[gelöscht] - VERFÜHRERVERGELTER

If battery powered blackened electronics and raw ambient melancholia from Potsdam, Germany, sounds like something for you, why not go deep into the world of VERFÜHRERVERGELTER with this brand new album, "Gelöscht".

"Gelöscht" means deleted. Deleted from memory, from life, from death, from form - but still alive somewhere, on another plane of existence and sound, if "alive" is the correct word when describing death industrial.

But, don't let the genre narrowmindness get you - in the 9 untitled tracks (including intro) that comprise "Gelöscht" there is lots of more colors and flavors one would expect from industrial or from ambient.

Yes, I have a problem with "industrial music" and "ambient" in the XXIst century, as they drift dangerously into pop and techno zones. But right here, VERFÜHRERVERGELTER comes to the rescue.

Instead of the "techno umpa-umpa" of modern "industrial" and "lo-fi chill beats" of "ambient", we get landscapes of Kluster-like meanders, early BBC experiments, noise, improvised music, Italian futurism, and modern electroacoustica experiments. I have visited Potsdam at least twice, and I can also hear lots of Potsdam in the LP. If you have ever been to Potsdam, I feel you'll appreciate the LP on another level as well. It's elegant as the location it was recorded in, and the cover artwork.

The album is also really solid, coherent, well thought and performed and recorded/produced - this is exactly the kind of sound I think of when imagining "industrial". I don't know how VERFÜHRERVERGELTER does it, but the album is not only dark and menacing, but also beautiful. I think the strength of this release lies in the contrast of beauty and the beast, the common archetype in art, but here executed perfectly and with a knowing of craft, structure, lack of structure, and tradition. It's modern and ancient, dark and radiant.

I recommend this album to everyone who's into experimental music, not only industrial or ambient - and this has been my first review of an album in 7 years - I never thought I'll do "music journalism" again after writing for Psychosonda 2014-2015. Maybe it's not even a "real review" just a note to accentuate the release and help VERFÜHRERVERGELTER get some well-deserved exposure in the www world.

To summarize this note, or review, I'd like to present a bit of text from the Artist himself, where he explains the creation of "Deleted":

"I had to find a way to put the unspeakable into words. This is how I did it. I recorded this Album in the first half of 2022 and finished it in August 2022. At the beginning I just tried to recreate to sound of my first Demo. But after one-too-many recording sessions, I realized that this wouldn’t satisfy me. What I had so far was dark and intense. I tried to get to the source of that sound and found a locked room inside me. The songs of [gelöscht] are my interpretation of what is hidden away in that place. What has no name, what hides away from description. What is deleted but still acting and affecting me in my life."

Yes, it's impossible to delete existence. Enjoy the sound of [gelöscht].