Germany’s Bersarin Quartett create melancholy, melodic, ambient music full of deep, immersive environments that draw you into their windswept, minimalist worlds. The group’s fourth record is Methoden und Maschinen, which released last Friday via Denovali Records, continues their compelling artistic trajectory that began with 2010’s self-titled release, and followed through on II (2012) and III (2015). Music that evokes strange landscapes of decay and rebirth, both natural and man-made, convey the emotional sense of loss, nostalgia, loneliness, and isolation that followed the fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe.
On “Wenn wir nur wollen”, the patterns juxtapose the natural world with the urban. Cycling synths emulate the pitter-patter of raindrops as the song possesses a wonderful sense of movement, relentless forward movement tinged with sadness but resoluteness. Bersarin Quartett describes the track as “the loosening of the blood. The buzzing of the wires. Or vice versa. Crystal clear night in the virtual cosmos. What is outside here, what is inside? Emotional versus automatic. The essential dualisms, which we all too rarely try to mix non-dualistically. Fuck populisms, the world is complicated. We are.”