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Sonic Curiosity (USA)
This CD from 2000 is the band’s debut
album, it features 39 minutes of electronic music.
Art of Infinity is: Thorsten Sudler-Mainz (on keyboards, voice, guitar,
percussion, and programming), and Thorsten Rentsch (on keyboards, bass,
percussion, and programming), with guests: Eva Wolf and Ann Kareen Mainz
(on vocals), Stefan Hollering (on saxophone), Matthias Krauss (on
keyboards, guitar, and percussion), Alex Gunia (on guitar), and Daniel
Klingen (on percussion).
This music blends dreamy electronics and percussion with saxophones and
female chant-vocals to generate a comfortable dose of inspirational
tuneage.
The first track is very brief and comprises a stately saxophone solo.
The band’s sonic components come together in the second piece to achieve
an ascendant blend of uplifting electronics and saxophone drones laced
with chanting fem voices. The melody has a Celtic hint to it as the
harmonies march up a hill to bask in brilliant sunlight.
The next track dallies with ambient atmospherics providing an amiable
foundation for optimistic saxophone and spoken words that aspire to urge
the listener to cosmic definition.
The fourth piece begins with soothing ambience, progresses to a slightly
agitated passage which slides into a hesitant miasma of earnest sax and
pensive electronics flavored with pleasantly plucked guitar. Elegant
percussion appears in tandem with melancholic sax for the finish.
The last song is a 21 minute epic that commences with a fragile ambient
structure punctuated by crystalline keys. Gurgling waters and remote storm
sounds catalyze into a temperate eruption of solid tuneage. Non-lyrical
vocals create a fanfare that opens the floodgates for guitar, percussion
and more melodic electronics to enter the mix. A spoken passage
foreshadows the music’s descent into a darker stage, wherein nonrhythmic
beats and bell-tones lead to a sun rise captured by fragile electronics.
In turn, this blossoms into a flourish of keyboards, growling sounds and
mounting percussion. For the finale, all of the elements emerge and
collaborate to accomplish an ultimate expression of power...that gradually
settles down for a tranquil conclusion.
These compositions display an evident evolution, moving from a basic intro
riff through short tracks to a lush piece that displays the talents of the
personnel and affords the melody the chance to unfold.
Matt Howarth, 2008
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