Vladislav Delay-Antye Greie-Craig Armstrong - The Dolls (2005)

Editorial Reviews
The Dolls are Vladislav Delay aka Luomo (Finland), Antye Greie aka AGF (Germany) and Craig Armstrong (Scotland). Huume Recordings are happy sponsors of this collaboration between three solo musicians, admirers and explorers. Craig Armstrong (Massive Attack, Moulin Rouge soundtrack) had heard AGF's (Antye Greie) music and became a fan. He invited Antye to sing on his second solo album, As If To Nothing, and they performed a few successful shows together, with Vladislav Delay as central groupie and sometime performer. Armstrong later recorded a few of the songs off his solo piano album Piano Works in Berlin at AGF/Delay's home studio, dipping into idea-sharing and collaboration. They recorded hours of piano played by Armstrong, bringing in their computers and various studio toys. And at times when the machines didn't do their thing anymore, then the piano itself became a platform for something new, going well beyond "treated piano." The Dolls believe in the soothing qualities in music, both as a catalyst for themselves while making it as well as for soothing frayed nerves for the modern condition. But this trio of authors also believe in the child-like catharsis of music-making, even to the point of nonsense. Using drums, piano and vocals, The Dolls take on character-roles, tell stories, and share intimate personal memory, transforming the pieces into multi-layered musical fantasy. Different generations with various backgrounds, musical ideas and visions meet here and mix-and-match there, leaving behind something you haven't heard before. This is an archive recording of a surprising and uncompromised musical event. Bliss.


This self titled CD is the first release by the band ‘The Dolls’. Comprised of Craig Armstrong on Piano, Antye Greie-Fuchs (AGF) providing the vocals and Vladislav Delay adding manipulation and beats.
Armstrong's piano works provides us with a different side to his work. At times his work sounds quite jazzy.
Track highlights are 'Night Active', 'Choices (which features cues from Sunrise off Piano Works)', 'Kukkuu' and 'Motor City'.
This is great album which deserves people's attention.

Vladislav Delay is one of the pseudonyms of Sasu Ripatti (born 1976), a Finnish electronic musician. He has also recorded as Luomo, Sistol, Uusitalo and Conoco
Sasu has been involved in the ambient music, glitch, house, and techno genres. His method of track production involves a mixture of synthesizing, vocal recording and live reprocessing. Many tracks have an organic feeling that pervades through rolling, dubby basslines and vocal snippets. His partner is Antye Greie, with whom he has collaborated. Their daughter was born in 2006.
Sasu has released EPs and albums on labels such as Force Tracks, Chain Reaction, Mille Plateaux, Resopal, and Sigma Editions.
He also founded the Finnish music label Huume Recordings.
From 2009 onwards Ripatti has been performing drums and percussion in the Moritz von Oswald Trio alongside Moritz von Oswald and Max Loderbauer. With the Moritz von Oswald Trio he has released two albums and a live LP. He has also released an album in 2011 with his own experimental jazz/electronic group, the Vladislav Delay Quartet.

Antye Greie aka AGF is a vocalist, musician, producer, and artist. She was born and raised in East Germany and developed an early interest for music and poetry and philosophy. Recently she has been exploring speech and spoken word combined with electronic music, as well as working on sound installations, pop songs, calligraphy and her website poemproducer.com.
In 2006 she gave birth to a daughter fathered by partner Sasu Ripatti.
She lived in Berlin from 1996 to 2008. In 2008 she moved with her family to Hailuoto, Finland.
Greie performs as AGF (solo), AGF/DELAY (with Vladislav Delay), with Zavoloka, The Dolls (with Vladislav Delay and Craig Armstrong), Laub (with Jotka), and The Lappetites (with Elaine Radigue, Kaffe Matthews and Ryoko Kuwajima) .

Craig Armstrong, OBE (born 29 April 1959) is a Scottish composer of modern orchestral music, electronica and film scores.
Armstrong's score for William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet earned him a BAFTA for Achievement in Film Music and an Ivor Novello. His composition for Baz Luhrmann’s musical Moulin Rouge! earned him the 2001 American Film Institute’s composer of the Year award, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and a BAFTA. Armstrong was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Original Score in 2004 for the biopic Ray. His other feature film scoring credits include Love Actually, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and The Incredible Hulk.