A UNIQUE MUSICAL ODYSSEE THROUGH OUR GALAXY AND BEYOND


Mind-Flux

Fasten your seat belts: The electronic sound wizards MIND-FLUX take you on a stunning journey through light and sound: Fascinating deep space pictures, distant artificial worlds, cascades of light sculptures and traces of cosmic particle lifeforms, combined with hypnotically pulsating beats and intergalactic sound signals stimulate and inspire your senses.

Come aboard the multimedial spaceship MIND-FLUX and discover new dimensions brought to you in brilliant audio and video quality.

Sonic Voyagers: The music of MIND-FLUX

Two German musicians. One adventurous musical project where the sounds and influences of different time periods meld, twirl, and even shine. This is Mind-Flux. This is the music of Thomas Fanger and Michael Kersten. Fanger and Kersten began what would become one of the most exciting progressive groups to launch in the 1990s with a simple, yet intelligent equation. Take the trance- flavored styles of 70s electronic music and infuse them with the beats and textures of 90s trance. This was only the beginning, however. Over the next several years, Mind-Flux would sonically venture into moody ambiance, ear-catching polyrhythms, and continued evolution of the art of purposeful sequencing. Fanger states that his fascination with new instrumental music began by hearing Tangerine Dream´s landmark album Rubycon. The sound was fresh, new and seemed to hold incredible promise. After hooking up with Michael Kersten in the late 1970s, the two artists began a musical journey that would move from straightforward improvisation to high-tech sequencing and editing. This allowed a new level of effect processing and production, not to mention a whole new level of complexity in their compositions. They incorporated some of the energy found in techno and trance beats by the late 80s, and began mixing this energy with the hypnotic styles of earlier electronic music. By the mid 1990s, they were signed to one of the world´s leading new instrumental labels, Innovative Communication and finally, their music was able to reach a truly international audience.

Their debut album, Trancefloor, is subtitled "The Resurrection of Hypnotic Energy" and without being trendy or derivative, they made that resurrection a reality. This was a signal of something new, something grand. Finally, here were artists that truly understood the energy of the Berlin School of electronic music yet were not content to simple revisit the past. Fanger and Kersten had the inherent ability to take that energy and use it in their own unique, contemporary context. The group followed their debut a year later with Source & Destination and it was clear this group would not be a flash in the pan. The album leads with two compositions that carry what would become trademark Mind-Flux signatures: swirling sequences, insistent beats, and well-placed effects and melodies. The group´s next two albums continued to expand horizons. Body-Beat-Box sounds like the soul of a near future club or dance hall as one track seamlessly mixes into the next.

With Collision, the group would dive deeper into the ambient and minimalistic textures that would be at home as the soundtrack of a thought provoking science-fiction motion picture. With Konception of Space, Mind~Flux demonstrated they were really hitting their stride. The opening track "Destination Unknown" is quite simply one of most beautiful songs the group has recorded to date with its brilliant alchemy of a flanging beat, pulsing sequencer lead, deft melody, and effect-laden vocals. The massive album includes a wide variety of styles and tempos including moody tracks such as "Mr. Johnson´s Trip to the Moon". Both artists have remained committed to exploring new musical style and sounds. A few songs off their next studio album, Kontinuum, mix the techno-pop feel of Kraftwerk by interplaying crisp rhythms and vocoder-enhanced lyrics. The title track, Fanger divulges, was actually the last composition to be added to the album. Its lyrics concerning the relationship of time and space are not out of character for progressive or even so called "space" music, but they have a truly entertaining quality here as well. Where some progressive instrumental artists have become lost in esoteric circles or ambient voids, Mind-Flux has remained a group that realizes there is not much point to listening to music if you can´t enjoy it. At the same time, Fanger acknowledges he and Kersten could be trendy and commercially successful by just sitting back and mixing improvised spacey sequences and prepackaged dance loops. But why should sonic voyagers give us remakeswhen they can take us places we´ve never heard before?

(Bradford Warner)