Geza Stephan Fischer (30 May 1952 – 13 August 2025)

(2026/01/20) With great shock, we have only now learned that our close friend and long-time companion, the music producer and musician Stephan Fischer, passed away in the summer of last year. We were aware of his long illness, but learning of the death of this wonderful human being fills us with deep sadness and reflection.

As we were unfortunately no longer able to meet in person as often in recent years, we were all the more pleased that Stephan came to see us on the occasion of the final concert of our 2024 Germany tour at the Columbiahalle in Berlin. It was wonderful to meet him again at last within our current musical environment and to introduce him to everyone present as an important companion in the history of our band. Inviting him to the concert meant a great deal to us, even though we could not possibly have known that this would be our last meeting with him, which makes it all the more precious in hindsight. He seemed to have a truly lovely evening with us, even if attending the concert may have been somewhat difficult for him due to the wheelchair he had come to depend on.

A particularly special moment that evening was our live version of “Suspicious Love”, which differs only slightly from the version Stephan Fischer produced for us as a remix back in 1993. At the time, he also worked frequently with producer Gareth Jones, who likewise created one of the remixes, as did techno producer and Love Parade founder Dr. Motte, who also collaborated with Stephan on various projects. We were so impressed by Stephan that he subsequently went on to produce our single version of “Close (We Stroke The Flames)” as well. During this period, Heiko and Stephan also worked together as a team for the first time in Berlin, resulting, among other things, in the track “In Cold Blood”.

This marked the beginning of a long collaboration that was to last many years and probably reached its peak with the production of our album Spice Crackers. By then, we had set up our studio on Stresemannstraße in Hamburg and worked intensively on our songs together with Stephan, Ingo Ito and Julian Boyd. Alongside his role as co-producer, Stephan often took charge of the cooking as well, approaching both tasks with his trademark enthusiasm and joy. A small sonic document of these two aspects can be found on the album track “Travelling Without Moving”, which features numerous kitchen sounds. This recording was actually made in our studio kitchen at the time, where Stephan and Marcus were preparing another meal.

Also unforgettable are his idea of using rhythmically arranged choir samples on the track “Ronda’s Trigger”, and his wild remixes for the Bad News release, packed with quotes and the spirit of the then-current cult film Pulp Fiction, which we watched and celebrated together several times in Hamburg cinemas after long and intense days in the studio. His remark, “I think we need more Pulp Fiction,” was frequently heard during the making of the album.

There are countless stories from that period, many of them involving Stephan, and it deeply saddens us that he was no longer able to hold the “30th Anniversary Limited Edition” of the album in his hands, as it was only released at the end of the year. He would certainly have been proud of this new edition, especially as that intense period was often a topic of conversation whenever we met over the years.

But even in later years, there were always special moments between us. When our band had to come to terms with the cancellation of a planned album by our label Virgin Music, we often met at Stephan’s apartment on Nassauische Straße in Berlin to record material for what would later become our album Sensor. Demo vocals and many ideas for sounds and arrangements, for example for “You Turn” or “Me And You”, were created there, quite literally in Stephan’s living room, often with the support of his long-time sound engineer Marco Birkner.

Over the years, close collaboration turned into friendship, especially between Stephan and Heiko, who would often spend hours discussing football and politics in addition to music. A joint project by the two, unfortunately never completed due to lack of time, was intended to become the album Auto – a collection of demos and ideas that we still enjoy listening to today.

That Stephan is no longer with us fills us with great sadness, but at the same time we are deeply grateful that we were able to know him and to accompany him on part of his journey.
Stephan – we will never forget you.

Our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Irena, his family and all those who were close to him.

Camouflage
Heiko, Marcus & Oli
Stuttgart, 20 January 2026