This marks the beginning of a new, exciting era for "The Ghost and The Machine" as a solo project with a new vision and stylistic direction: "Dark Academia Pop". "For me, it feels like arriving in the right genre after a long creative and laborious process," says Lechner.
Dark Academia Pop
The Dark Academia scene provides the space for linking the introverted but soulful intellectuals who, despite their love of heavy books, ancient art and architecture, want to fit in and participate in today's colorful and interconnected world. A romantic recollection of profound perception and, despite a fast-moving world, a desire for long-term thought processes and insights. A connection that is inherent in Vienna as an often romanticized but modern cultural capital in its inhabitants and also in "The Ghost And The Machine". "Alice in Contraland, Part I & Part II" are meant to function as two different ways of looking at themes such as loneliness, a romantic and artistic view on life, high expectations, the wrong love and the longing for something unique.
Both albums manifest themselves in their musical elaboration as two sides of the coin. They allude to the ambivalences of our challenging Covid times, (audio)-visually and in terms of content to the Dark Academia scene, but also as everyone in Covid times, feel understood in their inner contradictions and contrasts. A challenging development as a society, as well as a young person in search of a place in the world. In doing so, the unique sound of the old resonator guitars (as well as banjo and chumbush) comes to the fore and one can experience the songs in their originality, offering a soothing deceleration in challenging times like these. These are the very songs that will appear as the out-produced pop counterpart on Part I: The appealing thing about this songwriting process is to embed the archaic guitar sounds in a totally modern sound tapestry in the process of songwriting and to combine it with the sophisticated lyrics. This process releases several synergies: one can experience and compare the songs in two very different subjects.
