{"title":"Bersarin Quartett","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"systeme","title":"Systeme","description":"\u003cp\u003eFinally the 5th album of the imaginary German quartet - as always via Denovali. Although the title \"Systeme\" suggests a perhaps rather distant-cool album, it is the most personal and concentrated soundtrack so far created by Thomas Bücker from Münster in his \"E-Smog-Playground\" studio. In 2008, the quartet still flirted with cyrillic-mysterious melancholy and red wine-swilling trakl melancholy. 15 years and four albums later, it seems almost cynical to simply continue at this point. Because: late modernity delivers its very own complex tragedies - in real time. This feeling of \"Something's not right here\" runs like a thread through the entire new album. While it still sounds popularly symphonic here and there, there are also many soundscapes that have an observing, almost unmasking effect. Microtonal shifts, polyrhythmic structures, tempo fluctuations and sound aesthetics torn out of context create a fragile, unpredictable foundation - as if TALK TALK, TIM HECKER and SKRILLEX were making music together and challenging our tolerance for ambiguity. Typical of the Bersarin Quartet: sparks of optimism shimmer through everything. However, sitting back and enjoying doesn't really want to work - necessarily. Because that makes it exciting without freezing in escapism - fortunately\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Denovali","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50384733143371,"sku":"2174059","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50384733339979,"sku":"2174065","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Bersarin_Quartett_-_Systeme_c47a04e0_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726302983"},{"product_id":"iii-9","title":"III","description":"\u003cp\u003eMelancholia. Longing. It is difficult to speak about these moods or states of the mind without invoking stereotypes. In ancient medicine, melancholia was considered to be one of the four temperaments, matching the four humours. In fact, melancholia, meaning \"\"black bile\"\" in Ancient Greek, was thought to be caused by an excess of this very body substance. By contrast, in more modern interpretations, literates and Freudians relate many variations of longing to the one primordial longing, the desire to return to one's mother's womb. In this context, the womb is considered to be the place of absolute comfort and cosiness, of total bliss. Thus, it should not be surprising that to many of us melancholia is a mood which we like to invoke and to maintain, we like to envelop ourselves in it like in a warm blanket. Our brain and our sensory systems appear to be made for perceiving and emotionally responding to music in a very immediate fashion. Consequently, music is the obvious drug for all of us melancholiaaddicts. However, there is a thin line between melancholia and sadness, and music which is meant to be melancholic too often crosses this line by far. Only very few artists succeed in avoiding this crossing, and in creating music which is melancholia in its most pure form. It is safe to say that BERSARIN QUARTETT - the electronic music project of Thomas Bücker - is one of them. After his successful self titled 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 in 2015 returned with his third BERSARIN QUARTETT album \"\"III\"\". 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 loses 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 losing 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Denovali","offers":[{"title":"Clear LPx2","offer_id":50384736551243,"sku":"2174060","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50384736715083,"sku":"2174063","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Bersarin_Quartett_-_III_74d720e3_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726303015"},{"product_id":"ii-6","title":"II","description":"\u003cp\u003e“It's rare that I'm able to give an album my fullest recommendation without trepidation. (...) Bersarin Quartett is one such album. There's nary a misstep, every potential danger has been avoided and smoothed out to present the optimal audio experience for your dollar. (...) Something this good can't possibly be real.\"\" The Silent Ballet (8.5\/ 10). Almost all reviews concerning Bersarin Quartett’s self titled debut album from 2008 chorused this paean. In 2012 he returned with his long awaited 2nd album called “II”. After turning Bersarin Quartett with two befriended guest musicians into a band project in 2011 and some successful and interesting live experiences in several countries it was time to bring the fragments of songwriting of the past years together to a new 13 tracks journey. Someone mentioned “This music could be written on a lonely island or onboard of a spaceship looking on our planet. Time becomes a new unit and feelings become more weight.” That’s exactly the feeling Bersarin Quartett \"\"II\"\" delivered. References to Stars Of The Lid, Ulver's Perdition City, Bohren \u0026amp; Der Club Of Gore and Cinematic Orchestra are fully justified.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Denovali","offers":[{"title":"Clear LPx2","offer_id":50384738025803,"sku":"2174061","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50384738189643,"sku":"2174064","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Bersarin_Quartett_-_II_8ff819d2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726303045"},{"product_id":"bersarin-quartett","title":"Bersarin Quartett","description":"\u003cp\u003eReissue of the classic Bersarin Quartett\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003edebut album. \u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Originally released in 2008 by Lidar, the album \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eofferis a very seductive, cinematic and original blend of modern classical, ambient and electronica.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Denovali","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Clear","offer_id":52652113920331,"sku":"R8659-7491","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2000x2000bb_cbf2a92d-18bb-4a98-adf8-562b49e316ba.jpg?v=1751664925"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/bersarin-quartett.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}