Premiere | Komponent, "Pankow"

Familiarize yourselves with Komponent, the sharp electric-experimental project of Perdurabo and Shramm (of Marlene Kuntz and Apparat respectively) who share a slice of their upcoming self-titled EP/mini-album with the world premiere for "Pankow". Recorded in East Berlin's Funkhaus Nalepastraße that served as a former German Democratic Republic (GDR) radio broadcasting station; the two take the listener along a motorik and visceral tour of the Pankow borough of Berlin from which the following track derives its name. 

The Komponent journey and craft brings the audience beyond the outer reaches of the western world in an entrance to the former Eastern Bloc. Adventuring upward to the north by the Panke river by way of the Tramhaltestelle Pankow Kirche—Perdurabo and Shramm bridge the experience of inward rhythm patterns and their interactions with environmental stimuli. "Pankow" paints the event of taking buses and trams to the northeast expanses of Berlin where quips of vocal edits blend into an electronically enriched arrangement of sentiment-swayed strings (both of the orchestral and electric varieties). The percussive quality of the track's progressions mirrors the mechanics of transit machines as the cinematic baroque pop aesthetic creates an emotive atmosphere for the alliterative lyrical thought streams of takes one to know one, takes one to know one... Komponent accentuates the gestalt by which our collective wonderment and the physical world correspond in a collection of carefully arranged elements that illuminates the organic and instinctive instruments and devices that soundtrack our daily interior and exterior processes and encounters.

Arriving in Panknow, Berlin by tram; press photo.

Perdurabo of Komponent shared some exclusive and insightful reflections about the local Berlin district that inspired both the track "Pankow" and the EP as a whole:

"Pankow" is at least as crucial as the whole Komponent EP is for my whole musical life.

I came to Berlin for the second time (I did a theatre production at Volskbuhne a few years before) to improvise electronic music with Shramm, Jörg Wähner, electronic music producer and drummer for many great bands and projects, one overall Apparat—that’s how we met one year before, while they were touring Italy.

En route to Funkhkaus; press photo.

Shramm had a small, but effective studio in Pankow, a north Berlin district, so every day from Kreuzberg, where my first room was, I had to move to the most northern part of the city. Now that I know Berlin well, everything looks familiar and I have a different perception of the city, but keep in mind that that was one of my first times there, during winter and coming from Italy this had a huge impact on the perception I had of the place. Temperatures much more below zero, ice everywhere, different architecture and every day almost one hour to arrive there in this former factory building, now place for collective music studios—I felt like at the end of the world, it was awesome. All this had a huge creative impact on me and this music.

Perdurabo recording strings; press photo courtesy of the artists.

So at the end, Pankow inspired this song, but also the whole EP, during all the creative processes. We titled this song "Pankow" to celebrate the place where everything was happening; that was the district, that was the moment and any other track, like this one, had such a powerful, dynamic and cold strength, exactly like that part of the city was.

There’s a sharp guitar riff all along the tune and it’s interesting to notice how much there’s still of my previous experience in a rock band (Marlene Kuntz), while Jorg pushes more on an electronic direction. This was the interesting fight, what makes this music alive, interesting and powerful.

Walking through the corridors with Perdurabo; press photo courtesy of the artists.

There’s not a direct inspiration from the German or the Italian bands called Pankow. Even if I liked some part of their production, this composition is just really inspired by the borough in Germany where everything happened. The song "Pankow", Komponent, but also me as Perdurabo and all my electronic music journey.

The debut Komponent self-titled EP will be available July 27, listen to more from Komponent via Soundcloud.

Komponent cover art designed by Mad Johny.