Advanced Art | it

Advanced Art are one of the pioneers of Finnish electronic music, originally active from 1985 to 1995. The creative core of Advanced Art consisted of Jana (voice+words) and Vince (machines+melodies).

Musically the band evolved from the early synth pop demos to a more EBM or industrial direction. This did not stop them opening their gigs with the claim "We play pop."

The band was formed in 1985 when old pals Jana and Pete met Vince through a mutual friend. They mentioned their synth band project to Vince who wanted in. Jana and Pete conveniently 'forgot' to mention they had nothing but the idea and the attitude, and actually lacked songs, equipment, and quite possibly talent too. Nevertheless, the band was formed.

First demos were made under the name Abstract and some live appearances as Authorized Version. The live line-up varied as Vince and the new member Auten took turns in wanting to concentrate on sound engineering. A few more demos were made, and two split 7" singles with Two Witches were released as 'vinyl demos' on Darklands Records.

In 1991 Poko Rekords signed the band (at the time Jana, Vince and Reeta). This resulted in 12" Scar (1991) and mcd Time (1992). A couple of videos got airplay on MTV Europe (thank you mr Paul King). For the cd Product (1993) Advanced Art were joined by Factor who co-wrote some songs and played live percussion. The cd Force (1994) was a bit of a concept thing with its live and update sections. By now, the band consisted of Jana and Vince; live gigs featured an old friend P.W. on percussion. Early vinyl singles plus some demo tracks were re-released on cd by VUZ Records.

Advanced Art never really toured as such (apart from an occasional trip to Sweden) but played one-off gigs, sometimes in fairly unusual venues such as illegal warehouse parties. Advanced Art did not play cover songs (except once, 'Gummitwist' by Der Plan, featuring Kajasto of Rinneradio on synth bleeps) so it was only appropriate that the final gig ended with one; Advanced Art appeared on the Alivaltiosihteeri tribute cd and concerts and finished it off with 'Te olette huono yleisö' ('You are a lousy audience').

Jana and Vince got back together in late 90s to record two new tracks 'Blind' and 'Free world' for the debut compilation of Vince's new label, Control.

Although Advanced Art has not been active in ages, in 2010 a remix was made for old pals from NY, The Dead Stars On Hollywood, with Vince doing all the work and Jana providing snappy comments like "oh, f**k the guitars".

During the years other Advanced Art members were Pete aka Sam B, Otto A aka Auten, Jarkko Tuohimaa aka Factor, Reeta, and P.W. In addition, sound engineer Meelis Niin played an important role in creating the AArt live sound. Former Advanced Art members have appeared in e.g. Neuroactive, [Active] Media Disease, Shade Factory and Recycle.

Currently Vince is working with Impakt! (with PW on percussion) and their debut album Imperia was released in June 2012. Jana is toying with the idea of making another song with Camp Electronique.

An Advanced Art compilation has been planned for ages, and it seems something like this might actually be released soon. Ish.


https://www.facebook.com/advancedart
.