Barbara Morgenstern

Barbara Morgenstern stands among the chief producers for Gudrun Gut’s Berlin electronic-pop imprint Monika Enterprise. Her output centers on intimate, melodic synth-pop distinguished by twinkling electronic lines, rudimentary rhythm boxes, and vocals delivered in her native German. After issuing an independent cassette along with the 1997 mini-album Plastikreport, she unveiled her first proper long-player, Vermona ET 6-1, the following year. On the 2000 set Fjorden, whose production credits include Thomas Fehlmann and Pole, and on 2003’s Nichts Muss, her gift for tuneful writing grew increasingly evident, prompting remix commissions from Dntel, Station 17, Ellen Allien, Malaria!, and Smash TV. In 2014 she joined Bill Wells, Stefan Schneider, and Annie Whitehead for the more abstract, jazz-inflected Pick Up Sticks, issued on Leaf. Mid-2005 brought Tesri, a joint project with To Rococo Rot’s Robert Lippok, while The Grass Is Always Greener appeared the next year. Two years after that, BM spotlighted a guest turn from Robert Wyatt alongside a stronger emphasis on piano motifs. Paper of Pins, a 2009 Karaoke Kalk release, renewed her work with Wells, Schneider, and Whitehead. The 2010 compilation Fan No. 2 assembled assorted tracks and offered a loose retrospective of her career to that point. Sweet Silence arrived in 2012 as her first collection recorded entirely in English. Three years afterward came the guest-laden Doppelstern, which included contributions from Hauschka, Justus Köhncke, Julia Kent, and additional artists.