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CD
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MORR 072CD
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Contriva can be imagined as four friends on their way from the past to the future: four people and their instruments and the space that connects them. With small-big songs, they are always closer to a pop song than to instrumental concept music and, at the end of the day, everything is melody. The hymnal moments when violin and organ get elegiac. They bask in the wide view of the horizon when two guitar figures interweave. The bass spreads the contours, precisely, unpretentiously.
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12"
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MONIKA 031EP
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"Fancy remix 12" for clubs with mixes by Mo (E.M.D.), M.I.A. (SUbstatic), Chica Paula (Oceanclub) and Niobe (Tomlab).
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CD
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MONIKA 030CD
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"Apart from their diverse solo activities -- Masha Qrella releasing a very convincing solo album, guitarist Max Punktezahl touring as a member of the Notwist, Hannes Lehmann and Rike Schuberty focusing on their acting studies -- all of them continue to form Contriva since 1997, building a centre everything else is evolving around. Storytelling is still one of the quartet's main goals without using obvious techniques such as lyrics and actual singing. Concentrating on what is essential, Contriva have found their most conclusive 'voice' so far. Guitar slides, melodious basslines as well as tight beats build the foundation for their thoughtfulness, sometimes verging on a kind of contemplation, the melancholy of a circling acoustic guitar, the playfulness of organ accents and the arousement caused by the occasional outburst of r-o-c-k all help to wipe out any notes of a self-indulgent end in itself. Contriva knows refreshing ways to by-pass both amateurism and boring expertise. Contriva flow."
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2CD
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MONIKA 019CD
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"In January 2000, after several smaller publications, Contriva released their first real studio album (Tell Me When). Now, about a year later, they bless us with a double-CD. The first CD in the set offers us a look at their earlier publications: the first tape and the first 10 inch (both still under the name of Zimt), the second 10 inch and the two singles (all on lok-musik); also there are three hard-to-get sampler-contributions. The CD documents the musical evolution of the Berlin-natives within the span of 1996 to 1999. Formed as a trio (Max Punktezahl-guitar, Masha Qrella-Bass, Hanns Lehmann-Drums), their first recordings still had a nervous postrock sound to them. It was after Rike Schuberty (keyboards) joined the band in the beginning of 1997, that increasingly song-oriented structures of the still instrumental tracks became a distinct trademark of Contriva. This development continued on Tell Me When. The second CD contains eight remixes that were done within the closer and closest circles of friends and colleagues around Contriva. The songs of the band have been radically worked over, while the melancholy mood of the original material has impressively been preserved. From Iso68, Tom Thiel (Sun Electric) and Jan Jelinek (Farben) Contriva have been done over for electro-lounge-compatibility. Joerg Burger (Modernist) delivers a pop-version that invites you to sing along on the dance-floor. Once there you can sway melancholically to the Superpitcher Mix of Stuck. Isan deliver a do-over of Sure Enough, Ragazzi make Contriva sound like Depeche Mode and Chris Flor (Komeit) charms the melodies of Contriva into silent beauty."
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12"
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MONIKA 018EP
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"5 remixes that were done within the closer and closest circles of friends and colleagues around Contriva. the songs of the band have been radically worked over, while the melancholy mood of the original material has impressively been preserved. From Iso68, Tom Thiel (Sun Electric) and Jan Jelinek (Farben) contriva have been done over for electro-lounge-compatibility. Jörg Burger (Modernist) delivers a pop-version that invites you to sing along on the dance-floor. once there you can sway melancholically to the Superpitcher mix of stuck.
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