Tandem (CA)

Among the interesting generation of young ladies making electronic music at the fringes of pop and dance, is Natalie Beridze from Georgia (the country). Coming from the techno scene, Beridze is not exactly a newcomer having made five albums as TBA for Thomas Brinkmann’s Max Ernst label. There she did things like apply the words of T.S. Elliot and Dostoevsky to her mix of rhythmic and spacious atmospherics. On her latest full-length release the words are all hers, delivered in English with a calm detachment like a European Laurie Anderson, and creatively applied to intriguing computer-generated images and graphics in the video single “What About Things Like Bullets.” Despite that tune’s nicely distorted beats, the overall mood is quiet and dreamy, getting almost classical on the meditative piano-based collaboration with the legend Ryuichi Sakamoto, “Blue Shadow.” Ryuichi doesn’t need to do session work, so if he is liking what he’s hearing from Ms Beridze then the rest of us should pay attention.