Lisa Morgenstern & Bulgarian Voices Berlin

Photo: Miguel Murrieta

A stroke of luck seems to be the combination of Lisa Morgenstern & Bulgarian Voices Berlin, who will perform together at the Pop-Kultur Festival from August 21 to 23 at the Kulturbrauerei in Berlin. The Bulgarian Voices Berlin are the leading Bulgarian women's choir in Berlin and convince with their special singing technique as well as Bulgarian folk music. You can expect magical harmonies and assymetric time signatures as well as the extraordinary voices of this all-female choir. The traditional Bulgarian folk music of the Bulgarian Voices is characterized by a special throat singing; this multi-layered spherical timbre can only be achieved through much vocal practice. Together with the Bulgarian Voices Berlin, Lisa Morgenstern has also developed a concert program that combines contemporary arrangements with an authentic musical style. Another stroke of luck is the cooperation with the media collective Elektropastete e. V. from Hamburg and Berlin. This association creates "generative visuals" to the patterns of folklore. The credo of the association is: collaborative, interactive and performance. So you can be curious about the roots of Bulgarian folklore in performance with modern, interactive arrangements.

She appears delicate and fragile. She does not fit into the pigeonhole of the usual singers of the genre stars and starlets. Of Bulgarian origin and born in Germany, the young woman grew up as the daughter of two orchestra musicians. Her mother introduced her to classical music such as Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky at an early age, while her father was a fan of Deep Purple, among others. Lisa Morgenstern received a classical education on the piano as well as ballet lessons. She comes across like an elf and a fairy and this is also expressed in her music. Her rather melancholic songs radiate a lot of depth and emotionality. She composes her pieces herself, combining classical elements with experimental pop music. The most amazing thing about her, however, is her voice. It appears powerful and delicate at the same time. Her voice, rich in variations, is often described as "multi-octave". So it is no wonder that the Bulgarian Voices Frauenchor Berlin and Lisa Morgenstern came together to start a joint project.

In 2013, her first album "Amphibian" was released, elegant and floating, like a ballet dance. For her atmospherically dense and rather dark, romantic sounds she earned great applause and approval, but this is probably mainly due to her emotional performance. You really can't pigeonhole her, because her music oscillates between alternative classical music and melancholy chansons. At the same time, she puts a lot of emphasis on the visual.
Lisa Morgenstern did not seek the way to the public by herself. Her beginnings lie in the "Kreuzmühle". Located on the edge of the Harz Mountains, the Kreuzmühle in Saxony-Anhalt is a meeting place for goths, gothic music and wave. From here, with the help of friends and supporters, she made the leap into the 'wide world' and as far as Berlin.
In 2019, her second album "Chameleon" was released which is to express her transformation. The album is mainly a connection between classical piano and electronically dominated pop. Lisa Morgenstern discovered the use of analog synthesizers during a forced break from the piano, and so her new work is a symbiosis between baroque syntesizer pop, atmospherically dense electronica and graceful piano pieces. She was helpfully assisted by Argentinian-born Sebastion Plano as mentor and producer.
Lisa Morgenstern transports her own emotional world to the listeners in her pieces and wants to help them to let their buried emotions break open and then feel the resonance. A great intention. Her songs cannot be listened to casually, they are not catchy melodies or popular songs, but one has to get involved with the songs. This requires concentration and openness.

In 2018, her concert tour has already taken her across Europe. She performed in Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Italy and even Iceland. "Totally crazy" as she herself confesses. In 2019, her path has so far led to Oslo, Switzerland, the Pop-Kultur Festival in Berlin's Kulturbrauerei and the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie in September. London and Leeds are also still on the schedule in 2019. Lisa Morgenstern is the typical singer-songwriter and an accomplished pianist who seems to have found her own style and is reaping success with it. She sings most of her songs in English, only some in German.

The Bulgarian Voices formed as an all-female choir in Berlin after Bulgarian women's choirs caused a worldwide sensation in the late 1970s and popularized Bulgarian folk music. It is the traditional, asymmetrical time signatures and tones that literally "rub" against each other and already inspired and influenced the world famous composer Bela Bartok. The original radiates an incredible fascination and draws one under its spell. As a world cultural heritage even a record with a piece of the Rhodope singer Walja Balkanska was brought into space in two NASA space probes.
The Bulgarian Voices Berlin also inspire with their cheerful and colorful costumes and an authentic attitude to life. Lisa Morgenstern is one of the leading singers of the choir led by Boryana Velichkova. For the choir's album "Ogreyalo Slanze" she sang along as well as co-recorded and co-produced the music. The Pop-Kultur Festival is now the second major joint project between Lisa Morgenstern and the Bulgarian Voices Berlin. Also on board are the association Medienkollektiv Elektropastete, whose so-called "generative visuals" enter into an intermedial dialogue with the music. Not everyone in the Bulgarian Voices choir is a native or native-born Bulgarian; the choir sees itself as an international choir, open to other nationalities, but dedicated to preserving traditional Bulgarian tunes. Many songs are a journey through the mountainous regions of Bulgaria and reflect the mentality of the people and nature. Powerful melodies, throaty voices and above all the joy of music and preservation of traditions characterize the choir.
For many years it was supported and carried along by the famous Bulgarian singer Neli Andreeva.
In the meantime, the choir has existed for more than 10 years and has found a more than worthy accompanist in Lisa Morgenstern. The Bulgarian Voices Berlin do not limit their performances only to Berlin, but perform concert tours all over Europe and even to South Korea. About current events and developments informs the facebook page Bulgarian Voices Berlin. Directly, the multi-national women's choir can be reached at Toeplerstraße 1, 13627 Berlin and via cell phone number 0176 56646551.