Tosca, the Viennese masters of deluxe soundscapes and sensual rhythms, are back with their most magical and mesmerising album yet. --- Multi-instrumentalists Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber have been friends since their Vienna schooldays. Richard later became half of the globally acclaimed DJ-producer duo Kruder and Dorfmeister, while Rupert worked in piano composition and sound-art installation. No Hassle is Tosca’s fifth studio album, and their most beautiful musical statement so far. A luxurious tapestry of analogue and digital sounds, submerged samples and live instruments, it evolves and expands into an hour-long ambient symphony. The title reflects not only the duo’s laidback approach to making music but their whole philosophy of life. --- No Hassle is all about contemplation and concentration. While recent Tosca releases like J.A.C. (2005) and the remix collection Souvenirs (2006) were a move towards classic song structures and club-friendly grooves, their latest is a much more introspective journey into inner space. It was conceived as a single seamless sea of sound, deeply layered with liquid rhythms and tidal melodies. Warm and enveloping, each leisurely track flows gently into the next, a musical ocean moving in slow motion. This is an album to plunge deeply into and get lost inside. --- The overall sound of No Hassle draws on classic Tosca ingredients: dub and funk, blues and krautrock, acoustic and electronic, strings and samples, mellow grooves and elegant piano melodies. As usual, the album is a product of collective chemistry, with Richard and Rupert improvising together in their Vienna studio. On this album, Richard and Rupert have taken their music to more intense, meditative depths than ever before. --- No Hassle has also brought new energy and focus to Tosca’s live performances. Richard and Rupert premiered the album at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz last September, at the Linzer Dom cathedral, accompanied by dazzling video graphics. This stunning performance laid the blueprint for future shows – immersive, absorbing, sound-and-vision spectacles in prestigious venues around the world. --- The Ars Electronica live performance is captured on the bonus CD that accompanies the studio album – this is gonna be a limited 2xCD edition in a deluxe packaging. Slow down. Relax. Take a break from the pressures of life. The most soothing and sublime album of 2009 has arrived. No contest. No kidding. No Hassle.