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"The vocal sometimes is more post-punk-ishly decisive and sometimes more dreamy. And it sounds great with the background made of dense synth and electronic sounds with some of the industrial tone to them" ENGLISH: bit.ly/2OuuOWKFavorite track: Lust/Terror.
Propuesta Cultural
Here begins a path that you know you will enjoy from the moment you start listening to the first song, a shady path with reflective stops, a path that you want to walk over when you have reached the end.
Favorite track: Tides Made By Our Hands.
"WHOLE open the door to a new dimension of Synthpop. An album between light and shadow, peppered with many hidden details, full of fragile poetry, beguiling and disturbing at the same time." - Gerdas Tanzcafé (GER)
"WHOLE interpret new wave in a new way [...] bleak, but always warm [...] An album full of thrilling and melancholic noise pop and indie pop anthems." - Tonspion (GER)
"A helter-skelter psychological-thriller soundtrack" - SWIT (IRE)
"Crisp, skittering, and buzzing noir ambiance" - Big Takeover Magazine (USA)
"Really dashing synth pop" - Lie In The Sound (GER)
"They sound like the gods of synth pop and wave [Depeche Mode], they just haven't aged that badly." - Artnoir (SWI)
"Poetic psychedelia" - Last Day Deaf (GRE)
"An eerie breeze" - New Noise Magazine (USA)
"Brings a new take to post-punk with their electrifying performance" - LA Music Critic (USA)
"Really inspiring" - Threshold Magazine (POR)
"A highly accomplished album with equal appeal to retro pop, electronica, goth, and experimental audiences." - Bliss Aquamarine (UK)
ENGLISH:
WHOLE, consisting of Alexander Leonard Donat and Thomas Schernikau, is a Berlin duo that mostly sounds driven on "BIAS", an often electronical album, with a penchant for gloomy, sometimes enraptured, but always warm, atmospheric and engaging songs. They may be poppy ("Lust/Terror"), noisy ("Get Away"), first self-confident and subsequently fragile and desperate ("Tides Made By Our Hands") - and then you've just heard the first three songs.
WHOLE address the love of fellow human beings, partners, but also towards oneself and even materialistic things. It is only intact as long as the moment sustains through a unique connection. If it is interrupted, the bias takes the upper hand. Events already experienced influence or even hinder one’s future and let the self-image crumble in the present -- people constantly want to assure their meaning in life, they are struggling with alienation, doubt, loss, being caught up in new situations.
Donat and Schernikau emailed each other their song ideas and sketches for three years and completed them eventually. The piano of the closing song "Amsterdam" results from a joint tour in 2009 where they met for the first time. The song deals with the fleeting nature of life. In the age of the internet, our mind, then the body, and finally our online presence slowly dissolve into bits and bytes.
DEUTSCH:
WHOLE, bestehend aus Alexander Leonard Donat und Thomas Schernikau, ist ein Berliner Duo, das auf „BIAS“ meist treibend, oft elektronisch, mit Hang zum Düsteren, mal entrückt, dabei aber stets warm, flächig und einnehmend klingt. Das kann poppig („Lust/Terror“), krachig („Get Away“), erst selbstbewusst und in der Folge fragil und verzweifelt klingen („Tides Made By Our Hands“) – und dann hat man gerade die ersten drei Songs gehört.
WHOLE thematisieren die Liebe zu Mitmenschen, Partnern, aber auch sich selber gegenüber und gar materiellem. Sie ist nur so lange intakt, wie der Moment anhält, in dem eine einzigartige Verbindung herrscht. Wird sie unterbrochen, übernimmt die Voreingenommenheit die Oberhand: Bias. Bereits Erlebtes beeinflusst oder behindert gar zukünftiges und lässt das Selbstbild in der Gegenwart bröckeln, das sich permanent seiner Bedeutung vergewissern will. Dabei haben Menschen zu kämpfen mit: Entfremdung, Zweifel, Verlust, dem Hineingeraten in neue Situationen.
Donat und Schernikau schickten sich ihre Songideen und Skizzen für „BIAS“ drei Jahre lang per Mail gegenseitig zu und vollendeten sie in der Folge. Sie kennen sich seit einer gemeinsamen 10-tägigen Tour mit ihren Bands Leonard Las Vegas und Forced Movement im Jahre 2009. Aus dieser Zeit stammt auch das Klavier des Abschlusssongs „Amsterdam“, das von der Flüchtigkeit des Lebens handelt. Im Zeitalter des Internets löst sich nach unserem Tod zuerst unser Geist, dann der Körper und schließlich unsere Onlinepräsenz langsam in Bits und Bytes auf.
credits
released October 19, 2018
WHOLE is Alexander Leonard Donat and Thomas Schernikau
Written, performed and produced by ALD and TS
Mixed & mastered by TS
Artwork by ALD
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