Blank & Jones materialised as recording artists in 1997 with a single called Sunrise and since then, as a combination of DJ’s and musicians, travellers and dreamers, party planners and thinkers, movers and shakers, businessmen and pleasure seekers, chill-out emperors and rave gurus, lo-tempo sweethearts and energetic pop masterminds, trance specialist and dance heroes they have had numerous hit singles and albums in their home country of Germany and success in the UK with the anthems Cream, After Love and The Nightfly.
Blank & Jones, loving to work with great singers and other minds from different musical worlds, have made, mixed and arranged electric mood music in collaboration with such individual talents as The Cure’s magical Robert Smith, the uncompromising poet provocateur Anne Clark, the hyper emotional Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan and Propaganda’s surreal chanteuse Claudia Bruecken.
Their latest collection The Logic Of Pleasure continues their tradition of teaming up with unique singers and temperaments and features some tantalising collaborations. The combination of Blank & Jones and the enigmatic, iconic, tender voiced Bernard Sumner, of Joy Division, New Order and Electronic, is naturally a dream, as Sumner’s fragile yet bouyant melancholia slips beautifully into, and out of, Blank & Jones very own electronic sense of the epic. Blank & Jones also continue their relationship with Dusseldorf and London’s Claudia Bruecken. As always she fits perfectly into the Blank & Jones human-machine scheme of things, her dramatic voice and their dramatic dynamic totally in synchronicity. Confirming their inspired eclectic taste and their love for experimentation, Blank & Jones also team up with audacious New York electro-erotica torch singer Vanessa Daou, cult electro-pop classicists Trademark and deviant German pop singer Bobo of Bobo in White Wooden Houses (she appeared on dark rock group Rammstein’s 1997 song Angel.) Also included is Blank & Jones remix of Canadian electro-popsters Stars homage to the afterhours, The Night Starts Here.
The Logic Of Pleasure has itself been mixed in collaboration with Bob Kraushaar, the Pet Shop Boys engineer of choice for the past two decades. As always Blank & Jones discriminating, open minded musical judgement is impeccable, and they’re forever committed to looking into dark eccentric corners, as well as the obvious lit up pop places, for inspiration and surprising potential partnerships.
Blank & Jones pursuit of the esoteric continues through to the artwork for The Logic Of Pleasure conceived by journalist, record label founder, pop star, broadcaster and social commentator Paul Morley, credited for being co-founder of 80’s pop label ZTT, a member of art poppers The Art Of Noise and guiding Frankie Goes To Hollywood to global stardom, amongst a plethora of other successes.
1. Consequences (with Vanessa Daou)
2. Miracle Cure (with Bernard Sumner)
3. Stars - The Night Starts Here (a blank+jones remix)
4. So Cold (with Trademark)
5. California Sunset
6. Manifesto (with Vanessa Daou)
7. Where You Belong (with bobo)
8. Breakout
9. Heart Of Wax (with Vanessa Daou)
10. Catwalk (with Martin Roth)
11. Don’t Stop (with Claudia Brucken)
