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Barbara Morgenstern | Fjorden

CD, Monika

Tekst: Matthijs de Jonge

Publicatiedatum: 02 februari 2000

Apparently, those crafty Germans have come up with a new scheme to strip you of your hard-earned cash in return for shiny silver disks containing their charming musical output. This week it's called "The Wohnzimmer scene". For those of you who do not speak German, "Wohnzimmer" means living room, so apparently there's now an official scene of people who do stuff while sitting at home. Great. We'll end up getting debates about how SoAndSo isn't real Wohnzimmer because she's got her pianola set up in her bedroom instead of in the living room proper or something. Till then, however, we'll just call it music. Which just so happens to be what can be found on Barbara Morgenstern's second full-length, "Fjorden": music consisting of a female voice, an exceptionally warm bath of tasty analog-sounding organs and some bone dry beats to keep everything moving along. It's pop, too, and by that I do not mean "fabricated mush for the music industry" but something that's been crafted with great attention to detail so as to ensure it goes down as smoothly as possible. Which is, mind you, not the same thing as "slick", or "boring", even. It's just that, if you were to sum up this release in one word, that word would be "pretty" and that, if radiostations weren't bound to the dictates of the majors, the song "Der Augenblick" would be a big hit on account of it's being extremely catchy and sweet. Barbara Morgenstern possesses a great ear for melody and knows exactly how to put her dronesy bits together with lush basses and tantalizingly sweet organ loops. Add to that the fact that she's quite a good singer, and without becoming coquettish at that, and you have a pop album that is, as pop albums go, pretty much perfect. You'll find just the right quantity of subtle melancholia, just the right amount of musical forwardness to keep it interesting and a perfectly dosed helping of uplifting atmospheres. Before you rush out to your friendly record specialist, however, be advised that it is precisely this inordinate amount of perfection that also makes "Fjorden" somewhat irritating to listen to after a few songs. The impeccable production (some of it done by such luminaries as Pole, To Rococo Rot/Tarwater collaborator Robert Lippok and Thomas Fehlmann of Orb fame) and the elegant sweetness of it all makes you wish for listening material that's a little more grating and off-kilter after you've digested about four or five of these tracks. If that doesn't deter you,however, (and why should it?) you'll find "Fjorden" to be a perfectly pretty, heartwarming bath of sublime pop. Just remember to put on another cd after about about twenty minutes.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/barbara-morgenstern/fjorden/639/
Meer Barbara Morgenstern op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/barbara-morgenstern