Alexander Donat, the creative force behind Vlimmer, continues to impress with his remarkable compositions. Hot on the heels of his fourth album Bodenhex (continuing his yearly release pattern since the outstanding Nebenkörper from 2021), he now surprises us with a new single: Friedhofen. This track, originally left off his latest album due to vinyl format constraints, deserved better than gathering dust. Donat has therefore decided to give it its own release today. Collectors and physical format enthusiasts will also find it on the bonus EP included in the Bodenhex limited box set, which we look forward to reviewing in the coming weeks.
Have I ever mentioned that Alexander Leonard plays the guitar quite well? It’s possible, but it’s one of the first things that struck me about Friedhofen. The song could be labelled as darkwave, although, like all of Vlimmer‘s music, it escapes easy classification. But yes, those haunting synthesizers, which manage to ‘create a haunted atmosphere of a wondrous night of twilight where the impossible becomes possible.’, qualify the track as darkwave. As for the title, it´s a clear reference to a German novel by Mark-Uwe Kling which takes place in a place called Friedhofen. Alexander Donat has found parallels between this work and the general idea of Bodenhex, of “burning the soil which we walk on in order to erase everything we know to create something new, something detached from what’s already known”. No doubt what Vlimmer has been doing since the very beginning.
