Symphonic Prog
Austria
The Blank Manuskript is a Project from central Europe, situated in mountainous Austria. The whole project is organized by the two musicians Dominik Wallner (Keys, Vocals) and Alfons Wohlmuth (Bass, Flute, Vocals). The band's musical output can best be described as Progressive Rock, or - to be specific -Art-Rock with a special attention towards the narrative elements. The Band's aim is to present a story with their music, which means that the music itself is written to fit the intentional narration.
The band was formed in late 2007 by the trio Christian Breckner, Dominik Wallner and Alfons Wohlmuth. After substantiating their style and intention, they started writing the concept and musical material for their first project "Tales from an Island - Impressions from Rapa Nui". Alfons Wohlmuth came up first with the idea to work on this topic. Due to the fact, that these stories were widely unknown and have not been used for a concept album before, the band started to gather all the material they could get. Within weeks a narrative concept was finished and the work on the compositions was ready to start. The musical material itself was mostly written by Dominik Wallner, but the influence from the others enriched the compositions on this album and gave the songs a unique style. Dominik Wallner is a classical trained piano player, who studies at University Mozarteum Salzburg taking great influences from various jazz-seminars; Christian Breckner is a studied Classical Guitar-player and an experienced live-player who played in a ska-band for years; Alfons Wohlmuth is a self-taught Progressive Rock enthusiast, able to play several different instruments and providing most of the band's lyrics. The search for a skilled drummer didn't take long, for they were soon joined by Elias Papaioannou. During their work on the material, it became clear, that the recordings will need much more musicians than the original line-up provided, so Blank Manuskript hired other session musicians to reach their expectation of the album. The recording sessions, which were lead by Clemens Wannemacher, started in the beginning of June 2008. The final mix of the album was approved at the beginning of December. The album was released in early 2009 and the live-presentation, featuring 8 musicians on stage, was a big success. Soon the band got requests from the famous Colossus-Projects, to record tracks for three of their projects. This was happily accepted. Involved in these works, a stressful and busy period started to haunt the band, which was faced by immediate changes in the line-up, forcing the male vocalist Jakob Aistleitner to play drums. Nevertheless the band was able to recruit friends, spread out all over Austria and managed this difficult situation. Manuel Schönegger, a highly skilled Jazz Musician and Tonmeister in Vienna was mainly responsible for these projects to be realized.
The offer to play at the Baltic Prog Festival at Lithuania gave Blank Manuskript an opportunity to form a working live-band, which brought the new line-up together including the most needed musicians for their performances. The newest members of the project are the two South American musicians Victor de la Rosa and Camillo Mainque-Jenny. This Latin-American influence opened new horizons for Blank Manuskripts musical appearance. The current live line-up includes:
Dominik Wallner: Grand Piano, Fender Rhodes, Organ, Synthesizer, Vocals
Alfons Wohlmuth: Bass, Flute, Vocals
Christian Breckner: Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Vocals
Jakob Aistleitner: Saxophone, Flute, Vocals
Camillo Mainque-Jenny: Drums
Victor de la Rosa: Percussion
ALBUMS:
2008 - TALES FROM AN ISLAND - IMPRESSIONS FROM RAPA NUI
Musicians
- Dominik Wallner: Grand Piano, Synthesizer, Organ, Vocals
- Alfons Wohlmuth: Electric Bass, Vocals
- Christian Breckner: Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar
- Elias Papaioannou / Drums
- Jakob Aistleitner / Vocals, Saxophone
- Manuel Schönegger / Saxophone, Flute
- Victor de la Rosa / Percussion
- Gabi Lidicky / Classical Flute
- Veronika Obermeier / Vocals
- Martin Flatz / Narration
1. Breath of the Island 2:10
2. Voyage 4:24
3. Society 7:26
4. The Great War 5:00
5. After the War Part I 2:18
6. After the War Part II 5:40
7. The Cult of Birdman 12:26
8. The Waiting 4:22
Total Time 43:46
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