Bilderbuch – '∞+1' review: Auto-Tune, metal riffs and Dada pop
The Viennese band's ninth album is their first without guitarist Michael Krammer. Rolling Stone calls it a masterpiece, SRF 3 a joyful sensory overload.
Photo: Florian Koppe / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Single video: YouTube · BILDERBUCH · youtube.com
Single: Push Reality
Austrian band Bilderbuch released their ninth studio album '∞+1' (infinity plus one) on their own label Maschin on 9 October – just over four years after 'Gelb ist das Feld'. It is their first record without guitarist Michael Krammer, who left the band after 17 years; Uche Yara has taken his place. According to SRF 3, the title alludes to the flood of content, including AI-generated material, with the '+1' being the band's own contribution. The ten songs once again lean heavily on Auto-Tune.
Rolling Stone critic Gunther Reinhardt calls the album a masterpiece: Bilderbuch take pop apart with Dadaist absurdity, between vintage synths, vocoder, metal riffs and disco beats – a party that ends with a rock anthem. SRF 3 hears a more electronic, more danceable and more distorted record than of late, its overload mirroring the pressures of modern life. MusikBlog finds it more melodic and accessible than its predecessors and recommends it for heavy rotation.
According to MusikBlog, singer Maurice Ernst describes the record as a kind of break-up album. Open-air concerts have been announced for 2027: on 7 August at Klassik am Dom in Linz and, according to FM4, three nights from 14 to 16 September at the Arena Open Air in Vienna. The official video for 'Push Reality' is already online.