A Denovali Label Night at Silent Green with Dictaphone, Bersarin Quartett, Orson Hentschel and Moon Zero. Musically the event moves between Jazz, Ambient and experimental Electronic.
After his successfull selftitled debut in 2008 and the sophomore “II” in 2012 – album of the month in many magazines and in numerous “Best of the year” lists – Bücker returns with his third BERSARIN QUARTETT album “III”, due for release 6.11.2015 on Denovali Records. Much like his two predecessors, III is a pure paradox. It is the creation of a perfectionist, an adamant control freak. Every element, be it a note, an ambience layer, a string arrangement, a field recording, a baseline, a vocal (Clara Hill on Track 11) or a beat, is meticulously modified and then assigned its place in Bücker’s vast but still minimalistic arrangements. Thus, superficially Bücker’s pieces seem to radiate a certain mechanical bleakness. However, there is a unique reduced warmth and liveliness emerging from these stainless compositions and transcending them. This transcendence is precisely the point where Bücker ironically looses control over his creations. In contrast to the first two BERSARIN QUARTETT albums, III offers a few darker shades and succeeds even further in narrowing down the arrangements to the absolute essentials without loosing the characteristic grandeur of Bücker’s sound. Whereas BERSARIN QUARTETT’s debut was merely a description of melancholia in its most pure form, III maybe even goes as far a defining what melancholia really is. It is the only emotion in the vast spectrum of human states of mind which one can bear forever.
The new album features the three Dictaphone core members Oliver Doerell (electronics, bass, guitar), Roger Döring (saxophone, clarinet) and Alex Stolze (violins) and has been composed and produced over the course of three years. While the vibraphone and the more easily distinguishable guitar among other things gave a certain presence to the tracks on the previous album “Poems from a rooftop”, “APR 70” leaves the listener with a much more muffled impression. It feels as if each of the uncountable layers of which the intricate arrangements are made has just the right amount of contrast to be visible, but there are only very few moments where one of the elements noticeably dominates the others. The cool jazz bits, analogue flourishes, hypnotic rhythms and refined electronics feed a dark serpent-like creature meandering in ever-changing morphologies through shapeless landscapes. “APR 70” is the perfect cocoon for the hazy days and the serene nights. A new incarnation, maybe even definition, of purity.
For Hentschel, the spoken word is always music and thus not different than any other instrumental input or sound layer. Consequently, he is only interested in the sound of the spoken words on Facades, but not in any content they convey. The idea for Facades was born at a time when Hentschel was struggling with a writer’s block for several days in a row. He realised that just writing about nothing was the only honest way for him to express himself through text as a medium. After doing some research on the subject he found John Cage’s “Lecture on nothing” which has appeared in the book “Silence” (1961). This encouraged him to work out his idea and he wrote a German text which then Danhee Joe, an accidental acquaintance of his, translated into Korean and spoke with her warm voice. Thus Orson Hentschel used the text in the same way as he uses any sound material – it is transformed into something else, it is being alienated. The spoken words are embedded in repetitive and minimal-minded electronic sound layers which even penetrate primordial technoid territories. However, sticking to his trademark long arcs of suspense, the listener has to wait until the last two minutes of the second track for the first, cathartic beat.
Denovali Label Night Berlin
Saturday, 12th May 2018 | Doors 17:00 CET | Starts 23:00 CET
Silent Green | Gerichtstraße 35 | 13347 Berlin
www.denovali.com | Event @ Facebook
