BOTW Review: Alex Barck – Reunion

If there’s one thing you can say about Reunion, the debut solo album from Berlin’s Alex Barck, it’s that it’s been a long time coming. Barck has forged a long and industrious career: as a founding member of German DJ collective Jazzanova, as an A&R manager at Sonar Kollektiv (in the process working with Ernesto, Fat Freddy’s Drop), as a notable radio DJ in his homeland. Preceded by a serious of Reunion-themed 12″s over the last year, it’s been a steady wait for the emergence of an LP with a lot of promise, but also a 20-year career to live up to.

In a recent interview with Prime Planet, Barck spoke of himself as, “a freestyle radio DJ,” someone that likes to play, “a hip-hop tune, and then a house one, and then something else.” It’s this eclectic drawing of inspirations that feels abundantly present on Reunion; feeding upon the diverse array of sounds and styles Barck has been exposed to in his decorated professional life. What’s more, it serves to add a tantalising unpredictability to proceedings. On the basis of the club-ready sounds of pre-release singles ‘Don’t Hold Back’ and ‘Re-Set’ (both of which feature here), who could have foreseen that Barck would initiate Reunion’s heady, genre-straddling trek with what’s ostensibly an R&B epic in ‘Doubter’. It’s an immediate disorientation, but one that works immensely. As Ernesto offers up series after series of powerhouse vocals against a backdrop of stuttering beats and staggering bass, we’re told, from the off, to leave our stylistic preconceptions at the door.

As Reunion continues to develop and draw upon a wider and wider myriad of influences, it quickly becomes impossible to know just what to expect next. ‘Oh Africa’ – a collaboration with Christine Salem that serves as one of the musical fruits of a year Barck spent living on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean – manages to fuse an engrossing mixture of afrobeat and sub-bass undercurrents; ‘Spinning Round’, this time featuring Pete Josef of The White Lamp, takes in more house and disco-laced territory; ‘Reunion’ writhes with a tribal intensity, expansive in form and psychotropic in effect. It’s Reunion’s sprawling nature that often works hardest in its favour (its effortlessly strong songwriting helps too, of course); variety, as the old adage goes, most definitely is the spice of life.

From Berlin to La Reunion, and on to all the places around the globe that Barck’s colourful life has seen him visit, it feels as though Reunion has been informed by it all. It’s a sophisticated chiseling-down of a lifetime spent in service to music into one of the strongest 75-minute suites we’ve had the pleasure of hearing all year. Worth the wait? You’d better believe it.

– Alex Cull