Barbara Morgenstern’s latest album beautifully combines electronic warmth and detailing with inverted anthems from an imaginary past

What would happen if you cut open an REM song, reached inside and made the inner workings spill out before allowing it to quietly grow back together again? Organic tech and careful nurturing would be essential to give it a new life of course. The end result – at least if you are Barbara Morgenstern – might be “Michael Stipe”. Sure, the idea is in the title, but it’s more than that. It cannot be a coincidence that the song plays like an inverted anthem perfect for night swimming. Like the album Unschuld und Verwüstung as a whole, it’s a miniature epic; classic pop from an alternative past.

I first encountered Barbara Morgenstern’s work as part of the September Collective (along with To Rococo Rot’s Stefan Schneider and Polish musician Paul Wirkus) on their 2004 debut for Geographic records. It was – and remains – a beautiful exercise in electronic improvisation that gives off warmth and feels steeped in purpose. Whether Morgenstern is working solely with instrumental landscapes or also employing words (as she does here), her command of subtleties remains rich and instinctive.

Unschuld und Verwüstung is avant-pop that has a brightening effect on the day to day. The magnificent “Karriereleiter” may be the highlight, an electronic dispatch from the countryside, gentle glitches wrapped around Morgenstern’s hypnotic voice. Its hooks are irresistible and Morgenstern can’t help but make it anthemic. She mostly sings in German, yet English words and phrases slip through, such as on “Michael Stipe”: “And I do not feel fine”. It’s the sort of not feeling fine that translates into something quietly euphoric in her music.

Elsewhere there is phantom wired disco (“Brainfuck”), natural glitch house (“Hands Dance”) and a piano track destined to soundtrack a Martin Scorsese montage (“Live Fast, Die Young!”). Warmth and melody overflow throughout. It feels like letting go, although Morgenstern never loses her attention to detail. This openness, combined with the intricacies of the musical world building, makes for a nurturing listening experience. Unschuld und Verwüstung is an organic technological wonder.

fishprintsinc.bandcamp.com

 

Stewart Gardiner
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