at least in a box
| at least in a box | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Future pop , trance |
| founding | 2002 |
| Website | http://www.mindinabox.com |
| Founding members | |
Music, singing |
Stefan Poiss |
Song lyrics |
Markus Hadwiger |
| Current occupation | |
history |
Andreas Gruber |
mind.in.a.box is a Future Pop project that was founded in 2002.
biography
mind.in.a.box was founded by the Austrians Stefan Poiss and Markus Hadwiger. The former is responsible for the music and singing, the latter for the lyrics. Her musical style can be described as a cross between techno and electro pop with ambient and trance influences, but since 2010 it has increasingly opened up to influences from other genres.
music
In the beginning the music was a purely electronic mélange that combined different influences, including from artists such as Kraftwerk , Yello and Jean Michel Jarre , and from the electro and futurepop areas, but with each new album it further developed the band's range of styles. Little by little, acoustic elements such as drums, pianos and guitars also flowed into the music, and meanwhile the band no longer shies away from orchestral, soundtrack-like arrangements. The unmistakable trademark of the band is the frequent use of voice strangers, a change from extremely high and extremely low voices.
So far the duo has released the albums Lost Alone , Dreamweb , Crossroads , RETRO , Revelations and Memories as well as the singles Certainty , 8 Bits and What Used To Be . Both the debut album and its successor received a lot of attention in the scene: Lost Alone made it to number one in the German Alternative Charts , and Dreamweb to number two. Also What Used To Be the top position in the DAC was able to secure. The Xbox 360 games Crackdown , Project Gotham Racing 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 each have one track from at least in.box. This is reminiscent of the time before the project was founded, when Stefan Poiss had already written a soundtrack for the computer game Parsec, which was developed by Markus Hadwiger, among others. They also contributed a title to the soundtrack of the film Saw II .
concept
The work of the band is subordinate to a science fiction concept, which contains elements from George Orwell's novel 1984 , and the worlds of Matrix and Ghost in the Shell . It tells the story of the agent Black and the group of "Sleepwalkers", beings who can jump back and forth between the real and the cyber world (the so-called "Dreamweb"). The story begins with Black pursuing a friend of the Sleepwalkers on behalf of the Agency. Shortly before it is there, however, the creature seems to disappear without a trace. Black has failed, and after the "Agency" breaks off all contact with him, Black's memory is erased and he is now the hunted himself, he discovers that he too has the ability to get into the "Dreamweb". He now begins to doubt his destiny and to investigate the real background to the Sleepwalker, the Agency and his own fate.
Set pieces of the story, which grows with each additional album, can be found not only in the artwork and the lyrics of the band, but also in the short stories of the author Andreas Gruber , who dedicated a few of his works to the band.
In the album "Revelations" he finally made the acquaintance of the Sleepwalkers, who wanted to use his contacts and knowledge to obtain crucial information about the Agency. He breaks into the agency's headquarters, but is discovered by his former colleagues and can only save himself from them by jumping into the Dreamweb. In the short story published for this album, the reader learns that this was planned by the Agency in order to find access to the Dreamweb and to be able to destroy the Sleepwalker. It is also suggested that both organizations and their leaders share a common past. Whether the story will continue is e.g. Currently unclear.
Detached from the holistic concept of the band, only the album "RETRO" should be considered, which pays homage to the video games of the 80s and their soundtracks both lyrically and musically.
Live project
In 2007 Stefan Poiss began to work on a live implementation of at least in.a.box together with Roman Stift (bass), Gerhard Höffler (drums) and Adam Wehsely-Swiczinsky (guitar). The live concept with synchronous visuals that convey the story of Black was presented for the first time in front of a larger audience at the “Arvika Fesivalen” (July 6, 2009) in Sweden. This was followed by concerts in Montreal and Oslo at the "Elektrostat Festival" (October 2, 2009) and as a support band for Frontline Assembly.
Discography
Albums
- Lost Alone (2004)
- Dreamweb (2005)
- Crossroads (2007)
- RETRO (2010)
- Revelations (2012)
- Memories (2015)
- Broken Legacies (2017)
- Dreamweb Trilogy (2020) (LP re-release of the first three albums)
Singles
- Certainty (2005)
- What Used To Be (2007)
- 8 bits (2010)
- Revelations Club.Mixes (2012)
Side projects
- Stefan Poiss - Oldtimer (video game soundtrack, 1994)
- Stefan Poiss - Parsec (video game soundtrack, 1998–2002)
- Massiv in Mensch feat. Mind.In.A.Box - Supermassive Gravity (album "Meanwhile back in the Jungle", 2008)
- Loomec - Wie der Wiener (mp3 download, 2008)
- @VX feat. Min.In.A.Box - Transformation (Sampler contribution, 2009)
- Plainveil feat. Mind.In.A.Box - With you (mp3, 2010)
- Massiv in Mensch feat. @VX & Mind.In.A.Box - Transformation II (album "Nobody knows what the future brings", 2011)
- THYX - The Way Home (Stefan Poiss) (Album, 2012)
- THYX - Tape Evidence (mp3, 2012)
- Mind.In.A.Box feat. Ray Koefoed - World without a sky (mp3, 2012)
- THYX feat. Ray Koefoed - Survival instinct (mp3, 2013)
- THYX - Network Of Light (mp3 single, 2013)
- THYX - Below The City (Album, 2013)
- THYX feat. Ray Koefoed - Ships To War (mp3, 2013)
- Mind.In.A.Box & Friends - Our Own Path (mp3, 2014)
- THYX - Super Vision (album, 2014)
- THYX - Headless (Album, 2016)
- THYX - Doubt And Regret (mp3, 2017)
- THYX - Bound (mp3, 2017)