Artificial Paradise is the third studio album by German progressive rock band Sylvan

Sylvan (band)

- History :Kay Söhl, the two keyboarders Volker Söhl and Matthias Harder, founded the band Temporal Temptation in the spring of 1990. By that summer the band had already played its first gig - the first live performance of the core founding members of the band. In a way it was also Sylvan’s birth....

. The eerie cover of a hand coming out of a craps table is indicative of the tone of the album itself, as the band has stated that overarching themes of the songs include "society's superficiality

Superficiality

'The principle of superficiality versus depth' has pervaded Western culture since at least the time of Plato: 'the dialectic of truth and appearance,' as the surface image of the latter 'competes with what Plato designates for us beyond appearance as being the Idea'.21stC urban parlance speaks of...

, deceitfulness and greed."

Indeed, the cover shares multiple tie-ins to the album as the opening track Deep Inside begins with a collection of sounds sending the user to the middle of a bustling casino floor, complete with gambling-inducing overtones. This oddly soothing segment is revisited in the final minutes of the title/final track Artificial Paradise, lulling the listener and completing the illusion that one has been transported inside this non-existent casino for the entire album, as if listening to live entertainment on the gaming floor.

Track listing

1. "Deep Inside" – 9:14
2. "That's Why it Hurts" – 7:08
3. "Strange Emotion" – 4:19
4. "Human Apologies" – 8:29
5. "Timeless Traces" – 8:12
6. "I Still Believe" – 3:06
7. "Around the World" – 6:25
8. "Souvenirs" – 2:09
9. "Artificial Paradise" – 20:16

Personnel

• Marco Glühmann – vocals
• Matthias Harder – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Sebastian Harnack - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Volker Söhl – keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  
• Kay Söhl – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...