Boris Blank explores new spheres with “Resonance”
Published: Monday, Feb 12th 2024, 12:10
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Yello musician Boris Blank is releasing his third studio album "Resonance" on Friday. Originally composed as a soundtrack for a visit to a wellness center, the album is now also available for the living room at home.
"It was challenging to compose the soundtrack for a spa," Blank told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The music shouldn't be too fast, but not too slow either. "I didn't want to fall into clichéd esotericism and work with panpipes and Celtic harps," said the trained draughtsman.
His musical DNA should be audible in the works. "Resonance" moves at the interface between ambient, trance and electro - and has a meditative effect. Blank as usual, but different. The musician is known as a founding member of the Swiss cult band Yello. In 2022, the Federal Office of Culture honored him and his Yello colleague Dieter Meier with the prestigious Grand Prix Music.
Concept of the bathing establishment
Blank originally conceived nine of the twelve songs on the album "Resonance" for the Fortyseven thermal baths in Baden, designed by architect Mario Botta. The musician, who also worked as a film composer, found inspiration for the work on site. Blank made his first visit during the construction work before the spa opened in 2021. The songs are based on the concept of the spa with micro-, meso- and macrocosms.
While the microcosm is about the organic, implemented with a green winter garden, the macrocosm is about weightlessness with the saltwater pool. The idea is supported by a visual concept. In the mesocosm, visitors can stretch out on a lounger, listen to a multimedia sequence - and watch.
Water as inspiration
"I was inspired by these ideas," said Blank. The tracks are sometimes reminiscent of the infinite expanses of space, sometimes they were inspired by the various possible forms of water such as rain or ice.
Blank sees himself as a sound painter: "Then I sort of unpacked the color palette and started painting the canvas". He started with one tone, followed by another, until suddenly an outline emerged. When a track is finished, he himself is often surprised at what has emerged.
"Even as a child, I was fascinated by the echo and resonance of spaces," said the 72-year-old. For example, that sounds behave differently in an underground car park than in the mountains. He composed the music specifically for each room in the spa. They are equipped with a large number of loudspeakers. The sound is three-dimensional.
"I was able to address individual speakers, which was very appealing to me as a sound fetishist," said Blank. "Resonance" will be available on CD and vinyl, as well as on Blu-ray. Not only is the music in higher resolution on Blue-ray: If you have a surround sound system, you can also experience the three-dimensional sound at home thanks to Dolby Atmos.
Extended by "sound sketches"
"There were always requests to buy the music," said Blank in the interview. This gave rise to the idea of releasing the spa soundtrack as an album. According to Blank, three additional songs will expand the album, adding additional "sound sketches", so to speak. The tracks were also slightly adapted. This is because they start and end in the same way in the spa, so that they can be played endlessly.
The track "Resonance" was also supposed to provide the musical backdrop for the presentation trailer for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, having already been used in the thermal baths. However, the project did not materialize at the last minute. "The song should make the essence or the feeling for the cosmos audible," said Blank. And so, "with a little irony", the musician created the video, which takes you into the infinite expanse of space.
The result is a spherical, meditative album. In "Defying Gravity", gravity is defied, in "North Of Eden" the sounds are reminiscent of a jungle. The album ends with "Mirage", one of the new songs for the album, which takes you on a spherical journey. Mediation in album form, so to speak.
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