Brom is a very special record. This is why I don’t have time for platitudes like “the experimental duo from Berlin” or “critically acclaimed Oktaf label“. That stuff just does not matter. Let’s dive right into it, shall we?

2 things have always been extremely important for Erik and Bertram: sampling and collaborating. With each other, but also with other people. This is what happened recording Brom as well, but on a completely new scale.
“It’s about new influences and also a new approach towards sound“, Bertram says. “We’d normally start off by sampling tons of records, always looking for bits and pieces to work with. This time, we also started with sampling, but we recorded the stuff ourselves. Instruments, field recordings, experimenting with microphones, looking for a new kind of ambience as a basis for our tracks. We’ve enjoyed this very much, so we were inviting friends to bring their instruments and ideas into the fold.” Tarwater‘s Ronald Lippok is among that crew, but also Brandt Brauer Frick‘s Florian Juncker playing the trombone. You’ll also hear many self-made instruments on ‘Brom‘ and the ‘Hang‘, a kind of Swiss-made steel drum with a confusing esoteric heritage. Bringing all this into the mix “the record sounds more mature and complete in a way“, says Bertram.
What really matters is that Denzel + Huhn actually did another record. Maybe their best one yet. Who am I to judge? All I know is that this record indeed matters in a big way, more than you can imagine. Just listen to ‘Schlagton‘, the closer of the album, condensing a million centuries of music history into a pop song, 4 minutes and 17 seconds long. If this tune does not provoke tears in your eyes, you’re dead.

Thaddeus Herrmann

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Jules has never been this dense, subtile and fragile before. All 12 tracks on Beautyfear were created during a week stay in a theatre workspace on one of the hills of Lisbon. The panoramic view over the dusty city in spring seemed to have been the perfect surrounding for this cloudy soundscapes, which at some points remind of Angelo Bandalamentis’ work for David Lynch‘s Mullholland Drive. “It’s an album on the fragility of beauty“, as Jules describes briefly. Music that can neither be described as ambient music or experimental sound art, but more likely delivers a poetic approach to music, live and sound itself.

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