Bitter Moon and After 5.08 - Berliner Kinder

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 20 / 2 / 2023

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Review

There is a collaboration going on with this offering from Blau Blau Records. Simone Bernardoni and Réka Csiszér are the brains behind the electronic tamperings of Bitter Moon, whose influences stem from the atmospheric side of cinematic soundscapes and the sound of good old-fashioned analogue pop songs. Csiszer currently has a solo project VÍZ creating music for theatre productions and live scores for movies whilst Bernardoni is currently involved in his own solo project, Palme. After 5:08 are another duo consisting of Aloys Christinat and Matthew Franklin. Christinat works as a concert promoter in Lausanne where she met Bernardoni and has her own solo project called Elvis Aloys and to complete the cycle of self-projects Franklin has his solo project Ok Matthew. After 5:08 is a cycling project that they reincarnate every year or so. Together the doubled-up duos have created a mostly experimental affair conjuring up a journey which feels like a train ride stopping at various moods along the way. It comes as no surprise that both parties have known each other for a long time as the music on this album is tight and well put together considering the four separate entities involved. The music was spontaneously recorded in a couple of days in a flat in Berlin. If you like your synth and electro music, you need to listen to this through a pari of headphones. Not that there is nothing in the way of the listening process. It is just that it has been recorded with such precision. ‘Berliner Kinder' musically comprises six songs that drift through ambient and dreamy synth pop, and while it is a little short timewise it makes up for it with the content. Standout tracks for me on here are the opener ‘Pretty in the Dark’, which incidentally sports its own video, and ‘In Dreams’ whose foreboding start leads to an analogue lovers’ synth fest. Marvellous!

Track Listing:-

1 Pretty in the Dark
2 Berliner Kinder
3 Atmen
4 In Dreams
5 Tränenpalast
6 Krad eht ni Ytterp

Have a Listen:-