Winterstille, Xavier Kruth, and Gerry Croon explore the boundary that exists between classical music and darkpopmusic.
The album consists of a number of darkly ambient, richly textured songs that evoke a sense of coldness and solitude. Their trademark sound is best described as a melancholic blend of ambientelectronica, classical piano melodies, and delicate vocals.
While working together at dark Entries, Xavier Kruth and Gerry Croon fell in love with each other for the darkmusic. Both Xavier and Gerry are big fans of darkmusic, specifically GothicRock, Darkwave, SymphonicMetal, and more. Both Xavier and Gerry share a love for bands like Goethe’s Erben, Sopor Aeternus, and especially Lacrimosa. But they both love to play music themselves. Xavier has been playing his darkmusic in bars since 2006. He’s also played in GothicRock band The Marchesa Casati and Shamanic Folk band Kinderen van Moeder Aarde, and has also worked with Gert Kleinpunk (Folk punk). Gerry, has formed a band called Crooniek that performs a wide range of music including pop, Rock, rockabilly, Folk, Celtic, and classical. Crooniek consists of a full orchestra and choir. Gerry has been composing for decades and now participates in a wide variety of music including musical theatre, choirs, and Rock bands. One of the most important projects for Crooniek was the first studio album “Olivier & Crooniek”, which featured the vocals of singer-songwriter Olivier Soil. Gerry wrote the orchestration on the album. Xavier was present on the album presentation, and afterwards he and Xavier talked about a similar cooperation. In November, the result of the band’s work was released, titled “Puin van dromen” (Rubble of dreams).