Various - Gespensterland

It was probably only a matter of time and now here it is - a compilation partially mapping the small cluster of sounds that have mysteriously emerged - and then frequently disappeared - from Germany's Hidden Reverse over the past decade or so. As is typical of this music, little in the way of biography is present here, leaving the listener to piece together the parts. I'm mostly choosing to read Gespensterland as a vehicle for Brannten Schnurre, who provide three tracks, and whose Christian Schoppnik and Katie Rich also feature an additional four times (at least!) as Freundliche Kreisel, while their frequent collaborator, Baldruin, contributes another three solo songs. Like with most 'scenes', so to speak, much of the work is usually the result of the collective efforts of just a handful of key players. Still, even alongside their peers, the Brannten Schnurre sound remains a unique one, a time-dilating reimagining of traditional folk sounds through the lens of post-industrialism, simultaneously romanticising a world that's gone whilst bringing a new one into view, in a lot of ways offering a prime expression of the ontology of sound that Fisher, Reynolds et al were conceptualising ten+ years back. Europe has a long tradition of this kind of activity, though few manage to harness the emotional and the occult in such vividly engaging and unknowable ways. By contrast, the five Kirschstein contributions, plug more obviously into a different European cornerstone, twisting darkwave into ever more austere, less formulaic shapes, a post-post-industrial Neue Deutsche Welle if you like. If Brannten Schnurre flatten history, Kirschstein extend it. Much to love and explore and be confused by, though the highlight for me is Disco, the unexpected, almost-pop oriented collab between Brannten Schnurre and Balint Brosel, a duo i assumed to have long since disbanded. Perhaps it's a dispatch from the archives, perhaps it's signalling of something new coming the line. It might all stop tomorrow, or it could go on forever. With this lot, i doubt you'll ever truly know.