finetune artist: Tosca

Tosca is essentially a side-project for Richard Dorfmeister, one half of Austrian dub-breaks artists Kruder And Dorfmeister and is a collaboration with his old school friend, Richard Huber. Tosca's 1997 debut, Opera, established the duo's unusual and lush sound that embraces elements of classical, dance music and dub recording techniques. Not easily confined to the often-abused category chill out, Tosca often include funky, break-beat driven tracks and those that even border on down-tempo house music. They are also noteworthy for their successful use of classical influences and even bossa nova rhythms. The follow-up in 1999, Suzuki, received an even warmer critical reception and built on the duo's sound of dubby bass and drums, funky rhythms, pretty piano and guitar melodies and well-deployed vocal snippets. Dehli 9, released in 2003, was a highly acclaimed album of down-tempo and dub inspired electronic tracks and raised the act's profile among dance music's cognoscenti. For Dehli 9, Dorfmeister again used the sweet and ethereal vocals of Anna Clementi and the Viennese vocalist Graf Hadik as well as Earl Zinger (ex-Galliano). Dehli 9 was another expertly crafted blend of the duo's perennial influences and, again, showed far too much invention to be lumped lazily into the bin marked "coffee table chill out music". The CD release featured a second disc containing minimalist, semi-classical piano pieces performed by Huber and tweaked into minor symphonies by Dorfmeister's mastery of studio technique. It was confirmation of two highly creative minds at work, trying to push the boundaries of dance music.

Listen to Tosca at Finetune.

(2000) Suzuki
(1999) Opera

Suzuki
Honey
F**k Dub Part 1&2
Orozco
Boss on the Boat