Doppelstern

Arriving three years after Sweet Silence, her first album sung entirely in English, German indie electronic chanteuse Barbara Morgenstern's Doppelstern is a collaborative album touching on various aspects of her sound, from blippy electro-pop to more ornately orchestrated compositions. Neo-classical artists such as Hauschka and Jacaszek contribute dramatic piano-driven pieces, with Jacaszek's "Den Kommenden Morgen" also featuring ominous, whispering choral vocals that seem like they're evoking some sort of cult ritual. While most of the songs are sung in German, a few of her duet partners lead songs in English, such as Monika Enterprise label boss Gudrun Gut, who slinks around "Too Much," and Corey Dargel, whose "No One Nowhere Cares" sounds like a more atmospheric version of Morgenstern's earlier sound marked with primitive drum machines. The album's poppiest moment is "Übermorgen," a glimmering chillwave cut featuring Robert Lippok and Justus Köhncke. Lucrecia Dalt collaboration "Gleich Ist Gleicher Als Gleich" is far more murky and abstract. "Facades," a mostly instrumental track featuring Canadian cellist Julia Kent, seems primed to soundtrack a stormy drama film or television series. On "Lost in a Fiction," Morgenstern and Richard Davis sweetly harmonize "take away your expectations of what you want me to be," and Doppelstern demonstrates Morgenstern's resistance to being pigeonholed or settling into predictability. ~ Paul Simpson