Janus Rasmussen
& David Bergmüller

In one of 2023’s most unlikely but exciting collaborations, Faroese-born, Icelandic-based producer JANUS RASMUSSEN – known for his solo work as well as being half of Kiasmos – has teamed up with DAVID BERGMÜLLER, renowned practitioner of the lute, the family of plucked string instruments usually associated with mediaeval and baroque music.

Their debut EP, WIRBEL, is an eye-opening – or rather ear-opening – combination of the ancient and cutting edge which, Rasmussen says, allows the duo to “imagine how it would sound if lutes were a part of the repertoire of the instrumentation of the modern age.” The EP is released on July 7, 2023 via the newly established Blue Marble imprint, and will be available via all DSPs.

Rasmussen and Bergmüller’s original plans were simply to spend a day or two experimenting in Rasmussen’s studio, but Bergmüller had done little more than introduce himself and unpack his theorbo, a vast, 14-string lute, when inspiration struck. To be fair, Rasmussen was not entirely unacquainted with the lute, having recently developed something approaching an obsession with pre-guitar instruments, and for Bergmüller, too, there was something refreshing about what they’d embarked upon. Despite working alongside multiple composers, he’d never teamed up with an electronic artist, and this combination of inexperience and enthusiasm suited both musicians, with neither wishing to employ the instruments in a traditional manner.

The Wirbel EP takes its name from a German word whose multiple meanings are among those which also give its five tracks its English titles. Imaginative, playful and atmospheric, it positions Bergmüller’s instruments snugly within Rasmussen’s intricate soundscapes, evoking the innovative but reflective work of the likes of Grandbrothers and Aukai. From ‘Peg’’s fidgety, quiet tension and the insistently rhythmic ‘Ado’’s haunting themes to ‘Whirl’s muted melancholy and the contrasting but nonetheless elegant bookends, ‘Vertebra’ and ‘Roll’, it never fails to surprise. More importantly, it avoids exploiting lutes as a novelty, instead establishing them as relevant, dynamic and contemporary.