Sine – Einklang – Album – 2022

Review for Sine – Einklang (Album) 2022

Artist: SINE
Title: Einklang
Land of Origin: Germany
Label: Sine Music
Release Date: 20. Mai 2022
Genre: Electronica, Chill-Out, Downtempo
12 Tracks • 56m 38s

Verfügbar bei qobuz in
24-Bit / 44.1 kHz – Stereo

Verfügbar bei Apple Music und TIDAL
im Dolby Atmos

For the German translation of
this review >>> click here <<<

Intro…

On Friday, May 20, 2022, SINE has released his new album “Einklang” on the label Sine Music. The album contains twelve tracks and will be available at all known download and streaming portals. A special feature of “Einklang” is that it is also available on TIDAL and Apple Music in a reference-quality Dolby Atmos mix.

“Einklang”. This means the moment of inner peace, harmony. “Einklang” describes the inner peace when making music, the merging of expression and emotion with an instrument: “Especially in turbulent times, it is important to find these moments of harmony. I find these moments in music. Music can open the door to oneself and the peace within oneself,” SINE says. But harmony also means tuning, peace, community, or even partnership.

Sine & Co…

And when we talk about the term EINKLANG (harmony), we should also take a closer look at SINE. SINE aka Thomas Hauser is one of those people in the German music scene who are incredibly creative. On the one hand, Thomas works immensely meticulously on his new productions and it always takes a while, quite a while, until it then comes to release.

For the album EINKLANG had recorded everything by himself, then finished the final mix, and in the end everything was also mixed in the Dolby Atmos format at Immersive Lab Studio in Berlin under the direction of Eric Horstmann.  In addition, Sine has his own SINE MUSIC label, which was founded at some point in the early 2000s offering a platform for promising new artists from the fields of ambient and downtempo to deep house. Furthermore, the label can be proud of many outstanding musicians such as Thomas Lemmer, Tauon, Blooy, Christoph Sebastian Pabst or even Setsuna aka Erik Heirman.

Sine Music is not just a label, rather it is community, a team of musicians who support each other in unison and enrich each other musically for example with the production of remixes.

But that’s not just enoughall. In addition, Thomas Hauser runs the Cosmic Sound Studio with his brother Jochen since 1997, producing and mixing productions of bands, acts, and music from a wide variety of genres. And yet Thomas always finds plenty of time to recharge his batteries outside in harmony with nature. “The feeling of being in harmony with yourself and your time, you can experience almost anywhere, whether alone or with friends,” as Thomas says.

EINKLANG the album

The album is a collection of already released tracks that have so far only appeared on compilations, re-edits, remixes and yet unreleased tracks such as “Sein” and “Truth Inside”, so you could report soberly and unemotionally. However, with his music SINE succeeds in creating an endless expanse where you can feel safe and find a musical home. With sultry guitar lines, smooth vocals and arrangements with a high recognition value, SINE is able to bring this currently tumbling world back into harmony, at least for about an hour.

Even the hi-res recording in 24 bits / 44.1 kHz is able to convince with a gorgeous sound image, setting the vast multi-layered cloudy arrangements perfectly into scene. But the Dolby Atmos mix by Eric Horstmann goes one better.

The whole album gets more spaciousness, width and above all depth, creating acoustic life forms and thus becoming highly entertaining and exciting. I would never have suspected that such a deep, masterfully layered sound world could open up behind the front speakers in the living room or studio.

Especially through the Dolby Atmos mix, known genre definitions like downtempo, ambient or chill-out lose their meaning. The listener experiences a sound transformed into an incredible beauty that is full of life.

Arrangements are suddenly spiked with the finest effect particles, appearing to float freely into the acoustic space with a three-dimensional physicality. They are moving, whether the finest ambient noise particles or sudden sonic streams that seem to materialize behind the listening position and pulse forward into the vast space.

Thomas and Eric are weaving the single tracks of the album together into an acoustic synthesis of arts with a lot of life in front of, behind, beside and above the basic sound structures – and you as a listener are a part of it.

At the Bottom Line

It’s very difficult to pick out single tracks of the album as a recommendation to play, the album seems to be unbelievably coherent in itself. Tracks like CAUGHT IN TIME, AIR or CLOSER have become modern downtempo standards in the meantime and might ease the entry into the album for the curious first-time listener. But EINKLANG on the other hand is an album that opens up to the listener very quickly and will then also stay with you, an album you can call „yours“ with full conviction at least.

For about 4 weeks now I have the promocopy of the album here in permanent use – for me EINKLANG by Sine is so far the album of the year 2022, beyond all genre boundaries, which should appeal to many music fans very much. At least 56 minutes of harmony, peace, and joy in this messed up year that is about to bring us a different life which might seem strange and unreal to us.

Listen to it

Mein Testequipment:

Studio 1 (High End):

• 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
• 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
• 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (Rear)
• 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (Subwoofer)
• 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
• Auralic Altair (Audio Streaming Client mit max. 32 Bit / 384 kHz)
• NVIDIA Shield Pro mit Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz für  Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
• AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
• Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
• Yamaha MX -A5000 (Power Amp)
• Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision

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