Swedish electronic act Covenant was started by a group of friends in Helsingborg in western Sweden. Eskil Simonsson, Joakim Montelius, and Clas Nachmanson inspired by bands like Kraftwerk, The Human League, and by EBM pioneers Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb.
In university life in Lund southeast of Helsingborg hey assembled a small recording studio in Nachmanson’s bedroom and began to experiment with their own musical compositions. In 1989, the name “Covenant” was selected for the group, the name derived from the spiritual bond the trio professes to share.
Their first publicly-released track “The Replicant”, was made by invitation of Swedish record label Memento Materia and released on a compilation album in 1992 The track thrilled label executives prompting them to ask for a full album. In 1994, the group compiled enough songs to release the album, which became Dreams Of A Cryotank. It was well received by critics and fans alike, and with its success they decided to take their musical efforts more seriously, upgrading and adding more equipment, relocating their studio, and committed to tour.
In 1995, Covenant performed at a festival in Germany on request of Off-Beat Records. The band impressed Off-Beat’s A&R representative, who signed them to a record deal the following day leading up to 1996’s Sequencer.
San Francisco-based record label 21st Circuitry agreed to distribute Covenant’s albums in the United States, expanding the band’s reach and Covenant recorded the Theremin EP in 1997 specifically for an American release and began touring throughout the US and Canada.
