Tarwater at Berghain Kantine / Thursday, 04.12.2014

The Berlin-based electronic duo Tarwater (Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram) formed in 1995. They have produced eleven regular studio albums and various collaborations (eg with Piano Magic, Tuxedomoon, B. Fleischmann), as well as numerous film and theater scores. Lippok also plays in the band To Rococo Rot.

“We are not minimalists,” emphasize Tarwater. Perhaps the term is overused to the point of meaninglessness, but it can certainly be assumed that the band has been labeled as such more than once. Their new album “Adrift” is an album of voices and rhythms, with an atmosphere that may at first seem reduced, yet further listening reveals a wealth of detail.

httpv://https://youtu.be/9gfFNXOVB9M

“Adrift” was created in 2013/14 and completed after Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram worked together with Maurus Ronner on the soundtrack for the documentary “24h Jerusalem”. Such projects are not a disruption for Tarwater, but serve as catalysts for new interactions. They make music in a “laboratory with changing experimental arrangements”.

One might imagine the two lab technicians as travelers. And just as the result of an experiment is uncertain, the final destination of the journey is initially unclear. Tarwater encourage this state of being “Adrift”.

httpv://https://youtu.be/AiHXwzUldn0

The cover of the album shows the empty field of the former Berlin airport at Tempelhof, photographed by Robert Lippok, who also provided the photo for the cover of Tarwater’s previous album, “Inside The Ships” (2011, Bureau B 085).

Then it was an uncompleted Space Opera. This time it’s about the “search for our own Byzantium”. “Adrift” is a dream diary; its characters act not as in fantasy, but reality. Tarwater agree when the album is described as “somnambulist”.