Die Minimalistin aka Tanja Dovens from Berlin, Germany is not quite like any other netlabel artist, as she is one of the few, that actually have a classic background. Her latest release on Enough Records, called “end-welt” (German for “final world”), however, explores gloomy, black veiled territories, somewhere between dark ambient, digitalised goth and industrial. Both the black and white cover art and the track titles are sometimes a bit too ostentatious, but maybe that is a principal problem with artists that try hard to comply to the rules of people they like to be associated with.

From a musical perspective Tanja Dovens’ music – as one could expect from someone who claims to be influenced by minimalist music – is rather repetitive, as it tries to capture single moments and describe them from different angles. Quite striking to me was how “die minimalistin” avoids abrasive, chaotic outbursts that would give the subjects of her desperate sceneries more authenticity. This contradiction is most obvious in “die kälte” (German for “the chill”), where a poem describes a state of mind that should be hard to bear and result in yells of anxiety. Instead, the lyrics are presented in a calm, almost unaffected voice, not unlike a scenery description of Grantchester Meadows at spring time. This emotional indifference may be unintended, but it leaves the dull impression of a fin de siecle emulation of what is supposed to be a psychotic momentum in life.

“end-welt” is perhaps the most daring track, with glassy dissonances hovering over steaming water inside of a caldera. Unfortunately the promising beginning is spoilt by overly hard limiting which completely eliminates any dynamics. Additionally, as result of the gated reverbaration, the sound becomes rather flat and mushy and amplifies structural weaknesses in this track’s arrangement. More focussed was die minimalistin’s work on the follow up tune “tausendschön” (not really translatable, perhaps something like “a thousand beautiful”) which creates an ambiguous atmosphere of weird bleeping analogue synthesizer lines recorded in a narrow metal tank, something like a hybrid between Detroit sound a la Drexciya without rhythm section and dark ambient textures with interfering chromatic overlays.

Drawing a final conclusion is not easy here:
The arrangements in “end-welt” are most convincing where die Minimalistin can keep the mood and tension at bay and totally glide off her hands once the thematic progession makes escalation, clarity and sharp contrasts necessary. An interesting work, perhaps most appealing to a goth audience who may feel comfortable with the created “instant depression” scenery, but I have a hard time with entirely recommending it to people who care more about music than superficial posturing.