Their hypnotic-magical techno version of the classic movie soundtrack ‘The Boat’ saw Hamburg band U96, featuring Hayo Lewerentz and Ingo Hauss, write music history in the early 1990s. Now the songwriter/producer team has returned with a new double album: Reboot was released on the 29th of June 2018 and includes 17 new songs (plus eight additional numbers on the bonus CD), with lots of different facets and spectacular guests appearances by the likes of Neue Deutsche Welle star Joachim Witt, ex-Kraftwerk drummer Wolfgang Flür and soul singer Terri B!.
The history of U96 is that of a highly successful career, starting in 1990 with the band’s foundation by Hayo Lewerentz & Ingo Hauss, their former production partner Helmut Hoinkis and DJ Alex Christensen. Only one year later, U96 landed a major hit with their version of the title track of the box office success ‘The Boat’ (13 weeks at no. 1 in Germany), followed by the same-named debut album which immediately went gold and topped the German album charts. Its successor Replugged with its slightly more experimental style, inspired by electro pop as well as ambient and disco sound, corroborated its predecessor’s success a mere twelve months later, clocking up two more top 10 hits, namely the dance tracks ‘Love Sees No Colour’ and ‘Night In Motion’, as well as producing forerunners of the impending trip-hop wave with the more laid-back ‘The Russian’ and ‘Without You’. U96 went on to expand their stylistic range on albums such as Club Bizarre (1995) and Heaven (1996) and presented, along with their established techno base, also cross references to pop, trance, rave and Eurodance. In addition, the group had a top 4 hit with their single ‘Heaven’, a quotation of the Cindy Lauper classic ‘Time After Time’. A number of personnel changes and the split with Alex Christensen in 2014 followed. The two original members Lewerentz and Hauss subsequently expanded U96’s previous recipe for success by live concerts and DJ Sets featuring a variety of guests. Special visuals in the style of acts such as The Chemical Brothers were developed for each song of their Live and DJ Sets.

Along with the band’s classics, the most important new tracks will be at the centre of those concerts.

The collaboration between U96 and Wolfgang Flür (ex-Kraftwerk) on ‘Zukunftsmusik’ and ‘Hildebrandslied’ is just as trend-setting – an artistically highly exciting liaison between three musicians who, despite the fact that they are from different generations, are obviously on the same wavelength, adding a kind of post-modern Kraftwerk dimension to the typical U96 soundscape. Without giving away too much: This cooperation will continue in 2026. The U96 album with Wolfgang Flür entitled “Transhuman” was released in 2020.
In 2021, U96 wrote a musical based on Jule Verne`s 20.000 Miles under the sea and released an album by the same name.
Some new singles were released after that and one of their early tracks called "Club Bizarre" (written in 1998! ) just went viral across the internet...in 2025.

After the unexpected death of founding member Ingo Hauss in late 2025, Hayo Lewerentz decided to continue with U96 on his own with collaborators and he is recently working on
a new immersive show called "SYNTHOPIA" for Planetariums across the world with music he wrote in cooperation with Wolfgang Flür.

New music plus shows and DJ Sets are planned for later this year 2026.


DISCOGRAPHY
DAS BOOT (1992) + Singles
REPLUGGED (1993) + Singles
CLUB BIZARRE (1995) + Singles
HEAVEN (1996) + Singles
DAS BOOT 2 (Double Album)
OUT OF WILHELMSBURG (2007)
ANGELS (Single)
REBOOT (Album)
Das BOOT 2018 (Remix Album)
ZUKUNFTSMUSIK (Single) w/Wolfgang Flür (ex. Kraftwerk)
QUO VADIS (Single) w/Joachim Witt
NIGHT ON EARTH (Single) ft. Amy Fasola
LET YOURSELF GO (Single)
TRANSHUMAN (Single)
TRANSHUMAN (Album) w/ Wolfgang Flür
20.000 Meilen unter dem Meer (Album, Musical and Tour)
Ich, Nemo (Single w/ Claude-Oliver Rudolph
Dance Hall Days
Club Bizarre (with Tonenation/Sunlike Brothers)
Ritmo de la Noche (w/ D72)
Blood of the Rose (Single Edit)