Fenster by S. Urzendowsky
As you might know, the lord moves in mysterious ways. And as you already should have mentioned so do we. Sometimes you have to accept these little detours that destiny, the lord or whoever is your shepherd, gives you to follow. And even if we talk just about one little decision, namely listening and liking to a band or not, let me tell you my little story about this band called FENSTER.
Back in the days I saw this highly rated trio from Berlin and what I saw wasn’t actually that satisfying. I had heard of them from friends of friends, like you hear from any new Berlin band. When they finally played their first show in Leipzig, which is somehow the new Berlin or it isn’t, it felt quite boring. A bit of dream pop echoes, some JEFDERSON AIRPLANE tambourines and another cute VELVET UNDERGROUND guitar. That was reliable but not surprising. I left that evening quite disappointed, and this easily had could been my one and only impression of this band.
It took nearly another two years to regard my opinion. Fortunately. At Immergut 2013 usfrom NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION decided to invite the guys to an intimate session. Soon they agreed, and what we get was a beautiful little take in one of the festival’s backstage trailers. Suddenly far away from a 60s band’s sound, but deep into a unique way of playing pop music with fuzzy guitars and rattling drums. Let’s call it the beginning of a summerly love affair.
In 2014 they are back again. Back with a new record, back from a tour through the USA and back to play the perfect soundtrack for this year’s mild summer nights. The Pink Caves is the title of their new longplayer that gives us a look deep inside an imaginary room where the air smells sweetly and time goes slowly. The artwork is already sending postcard-like greetings from a far away place, and the opener Better Days sucks us right into that magical microcosm the band has just timbered for us.
A microcosm that the FENSTER has just build for this album to make the whole thing existing in one world and where all these new songs were born and raised. In an interview JJ Weihl describes this construction as ‘a place that doesn’t really exist, like an imaginary heaven, where you go when you die, but it’s not really clear’ and furthermore names it more colourful to their rather minimalistic, more dry basement like debut Bones.