How it started

Born 1970 in Leverkusen, Germany, Christian Tolle was raised in a family where music had, and still has, its place. With a father who is an enthusiastic singer and a grandmother who played great piano, he discovered music quite early. At the age of 12, he got a guitar and took classical lessons. Soon after that, he got a Stratocaster copy and rocked the neighborhood with power chords and Heavy Rock. His first definitive statement was in 1987, when he released a song on a compilation of the German musician magazine “Musiker” at the age of 17.

Many wonderful band efforts followed. He played with the Cologne-based bands Underdog and Black Rose. In addition, he studied economics and started freelancing for WDR radio and the largest German musician magazine FACHBLATT.

Inspired by Los Angeles big players, with whom he became acquainted during his time as a music-journalist, he decided to start his own project with the friends and musicians he had met and played with over the years:

From Better Than Dreams to The Real Thing

Tolle recorded, then, with Steve Lukather, Tim Pierce, Michael Thompson and Lauren Scheff in LA. But not only the big names make his albums strong. Every musician put his/her whole heart and soul into the songs. And that is still the main goal behind C.T.P. The debut cd Better Than Dream“ was released in 2000. It got excellent reviews and feedback from the press, media and the AOR community.

5 years after the release of Better Than Dreams it was time to continue. With the release The Real Thing, Christian again delivered 10 songs, that feature a refreshing variety of modern Rock music. An impressive list of guest musicians gives the album a very special flavour. Christian is again joined by Steve Lukather, Doug Aldrich, Morris Adriaens, Chuck Wright, Lauren Scheff, with Pit Hupperten, Stephan Scheuss and John „Jaycee“ Cuijpers handling vocal duties.

From COOPER Inc. to The Higher They Climb

Because of the great chemistry between Christian and frontman John Cuijpers, both decided to join forces. With the Dutch based band Cooper Inc. Christian supported TOTO in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Vengeance, Kane and Jorn. Cooper Inc. also did many shows on their own especially in the Benelux area and Germany. The band got together with producer Michael Voss to record the full lenght album Pulling The Trigger, which got released in October 2009.

2012 will be the year of C.T.P. again: The brandnew and third release The Higher They Climb is finished! Christian and Michael Voss co-produced 12 tracks between summer and winter 2011. The result is nothing short of stunning meldodic rock. Performed with an incredible amount of energy the album contains a powerful mixture of hard hitting Heavy Rock tracks and catchy hooklines, great guitar work and some of the best voices in the genre: David Reece (Ex-Accept, Bangalore Choir), Leon Goewie (Vengeance), Paul Shortino (King Kobra, Ex-Quiet Riot, Rough Cutt) and Michael Voss (Michael Schenker, Casanova, Mad Max). Christian also invited a few of his friends to join as guests: L.A. guitar wizard Michael Landau, Ben Granfelt (BGB, Ex-Wishbone Ash), Andy Susemihl and Morris Adriaens perform a guitar solo on one track each and give the record a special flavour. In summary you can put it this way: C.T.P. The Higher They Climb delivers hooks, energy, melody, no fillers - just good songs. Track by track! Release is set for 30th of March 2012 on Fastball Music. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.