BERSARIN QUARTETT - Bersarin Quartett

Post-Soviet aesthetics, German origins, and a thick veil of mystery surrounding the band's identity and lineup. That is, if "band" is even the right word, given how little is actually revealed by the sparse liner notes of this album by Bersarin Quartett, a new project put together in Münster by someone going by Thomas, now making its debut on the young and interesting electronic label Lidar, after already making a mark with a solid contribution to a 2007 compilation on the netlabel Aerotone.

Since no further background information is available, all that's left is to dive into the ten tracks of this self-titled work, which readily invites comparisons to the likes of Murcof and fellow German Marsen Jules, offering a new take on the successful marriage of electronics and a rich, real instrumentation that is in some sense inspired by an orchestral intent, clearly evident right from the "quartet" label the band has chosen for itself.

The foundation on which the compositions collected here are built is almost always the electronic filtering of string melodies arranged through the iteration of simple loops, carrying romantic overtones and dense cinematic suggestions. Onto this constant substratum - which in certain passages rises to the foreground, spinning out exquisitely refined ambient spirals in the vein of Stars Of The Lid ("Inversion") - the "quartet" grafts a whole series of electronic beats and assorted sonic fragmentations, encompassing not just orchestral saturation but also acoustic touches, horns, scattered piano notes and guitar reverb.

The compositions of Bersarin Quartett are built mainly around irregular melodies, around layered sounds that take shape slowly, acquiring harmonic (and at times disharmonic) structures that lend real substance to music with nocturnal, evanescent tones. And it's not just the rhythmic imprint - in some cases quite pronounced - that achieves this result, since it is precisely the plurality of different elements that defines the album's most rewarding passages: thus, the romantic dissolving of electronic lapping and clangs in "Geschichten Von Interesse" generates an emotional warmth bolstered by a wealth of real instruments, while the placid slowness of "Und Die Welt Steht Still" delivers orchestral constructions of rare depth, and the perfect balance between played and electronic parts in "Es Kann Nicht Ewig Winter Sein" best achieves the effect of drawing the listener into music steeped in dark autumnal brushstrokes, yet often shot through with electronic tremors that keep it from excessive uniformity.

Between melody and rhythm, between smooth orchestral passages and rougher, jagged textures, the scant hour of music on "Bersarin Quartett" proves well-crafted and fully realized in its cinematic melancholy, at once contemplative and emotionally affecting, perfectly suited to the bittersweet ending of a story or the closing credits of a film - perhaps even one of those for which the Thomas behind this artistic project sketches out imaginary soundtracks, regardless of who actually directed it...

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25/03/2008