Kefrens

Kefrens started out as The Starlight Project in 1987/88 and released a couple of demo disks before changing their name to Kefrens. Razmo, who had a strong interest in Egyptian history, came up with the name in honor of the Egyptian 4th dynasty king Khafra (also known as Chepren). Along with the name, the group adopted the Ankh as their symbol, and several of their releases carried an Egyptian theme.

The three founders — Razmo, Mellica, and Metallion — discovered that S.L.L., an already well-known scene musician, was living right next door. They soon persuaded him to join, and S.L.L. made his debut as a Kefrens member on Demo Disk III, another milestone in the group’s history.

At the Hexagon Party in Hillerød, Denmark, Kefrens released Megademo IV, their fourth (!) demo disk of the year — and won. Also attending the party was coding guru Promax of Atomic Team. Contact was established, and after the party, Mellica phoned Promax, asking him to join. At first, he refused, but a couple of months later he left Atomic Team and joined the forces of the pyramids, bringing Detron and Nighlight with him.

Over the next couple of years, Kefrens released four megademos, several intros, demos, trackmos, and music disks. They collaborated with scene superstar Jesper Kyd and even co-hosted a Copy Party with Dexion. Kefrens were at the top of their game, and everyone wanted to be part of it. However, as semi-prominent members like Milkshake, Icronite (previously known as The Burger), Seen and Maestro joined, the member list grew at an alarming pace, leaving the founders struggling to maintain control and organize the group. At one point, even co-founder Mellica was kicked out.

By March/April 1991, it was all over, and the group was declared dead. Icronite and Milkshake released an intro, The Death of Kefrens, explaining what had happened.

The members scattered, joining different groups, but eventually a small handful formed a new group called Hydronic. After a short period, Hydronic evolved into a revived Kefrens, including two of the original founders, Mellica and Razmo. Color Emotion '91, released in August 1991, marked the birth of “The New Kefrens”.

In search of new talent, they were joined by, among others, Laxity, Vention and Airwalk. These members would soon help restore the group to its former glory — and it did not take long. In late September, the group attended the Lowlife Party and won the demo competition with the trackmo Guardian Dragon. Kefrens was back on track!

Meanwhile, a dispute emerged between Kefrens and Melon Dezign. Apparently, former Kefrens member Seen — now founder of Melon Dezign — had planned to revive Kefrens himself but was beaten to it by the Hydronic members. The conflict played out across several disk magazines, and examples of the rivalry can be found in both Bodil and Desert Dream.

And speaking of Desert Dream... In April 1993, Kefrens traveled to Norway to attend one of the biggest demo parties of the time, [p=10]The Gathering[/p. Their two-disk trackmo Desert Dream won the demo competition and instantly propelled Kefrens to the very top of the scene. But as always, what goes up must come down...

Once again, things began to fall apart. In the fall of 1993, Airwalk left to form his own group, Polka Brothers, and soon Vention, Laxity and Zinko followed. Original founders Razmo and Mellica left the scene, while R.W.O. joined Balance and Blizzart joined Passion.

Throughout the years, Kefrens remained an almost exclusively Danish demo group, with only a handful of foreign members from Germany, Norway, and Sweden appearing for shorter periods.

Sources:
- Various productions by Kefrens
- Numerous Amiga diskmagazines
- Amiga Scenery by Glenn Lunder
- www.kefrens.dk