create a sonic suite in three acts which takes Wagner into the core of the jazz music of sonic experimentalists such as Miles Davis and Sun Ra, further enhancing the music with ambient electronic and industrial sounds, making connections between Wagner, modernism, and jazz, crossbred with pop art. Two performances took place in Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana’s leading cultural centre, and, as is so often the case with Laibach, provoked some very strong reactions, especially among classical music critics and hardcore Wagner and Laibach fans.

On 18 September 2009 the Kino Šiška, a new centre of urban culture was inaugurated in Ljubljana with a concert by Laibach and their British guests Juno Reactor. During the next two years Laibach continued to  tour extensively throughout Europe, but also presents several big retrospective Laibach Kunst exhibitions.

In 2009 a retrospective exhibition Ausstellung Laibach Kunst – Recapitulation 2009 was shown at the important Muzeum Sztuki in Lódz, confronting historic and recent material.

The International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana set up the exhibition GESAMTKUNST LAIBACH, Fundamentals 1980–1990, opened from 15 April to 6 June 2010 and presented the group’s visual artworks (posters, album covers, fanzines, linocuts, photo-copies, paintings and installations) as well as the controversial TV interview from 1983 and other documentary material.

30 years after the Laibach’s first (and than banned) exhibition, the group set up the multi-day event with concerts, symposium and exhibition, at the same location, Laibach’s home town Trbovlje (in Delavski Dom Trbovlje), titled Ausstellung Laibach Kunst: RED DISTRICT + BLACK CROSS.

In  2011 Laibach collaborated in a co-production project with the East West Theatre Company Sarajevo,  Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor and European Cultural Capital 2012 Maribor, titled “Europe Today”, based on the text of Miroslav Krleža, directed by Haris Pašovic and co-performed by  Miki Manojlovic and Edward Clug.

On May 2011 Laibach performed a special concert at London’s historic Roundhouse as part of the annual Short Circuit Electronic Music Festival, hosted by Mute.

Ausstellung Laibach Kunst – Perspectives exhibition was opened in Umetnostna Galerija Maribor (UGM) in February 24th, 2011.  The exhibition comprised twelve rooms presenting key stages of Laibach’s work from the first decade of their career in the 1980’s up to the present. The works on display include multi-media installations, oil paintings, photographs, graphic works, and film. This was the biggest Laibach Kunst exhibition in Slovenia to date.

Ausstellung Laibach Kunst 1980 -2011 – ‘Ceci n’est pas Malevich!’ exhibition was opened on May 6, 2011, at HDLU (Dom hrvatskih likovnih umjetnika/Croatian Artists’ Centre) in Zagreb, Croatia. After 28 years group Laibach returned with their visual work to Zagreb, at which, because of political pressures, their 1983 exhibition was interrupted and closed after only three days of viewing. The exhibition occupied the entire space, with three gallery rooms in the HDLU building. Laibach’s solo concert show in relation with the exhibition happened on May 21st in the Boogaloo venue (ex. RANS Mosa Pijade venue, where the band held their famous incriminated Music Biennale show in 1983).

On 12 May 2011, Laibach played a special “installation performance” of Die Kunst der Fuge at MACBA – Barcelona’s celebrated Museum of Contemporary Art. The event took place alongside the opening of a large retrospective exhibition of Eastern European arts entitled Museum of Parallel Narratives (1956-1986).

On August 18th, 2011 the group played a show in the historic Roman Arena in Pula, Croatia. The performance was a part of a summer festival; Laibach performed together with Guano Apes and Apocalyptica.

In September a long awaited deluxe 5 vinyl LP Box, titled “Gesamtkunstwerk – Dokument 81-86“, was released at VOD (Vinyl On Demand).This ultra-deluxe leather-bound box set came in a cross-like holder for the five vinyl discs and also includes a DVD with two outstanding live-performances from 1982 and 1984 plus a large poster,10 postcards, a metal enamel-badge as well as an extensive 36-page booklet illustrated with archive photos of Laibach’s hometown Trbovlje. The Box focusses on Laibach’s early years as a provocative performance-music-and-multimedia-group and includes early studio and unreleased recordings in combination with many legendary live-documents from the 1981-1986 period; all previously unreleased on vinyl.

In October Laibach started to create music/film score for one of the most anticipated films coming out of Europe: Iron Sky, a dark science fiction comedy about Nazis escaping to the dark side of the Moon in 1945 and returning to Earth in 2018. The film was inspired in part by Laibach and especially their 2006 album VOLK (Mute/EMI), therefore the film’s director Timo Vuorensola also wanted to have Laibach create the music for it. The Film will be launched on April 4th 2012 and Laibach will present it on selected shows in Europe. Iron Sky soundtrack will be released on Mute.