Starframes - Nicht Vergessen

  by Keith How

published: 26 / 3 / 2019

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'Nicht Vergessen' is the third album from Italian outfit Starframes. Three years in the making and consisting of fifteen tracks this set of songs are the companion piece to a novel written by guitarist and singer Raphael Bramont. The literary among us will recognise Anna Funder’s 'Stasiland'(which is set in Berlin) as a huge influence here. It is well worth reading Bramont’s writings at www.nichtvergessen.it. It helps to put the album and its concepts into context to obtain the full measure of the creation, although it is not absolutely not necessary as the album stands up on its own. The album itself is a fine work, beautifully crafted and engineered with high production values, to highlight the detail and events in the life of main character Friederich Baun. In true concept album style the opening track is a spacious atmospheric instrumental cunningly titled 'Overture' that leads into '1961' one of three singles lifted from the album. 'Berlin is in Love' and the superb 'Rising Wall' are the other two. The latter is a really strong cut - possibly the album’s highlight. 'Nicht Vergessen' unfolds in a series of finely worked compositions that defy genre. Encompassing dreampop, shoegaze indie, electropop and ambient soundscape the narrative follows life in post-war Berlin. Tinged with a bleak hopelessness and despair of the late ‘40’s the story unfolds looking for “a new day will come”. Bramont sings about lonely borders and forbidden streets, painting pictures with both sounds and words, his lyrics encased in a wide and spacious sound field that sometimes brings to mind Shearwater and M83. At an hour long 'Nicht Vergessen' makes for a fulfilling listen. The inclusion of instrumental interludes such as the delightful 'Prisoned' enable you to remain engaged throughout the fifteen tracks before the hopeful anthem 'If I Die Today, I Will Live Tomorrow' leaves you with the sense of coming to a journey’s end. A superb album and concept. PS: I was reflecting on a fantasy that Bowie, Eno and Visconti might have returned to Berlin forty years after the 'Low'/'Heroes'/'Lodger' trilogy to make another Berlin-based record. It might well have sounded like this!

Track Listing:-

1 Overture
2 1961
3 Close
4 Berlin is in Love
5 Trennung
6 Rising Wall
7 Zimmerstraße
8 Dear Akelei
9 Prisoned
10 I Am No One
11 Mutter
12 1989
13 One Day
14 Amulet
15 If I Die Today I Will Live Tomorrow

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