Greetings from Berlin!

A few years ago, I was doing some interrailing in Germany. One day, I was walking around in Hamburg. The part of the city in which I was strolling around was all steel and glass, business brands and industry. From my headphones a song by AGF & Delay was blasting, "From morning on". Since then, I've wanted to know more about similarly minimalist, ambient electronica. AGF & Delay made an album in 2005, Explode, that is pure magic throughout. The record is strangely melodic, despite being quiet-quiet. Every beat matters. The same could be said about the solo work of AGF. Her music includes vocals but the themes she is exploring are quite surprising: in her characteristic, hushed voice, she reflects on language and its relation to the world. Her lyrics have the quality of poetry (I know that could be understood the wrong way, but.).

Laub is an equally interesting band from Berlin. Actually, the band is AGF plus Jotka. Their music shares many qualities with AGF's solo projects. So far, I've listened to Deinetwegen. Laub's records are somewhat hard to get hold of, so I'm looking forward to a trip to Berlin. Some of their lyrics are in German, which is fun. The record is inspired by American blues, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. It's for sure a very interesting take on the tradition of blues. They do to the blues what His name is alive does to soul and r n' b.

Ellen Allien is a prolific artist. Her latest album, Sool, offers a slightly more minimal sound than the earlier, more techno/dance-oriented albums. Of course, AGF is part of the reason for this. She's been contributing to the recording process. The opening track, Einsteigen, sets the mood with a mechanical voice announcing the arrival at U-Bahn stop Alexanderplatz. The album is song-oriented in a fairly traditional sense, but a lot of ambient elements blend in. The record's got a very urban sound, and that's a quality I'd ascribe to AGF's music as well. Some songs stand out, such as Zauber, featuring oboe.

Even though Lali puna is a far poppier act than those mentioned in this post, their music is still redolent of AGF et al due to a common taste for minimal beats and a somewhat mysterious sound.

Yet another artist whose music could be situated somewhere in the AGF regions is Murcof. He's not a Berliner, but Mexican, but nevermind. His music is spooky as hell and it includes samples from classical music (at worst, the effect could be cheesy, but it's not). I've got two of his albums, Remembranza and Martes, and they are both outstanding. Then I also want to mention Finnish musician Vladislav Delay. His projects are quite dissimilar from each other (Vladislav Delay/Luomo/Uusitalo/AGF&Delay....), but they are all good. Do check them out.

Let me finish by mentioning Machinefabriek, a Dutch project of, mostly, ambient music. His music ranges from sweetness to noise, from almost-pop to dizzy ambience. Being eerily spacious, this is music that easily opens up to the listener, without forcing itself on her.