Musical impressions of vibrant Berlin by a veteran from the overflowing Oslo scene.
Every once in a while, I like to drip some snippets of the vibrant Oslo underground into the VoS universe. Musicians cross paths, fuse, and go solo with projects to explore new avenues for their creativity. Often musicians with a Punk and Metal background go into exploring what lies beyond and within the electronic sonics while keeping some of their anarchistic basis intact. Here is a new one - or not new as such, but a new project called Contrarian, which is the name the veteran multi-dimensional artist Gøran Karlsvik has given to his new Electronica ventures.
On these pages, Karlsvik is mostly known for his vocals and musical inputs and concepts of the Damokles albums, but he is also a video artist, an author, journalist, among other things. And known from the bands This Sect, Endtimers and Zap. He revisited Berlin, recorded an EP sharing his impressions. He finished it in the recording studio in Oslo. As many musicians before him, Karlsvik has tried to capture his impressions of this vibrant city through music. Which is interesting in itself, as the pioneers of this genre in popular music, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, hail from this melting pot.
The EP’s opening track is called “Berlin Parklife”. Among the heavy beats, it captures the energetic life of the parks and the city. Electronic sound effects surround the beats, and in the background, bright synth sounds are dripping among the heavy sounds. Soundwaves jump in from all directions, and a wavey synth snakes in between and through the other sound effects. It is an illustrative, engaging beat-based track with lots of elements in the layers, some on the dissonant side.
The next track, “Berlin Lament”, opens with imploding noises before discordant conflicting sounds appear over a dark churning part. It becomes more dissonant as it flows forward and dips into some industrial sounds reminiscent of Einstürzende Neubauten if one should draw some comparisons from the Berlin scene. The music churns forward mostly on the dissonant side of sonics. It is disturbing, in a way contrasting with the positive vibes from the first track. The beats are heavy, but in a slightly irate mode.
A sentiment of writers´ block seeps through the shoegazey “Berlin Angst”, the only one with vocals singing in a slow and dreamy voice, “So tired of hitting that wall / So tired of trying / So fucking exhausted / So fucking tired” and there is also some added acoustic guitar and bass. It is rhythmic, staccato, repetitive. The latter might stem from hitting the wall and not managing to get further. There are also added vocals singing a bit desperately in the background. As the song flows forward with many layers of voices, synths, and instruments, it becomes hypnotic and mesmerizing in its hypnotic rhythm.
A slower pace is applied to “Berlin Haunt” complete with soaring and scratching sound effects surrounding the rhythm. It is textured and a bit disturbing at times, but in the background there is a comfortable, undulating element as if the track wants to convey the vibrant city life that immerses one’s haunt. The overflowing, life-affirming vibrancy exists between concrete and neon lights - everything is fleeting, hurrying past you as you are watching, maybe consuming a meal, conveyed in “Berlin Breakfast + Night Food”. This track illustrates this with extremely fast and blurring sound effects popping upon a floating reflective synth sound.
“Berlin Stuff Like Berghain is Still Weird” closes the EP and might be a tumultuous homage to the (in)famous club in Berlin that has, and does, host many things and is (in)famous for that. The track is hard with Techno-vibes and in such remembering the 90s Hard Techno parties, but also has a bit of House vibes from more recent years. However, the music also manages to convey the multi-faceted history of the club, at the same time, a sense of tension about all the stuff that has been going on there through the years.
This is your chance to get a whiff of vibrant Berlin and a glimpse into a creative mind from the Oslo underground scene all at the same time.
