Dark Christmas Trilogy (MaxiSingle) by Zinkl & The Infinite Monkey Theorem

Just in time for the coming Advent season, Zinkl & The Infinite Monkey Theorem present their Christmas single Dark Christmas Trilogy, which is in many ways an alternative to the usual sweet, kitschy Christmas pop numbers like Last Christmas. The musical triptych draws attention to the less joyful aspects of the merry season: loneliness, toxic family relationships and a planet increasingly threatened by mankind's consumer frenzy. Heavy stuff? Perhaps, but the melodies are still (or even more so?) catchy with a pop sound. Instead of the usual radio format of three to four minutes, the "Dark Christmas Trilogy" describes a dark, sometimes dreamy, sometimes bitter, ironic view of Christmas today in a good 17 minutes, without giving up hope completely.

As the name suggests, the Dark Christmas Trilogy consists of three song elements that are artfully combined into a suite.

 A classical Intro on the acoustic guitar (the German christmas carol "Kling, Glöckchen") catapults us into a dark future after a few bars: "Silent Bells" describes the last Christmas of mankind on a destroyed earth before it dies out. There is nothing left of the former "merry“ Christmas except a bitter farewell song for mankind. "And we're all going to die" is the perspective on a ruined earth. The fast electronic dance rhythm underlines the speed at which we are moving towards destruction.

As this dystopia fades away, we return to the present: "I Dream of a Carol" is the story of a naive songwriter who dreams of writing the Christmas song that will give humanity time for reflection and ultimately bring peace to the world. As naive as Lennon's "Happy X-Mas (War is Over)", the song is a bittersweet look at all the exaggerated hopes associated with Christmas. "In the spirit of love, let our voices unite, bringing peace to the world on this lonely and holy night". The music is ballad-like and melancholic. In the song, the plan succeeds, but reality catches up pretty soon with the dream.
A little bell theme leads into the last song of the trilogy: "Christmas in Hell" describes the inner struggles of a dysfunctional family who, full of resentment, force themselves to celebrate Christmas together, even though no one feels any joy: Hell for all involved, which couldn't be worse than a Christmas in the "real", medieval hell. The seven deadly sins - pride, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and greed - are synonymous with a completely meaningless "family feast".

The guitar plays again in the Outro. As at the beginning, you can recognize the melody of "Kling Glöckchen", but the melody has been alienated. Finally, a satanic voice conjures up once again that the "seven immortal sins" are all we need for this Christmas.

Yes, this is a bitter end.

Anton Zinkl is a well established Munich musician who has been blending elements of progressive rock with electronic music to create an individual alchemy for over 30 years. No question: once heard, you will recognize his sound immediately. Sometimes playful, sometimes dark, sometimes dreamy, always with a certain amount of self-irony and philanthropy, the impressive series of Zinkl albums stands for highly individualized music that deals with the big and small questions of life.
The Infinite Monkey Theorem is the moniker of the musical project of Cologne-based writer, lyricist, poet and (occasional) singer Salvatore Pichireddu. As a "typewriter-typing monkey" (because that's what the Theorem is all about), Pichireddu sets his own multilingual lyrics to music in a decidedly electronic artpop language. This is based on the sounds of the analog and early digital New Wave of the late 1970s and early 1980s, enriched with modern elements of dubstep and triphop. True to Brian Eno's motto "I'm an artist, not a musician", he uses the modern means of AI music as a mere tool to create his songs, which he painstakingly programs and edits from numerous valid and invalid attempts.

The "Dark Christmas Trilogy" is not the first joint musical project between the Munich musician and the Cologne lyricist. Pichireddu already wrote the lyrics for the title track of the current Zinkl album "About Truth and Lies". By combining personal lyrics, AI-generated song particles, samples and electronic music, both artists believe they have found an exciting new approach to realizing ambitious joint projects. The two are already planning and working on future song ideas. Together, they want to take AI music out of the dingy corner of generic and interchangeable, soulless and talentless machine music. AI is merely a tool here; creativity remains a unique human characteristic.