Swiss Dark Wave/Post-Punk band of the early 1980s.
The group was initiated in 1981 by Bruno Waser (synthesizer, rhythm, voice/lyrics), after several Punk-activities (a.o. production of the first Swiss-Punk LP). The other initial members Daniel Schnüriger (guitar) and Markus Schulthess (guitar, voice) played up to this time in local punk bands.
A view months later Ursula Sommerhalder completed MITTAGEISEN as bass-player and the band recorded a demo-tape with six songs, which were partly published on the first album in 1983.
Ursula Sommerhalder left the group shortly before the recording-sessions for their first album in the autumn 1982.
Among various concerts - also with other bands such as Liliput, The Vyllies and Propaganda - MITTAGEISEN became one of the most shaped Swiss New Wave band, especially with the release of the first album in March 1983. They earned extraordinarily positive reviews and their album became ‘record of the week’ on Swiss Radio and the songs were played often on various radio stations especially in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
After the departure of Daniel Schnüriger (guitar) and the completion with Manuela Heer (synthesizer) MITTAGEISEN published in January 1985 the 12" single "automaten", with a for that time new electro sound.
As Bruno Waser said in an interview the band wasn't satisfied with the first studio-version of "automaten" and he travelled to Cologne to mix the final-version in collaboration with Detlev Kühne (Die Hornissen) and Tom Dokoupil (The Wirtschaftswunder) at their studio. The 12" single found the way into the legendary John Peel Show on BBC1 and became an 'indie disco' hit.
After last recording sessions in 1986 the band split up.
Mastermind Bruno Waser published some years later under the name "mittageisen v2" the single "geld – arbeit / money – work", which was published in two editions with different versions. On the second edition he worked together with Marco Repetto, a member of the famous band Grauzone, Techno and Ambient DJ, musician and producer.