"Sink or Swim" is the title of a CD production from the puzzlepie studio crew. It consists of 12 tracks with a total duration of approximately 50 minutes. In the realization of this exciting and diverse project, 22 people have become involved, as well as a Children's choir and various peripheral advisors, assistants and critics.
The sound of "Sink or Swim" reaches for a “handmade” sound without technical trickery, with the intention to do justice to the rich melody scope of the compositions through an open minded approach without stylistic or ideological blinkers. Here, instruments that are generally untypical for Rock music such as the oboe, bassoon, cymbalon or medieval gamba are used, and produce, in contrast to the traditional Pop-instrumentation on the CD, a rather unique and earthy sound somewhere between Rock, folk and classical music.
The content of "Sink or Swim" swerves around the usual mannerisms of Pop-culture. From the endless tirade of pre-adolescent love songs, from pusillanimous “coolness”; it swerves away from a declaration of cultural bankruptcy, which is utterly in contrast to the intellectual and spiritual inheritance of the “old world”.
Consequently "Sink or Swim" deals with arrogance, stupidity, and sloth, with blood and war, and heroes who fail, but coincidently survive. It hints at a little hope, and a chance for this gene pool in which blessings and curses delicately balance the scales, and also creates individuals who can laughingly call themselves "Homo-sapiens".
Formally, "Sink or Swim" is a loose sequence of 12 titles linked together with a (unfortunately current) topical theme, and a series of reoccurring musical motifs that intertwine throughout the CD and bind the tracks together. A most fitting description would be a “Song-Cycle” but to call it thus would give the project a Schubert-ian classical aspect that it doesn't purport to.
Whether or not "Sink or Swim" is a commercial product, is a mere salesman's question at the very end of the planning and production priority list. Should "Sink or swim" (or part of it) be successful, it would not be a result of trying to conform to marketing demands.