Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller

Wirbel

Download

	0:00 0:00 Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Vertebra Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Peg Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Ado Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Whirl Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Roll	Duration	ISRC	Download
1	Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Vertebra chill	3:34	DEEK22300034	mp3	flac	wav
2	Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Peg IntenseBittersweet	4:11	DEEK22300035	mp3	flac	wav
3	Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Ado Dreamychill	3:15	DEEK22300036	mp3	flac	wav
4	Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Whirl DreamyaccousticIntimate	4:50	DEEK22300037	mp3	flac	wav
5	Janus Rasmussen & David Bergmüller - Roll Dreamychill	3:09	DEEK22300038	mp3	flac	wav
			Bundle	mp3 mp3	flac flac	wav wav
			More

Info

In what must surely be one of 2023’s most unlikely but exciting collaborations, Faroese-born and Icelandic-based producer JANUS RASMUSSEN – known for his solo work as well as being, among other things, half of Kiasmos – has teamed with up DAVID BERGMÜLLER, renowned practitioner of the lute, the family of plucked string instruments more usually associated with mediaeval and baroque music. Their debut EP, WIRBEL, is an eye-opening – or rather ear-opening – combination of the ancient and the cutting edge which, Rasmussen says, allows the duo to “imagine how it would sound if lutes were a part of the repertoire of the instrumentation of the modern age.” The EP is released on July 21st, 2023 via the newly established Blue Marble imprint, and will be available via all DSPs.

Rasmussen and Bergmüller’s original plans were simply to spend a day or two experimenting in Rasmussen’s studio, but it took mere minutes to realise the opportunities their association might grant. In fact, Bergmüller had done little more than introduce himself and unpack his theorbo, a vast, 14-string lute, when inspiration struck. “I showed him some chords,” Bergmüller recalls, “and he said, ‘Oh, let’s record it.’” Before they knew what had happened, they’d completed their first track, one Rasmussen still considers among the best they’ve written to date. “We immediately decided that we wanted to do more sessions,” he enthuses, “because there was so much to explore. We really felt like we were just scratching the surface.”

To be fair, Rasmussen was not entirely unacquainted with the lute. In fact, he confesses, he’d recently developed something approaching an obsession with pre-guitar instruments. Nonetheless, he continues, “I didn’t really know how it sounded. I’d only heard some YouTube clips, but you don’t know how it’s fully mic-ed in that setting so you don’t really know what to expect. When I put the microphone in front of it I was really surprised. It was quite different, in a way more exciting than I had expected. It’s truly a unique sound.”

For Bergmüller, too, there was something hugely refreshing about what they’d embarked upon. Despite working alongside multiple composers, he’d never teamed up with an electronic artist, and this combination of inexperience and enthusiasm suited both musicians, with neither wishing to employ the instruments in a traditional manner. “We’ve done everything to the guitar, we’ve put screws in the piano, and everyone’s OK with that,” Rasmussen elaborates, “but I feel like with the lutes, everybody sees one and all of a sudden they’re very scared of touching it. I was like, ‘No, let’s break those rules. Let’s just do whatever we want.’ I’m not saying we’re going to put screws in the lute – maybe we could! – but I basically wanted to really mangle the audio to see how far we could push it.”

The Wirbel EP takes its name from a German word whose multiple meanings are among those which also give its five tracks its English titles. “David came by the word,” Rasmussen explains, “and told me that one meaning is ‘peg’, which is cool since the lute has many tuning pegs. We then realised that many of its meanings are connected to the lute, like ‘vertebra’, which could be linked to the neck of the lute, and, if you’re feeling creative, ‘whirl’, which could refer to the decoration in the instrument’s middle, while ‘roll’ is a nod to the drum roll, a prominent feature in electronic music.”

 Imaginative, playful and atmospheric, the Wirbel EP positions Bergmüller’s instruments snugly within Rasmussen’s intricate soundscapes, evoking the innovative but reflective work of the likes of Grandbrothers and Aukai. From ‘Peg’’s fidgety, quiet tension and the insistently rhythmic ‘Ado’’s haunting themes to ‘Whirl’s muted melancholy and the contrasting but nonetheless elegant bookends, ‘Vertebra’ and ‘Roll’, it never fails to surprise. More importantly, it avoids exploiting lutes as a novelty, instead establishing them as relevant, dynamic and contemporary. “It was the energy in the end that really worked,” Rasmussen concludes, turning to his colleague. “If you were a different person then maybe nothing would have happened...” 

Timing:

April 14th - Ado - (Single)

May 26th - Peg (Single)

July 21st - Wirbel EP

Photos

Videos

Meta

Links