Before it was said “All you need is love”, later “Peace and love”, then “Make love not war”. Fact is wars and unconsciousness continue to this day. So Susurration’s new call is “Make Love Like War” and goes to the front with soft and aggro tunes focusing issues such as sexual diversity in society.
Susurration is a Zurich-based Dark Wave/Electro act that has two albums released: 1000 Stäbe (2021) and the recently released Make Love Like War (October 28). Founder Dennis Bäsecke-Beltrametti (music theorist and theater music composer) surprises this time with a more aggressive album than the previous one.
Dennis Bäsecke-Beltrametti (Photo: Daniel Drognitz)
Make Love Like War is a multi-layered dark electro album with dark ambient, EBM, industrial, darkwave and aggrotech elements. Its 10 tracks take you on an abysmal journey through the human psyche. In addition to pounding and driving dance floor anthems, the album also features some introverted and dreamy moments. On this production, Susurration deals with homophobia, queer love, BDSM dynamics and conflicts over gender identities.
Artist: Susurration
City: Zürich
Title: Make Love Like War
Music, vocals, lyrics: Dennis Bäsecke-B.
Cello: Cécile Grüebler, Ruth Eichensehe
Style: Dark Electro, Darkwave
Elements: Dark Ambient, EBM, Industrial…
Format: Digital album
Release: 28 October 2022
Label: Self-released
For fans of: Diary of Dreams, Agonoize, Suicide Commando…
[+] You may also like: Rebirth, Dunkelsucht, BAK XIII…
Comment: An uncompromising and biting album that lets the poetry of human encounters appear on the horizon between hardness and tenderness.
Prior to the album release, Susurration presented four singles. Track number 3: “Consensual Noise Content” – combines the warmth of classic cello tracks with a hard electronic sound and sharp vocals. Track 4: “The Devil in Me” – a song with an evil energetic beat and devilish vocoders. Track 5: “Gender Is a Battlefield” – a stomping electro message to the conscience. Track 9: “Devotion to the Darkangel” – a contemplative gothic ballad for foggy autumn days and dark hearts.
And as for the music videos, the pounding track “Gender is a Battlefield” is a direct and unrelenting dark electro song with razor-sharp vocals. It goes about the inner and outer struggles of finding one’s identity and is a declaration of war on homophobia. The sovereign marching rhythm and the driving bass lines make this track an aggressive thunderstorm of sound.
The song “Devotion to the Darkangel” finds Bäsecke-Beltrametti in a sombre, Leonard Cohen-type of mood. The ballad presents a melancholic fusion of delicate piano sounds and warm cello melodies with vocoder voices and gentle sequencers. A dreamy declaration of love to devotion, trust and tenderness, driven by a swaying beat and enveloping cello tracks that carries the listener through a sensual dark-romantic soundscape.
