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Out today on Lost Map Records, Painting Is Dead is the acclaimed debut album by fast-rising eclectic Berlin-based trio Painting – now reissued in expanded double-CD form and via digital services. Originally released in 2022 by the German label Antime, it comes with bonus exclusive remixes by Susan Bear, Kinbote and Mildfire plus a brand-new live album of songs from Painting Is Dead, recorded at Kantine am Berghain in Berlin. Painting are on tour throughout Germany in late 2024 and early 2025, and will play their first ever run of UK dates in December, including at Lost Map’s Christmas Humbug! at Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh on Saturday, December 14.
Hailed as “the greatest new band in the German pop avant-garde” by Rolling Stone, Painting are Theresa Stroetges (vocals, bass, guitar, synthesiser), Christian Hohenbild (vocals, drums, electronics) and Sophia Trollmann (vocals, saxophone, synthesiser). Stroetges and Hohenbild previously performed together in the band Soft Grid, while Trollmann contributed saxophone to one of Stroetges’s solo albums under her Golden Diskó Ship moniker. Formed in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, they have an unconventional setup which sees all three members share vocals (with Stroetges most often taking the lead) as well as swap instruments frequently.
Drawing on a expansive and explosive palette ranging from experimental rock and electronic avant-garde sounds to leftfield pop and jazz, Painting Is Dead is a constantly shifting and refreshing kaleidoscope of sounds that feels like its fighting to escape the rigid confines of conventional songcraft. That struggle is mirrored in the songs’ themes, and lyrics pushing back against the binary forces that shape the lives of women and especially queer bodies in patriarchal society. From ‘Symmetrical Pattern’, with its canon-like opening sequence in which three voices reflect upon how heteronormative structures determinate the relationship between two people (“For reasons of convenience / We have settled into this / Symmetrical pattern”), to the electrifying ‘All My Eggs Go Down the Drain’, which addresses the expectations heaped upon those thought responsible for human reproduction, Painting Is Dead explores systems of subjugation while also making clear demands. “We need a new framework,” they sing, “And for this framework / We need a new skin”.
The album was written and made at a time when music venues were closed, so the band collaborated with artist called Paula Reissig to create walk-through 3D Games for each song on the album – all of which can be played for free at paintingin3d.com
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