RELEASES
bersarin quartett
"bersarin quartett"
lidar 002 - 02/2008
playtime: 58:09
distributed by rough trade
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01 oktober*
02 geschichten von interesse
03 inversion*
04 st. petersburg
05 und die welt steht still
06 die dinge sind nicht so wie sie sind*
07 nachtblind
08 es kann nicht ewig winter sein
09 endlich am ziel*
10 mehr als alles andere
*mp3 sample
With some albums, you realize within a few seconds that here you have come across something really special. It is music that touches you straight away. Music that is important, that has a story to tell – and that manages to do so without even a single line of lyrics.
The debut album by the Bersarin Quartett is one of these albums.
Wonderful orchestral pieces full of longing and melancholy. It is that certain kind of melancholy that seizes you when you are moved while following the final credits of an emotionally touching movie, remembering special moments that have faded in the course of many years and linger hazily in your memory, when you are somewhat wistfully contemplating old, worn photographs from days passed by…not a feeling of failure or hopelessness, but a bittersweet reflection.
Time and evanescence. This is the matching soundtrack.
Orchestral cinemascope sounds provide the emotionally moving fundament, wrap the tracks up in a warm coating. Graceful strings pile up, creating big moments and repeatedly ending in melodies that are simply heart-rending, cinematic and tragic. But the Bersarin Quartett does not merely rely on these ingredients. The songs are also repeatedly interspersed with suspenseful and surprising elements, be it frail electronica, hypnotic soundscapes, drums or reverbed guitars. Rarely has a melange sounded as convincing and natural as this, and rarely has it sounded so well produced.
Thomas himself calls his music “imaginary fictional filmscores“. And it is hardly possible to come up with a more apt term. 10 tracks for 10 movies that have yet to be shot. Music that radiates such an enormous and authentic passion in every single minute, that one can’t help but completely abandon oneself to it. And honestly: Can there be anything more wonderful that can be achieved through music?
read reviews of "bersarin quartett" here
jasper tx
"a darkness"
lidar 001 - 03/2007
playtime: 58:02
distributed by baked goods
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01 better days to come*
02 destroy detroit (the sign of buildings never built)*
03 winter/midnight/suicide
04 nightbirds
05 sleep; ghosts
06 some things broken, some things lost*
*mp3 sample
it is surely rare to come across such a remarkable fusion of fragile guitars, field recordings and imposing drones as witnessed on jasper tx's debut album „i’ll be long gone before my light reaches you“ released on UK label lampse in 2005. although this album appeared out of nowhere, everyone was soon in agreement: swedish born dag rosenqvist makes you sit up and take notice. after a sampler contribution for miasmah and a 3" cd released on kning disk, lidar is proud to announce the release of „a darkness“, jasper tx's second full length album.
although all of the elements which made the debut album so unique are present here as well, jasper tx presents a more tempered but no less impressive disposition. the tracks are intimate and magical, somewhat like moving through the shades of a night. far from being scary, this is a journey one is only too pleased to set out on. from the word go, the beautiful first track "better days to come" takes you by the hand to encourage you. there follows 58 minutes of elegiac and melancholic guitars („destroy detroit (the sign of buildings never built)“ ), nebulous & bleak soundscapes („nightbirds“), the folkloric "winter/midnight/suicide", a ghostly intermezzo called "sleep; ghosts" and all rounded off with a stunning finale, the 21 minutes track "some things broken, some things lost". this last track represents a marriage of all the elements which go into making jasper tx so remarkable: timeless beauty, hypnotic drones and a rather unique form of earthy melancholy. quite simply, one of jasper tx's most impressive tracks.
slow-moving, dim & mesmerizing!
read reviews of "a darkness" here
