Sonic Adventure Project - Exergonic

2008 Hollywood Music Awards Nominee 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards: 2nd in the Best Ambient Album category. 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Song Nominee: 3rd in the Best Ambient Song category: Forty-two Top 3 Finalist of the Independent Music Award - Album of the Year 2006! Having been introduced to the Chillout and Downbeat scene through popular compilations like the Café del Mar series, the Sonic Adventure Project now displays the variety these genres allow with their first album release 'Exergonic'. Without ever jeopardizing their own style - above all their love for melodies, harmony and piano - the Austrian duo moves effortlessly through the whole spectrum of Ambient music. From tracks of the best Café del Mar kind that deeply stir longing, to clubsounds beyond club-mainstream (Mode III, Circuit), to almost meditative music (Four Notes) and to the reflective yet powerful song 'Inner Journey'. Still, the listener is always left with the impression of a unity, a wholeness. Created through pads and spheric sounds that seem to pick up one's soul and carry it over great distances, just to return it home safely, cleansed and relaxed. The lack of pre-recorded loops and presets also contributes to the unique character of the tracks: Simply 'electronically fresh'. Audio-Wellness at it's best! 'Melody can be a dangerous thing. This world is awash with electronic melodies both sublimely beautiful (Global Communication) and hideously cheesy ('uplifting' Dutch trance anyone?). For composers it seems melody is the easiest of elements to catch but the hardest to master. So what's my point? Into this realm has ventured Sonic Adventure Project, two unassuming Austrians with backgrounds in rock, pop and production for various bands. One wonders if they are on the receiving end of a direct line from God when it comes to dispensing good melodies to mortal beings. On their debut album Exergonic Thomas Viehbock and Peter Koellerer have taken melody to serious heights. They arrange their instrumental tunes into a variety of shapes from ambient piano solos to electro-rock to emotional slow trance grooves. You might call it trance-pop, except that to evoke such a creatively bankrupt hybrid would be insulting. Those schooled in the sounds of vintage German electronica and classic ambient trance might catch glimpses of it's legacy here. The layered melodies of 'Circuit' and the epic 'Pink Synth' recall Tangerine Dream's best work from the early 80's but with significant differences: the rock-flavoured drum programming is looser and and the overall sound a little warmer. 'Waters In Motion' is a wistful solo piano piece bedded with gorgeous strings. ... You'll hear 'Waters In Motion' on this years Cafe Del Mar volume 11, a sign that Sonic are getting some much deserved attention. Exergonic is a beautiful - there's no other word for it.'