Ghosting – Black Pearls (Album – Alice In… / Dark Dimensions)
Genre/Influences: Gothic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Ghosting became a renowned band in the 90s. The German Goth formation released multiple successful albums and hits. Nearly twenty years after Ghosting stopped its activities Sascha Tayefeh reactivated Ghosting as a solo project. After the last year released EP “No Dreams” he moved on reworking and remastering old songs for “Black Pearls”.
Content: Even if “Black Pearls” is a kind of compilation it first of all brings us back to the original magic of Ghosting. A powerful and eclectic Gothic sound now boosted by guitar playing and then achieved with melodic electronics. Sascha’s vocals are a mix of passion and theatrical interpretations. Most of the songs are remastered edits but you’ll also discover “Single Edits” while the last song is a personal adaptation of Franz Schubert.
+ + + : Compilations are useful when it comes to bring a great band like Ghosting back on the map. Ghosting belonged to the legendary 90s German Goth scene and just like other bands -think to Das Ich, Goethes Erben, Relatives Menschsein…, they had something apart. It’s impressive to hear how more than 30 years later songs still has this magical effect. Ghosting stands for power, darkness, melodies, melancholia, and theatre. It’s an artistic creation which hasn’t lost its original impact. This is a way to re-discover famous songs like “Lion King”, “Der Tod In Flandern”, “March” ao.
– – – : I just regret it’s not a new album but compilations like this is too good to be true.
Conclusion: This work brings us back to the glorious days of 90s Gothic music and Ghosting definitely was one of the architects to this period.
Best songs: “Der Tod In Flandern – Single Edit”, “Lion King”, “Bombed The World”, “March”, “One Bullet – Single Edit”.
Rate: 9.
Artist: www.facebook.com/Ghosting.Office
Label: www.darkdimensions.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Dark-Dimensions-Label-Group/486014725206
Alice In…, another Dark Dimensions label, issued “Black Pearls” on 28 January 2022 on CD and digitally. The thirteen tracks are “Lion King – Remastered”, “Bombed The World – Remastered”, “Der Tod In Flandern – Single Edit”, “One Bullet – Single Edit”, “Paranoia – Remastered”, “Ad Infinitum – Single Edit”, “Die Baby Die – Remastered”, “Blood Ocean – Alternate Version”, “Heal Me – Remastered”, “Disguised In Black (Single Edit)”, “L’Eremitage – Remastered”, “March – Remastered” and “Der Leiermann”.
Listen to “Black Pearls”:
About Ghosting
Ghosting is a German dark wave and gothic project started in 1989 by singer and songwriter Sascha Tayefeh, then fourteen years old. Discogs places the formation in Koblenz and names Andreas Rudel as co-founder on guitar. The first demo tapes, “Secret Books” and “Black Romantic”, combined sampler and synthesizer work with classical and medieval elements.
The band was signed by Glasnost Rec./EFA in 1991 after a show at the Ballhaus club in Bonn. Bruno Kramm of Das Ich recorded the debut album “Romantic Death” at Danse Macabre Studios in Bayreuth. Ghosting played the first Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig in 1992 and released two further albums on Glasnost, with the line-up changing repeatedly across the 1990s. The band paused between 1996 and 1999 and dissolved in 2003 during the recording sessions that followed “Disguised In Black”.
Tayefeh restarted the name as a solo project in 2020. Side-Line reviewed the Ghosting – No Dreams EP in February 2022, spoke to him in the Click Interview with Ghosting two months after this compilation, and reviewed the first album of new material, Ghosting – The Order Of Things, in August 2022.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
