Conventional wisdom has it that the visual arts are first and foremost about the (re-)organisaton of space while music is concerned with temporality, that it needs to be made and experienced according to and sometimes even in defiance of the laws of time. With their »Painting in 3D« project, the Berlin-based three-piece Painting traverses both arts, transcending the supposed boundaries between them. Their debut album »Painting Is Dead« for the Antime label comprises five songs that open the door to digital spaces which the audience can explore for the duration of the pieces. Together with, the band has created a three-layered project that can be experienced as a computer game created by the renowned multimedia artist, as a hybrid audio-visual live show, and as a vinyl record that links the physical world with virtual realities as well as analogue media with the possibilities of digital technology. Drawing on a broad palette ranging from experimental rock, electronic avant-garde sounds, unconventional pop and jazz, the album »Painting Is Dead« is a veritable kaleidoscope of sounds that ties in seamlessly with the overall concept of the project while standing firmly on its own.

After the break-up of their band Soft Grid, Theresa Stroetges and Christian Hohenbild founded Painting together with Sophia Trollmann, who had previously played saxophone on one of Stroetges’s solo albums under her Golden Diskó Ship moniker. Splitting vocal duties amongst the three members with Stroetges taking the lead, each of them contributes a wide array of acoustic and electronic sounds to the band’s unique musical blend: while Trollmann focuses on saxophone and occasionally steps up to the synthesizer, Hohenbild adds electronics to the mix from behind the drum kit and Stroetges switches between electric bass, guitar and synthesizers. This unconventional set-up reflects the overall approach of a band that was formed in the midst of a pandemic and took the opportunity to radically reconsider how to present their music while live venues remained shut. Adding Reissig’s digital walk-through spaces, they expanded upon the sheer musical experience while also enriching the traditionally narrow format of a vinyl LP with the possibility to explore the artist’s virtual room installations through the lens of their sound.

It comes as no surprise then that also thematically, Painting takes a swing at other binaries, namely the ones that shape the lives of women and especially queer bodies in patriarchal society. Starting with »Symmetrical Pattern« and its canon-like opening sequence in which three voices lyrically reflect upon how heteronormative structures determinate the relationship between two people to the song »All My Eggs Go Down the Drain,« which deals with the expectations that those thought to be responsible for human reproduction are subjected to, »Painting Is Dead« explores systems of subjugation while also making clear demands: »We need a new framework / And for this framework / We need a new skin.« This attitude is mirrored in songs that burst the confines of traditional songwriting wide open. There are no false symmetries to be found in Painting’s music, but new constellations that emerge bar after bar.

The trio takes its time—the songs on »Painting Is Dead« are between five and eleven minutes long—to blend acoustic sounds, call-and-response singing patterns between clean or manipulated voices, electronic experimentation and gripping grooves into dynamic collages that are constantly moving, progressing from one point to another while taking the occasional detour along the way to venture into previously unknown territory. »Painting Is Dead« comprises music that over time opens up new sonic spaces and, in combination with the accompanying visuals and the digital spaces it unlocks for its audience, provides a different listening experience with each single spin. As part of the »Painting In 3D« project, it isn’t so much just one piece of a larger puzzle, but a multi-faceted entity by itself, radically open to connect with other forms of art and modes of how they can be experienced.