Susurration - Consensual Noise Content

Dennis Bäsecke-Beltrametti is the solo found and creator of Susurration, a new darkwave / EBM project. When he’s not working as a music theorist and composer, he’s slamming out dark electro beats under Susurration. Susurration has been around since 2010 but has recently gone under a bit of a rebirth after consideration during the covid-19 pandemic. His 2021 album “1000 Stäbe” was the melancholic, and introverted answer to the pandemic, but his follow-up “Make Love Like War” will represent an outbreak moving forward. He has recently released a single off that album titled ‘Consensual Noise Content’ which is a mix-up of EBM beats and cello melodies. However, this blend isn’t glued together properly and falls apart in the end.  

I’ll be the first to state that classical instruments and vocals can easily mix with electronic music (Enigma’s ‘Sadeness’ and, to a point, Army of Lovers’ ‘Crucified’ are prime examples). And that is exactly what Susurration is attempting to do on ‘Consensual Noise Content’ but it just isn’t as cohesive as I would have expected it to be. For starters, the bassline beat is extremely overpowering while a majority of the vocals are whisper-screamed in the background to the point of obscurity. When the primary vocals come forth, complete with vocoder sound effects, they come straight up front and sound way too loud. It’s generally not a good mix, and doesn’t sound properly mastered. The cellos in the background lend a certain moodiness to the track but it’s hard for me to fall in love with them as they just sound awkward. It does not sound as if Susurration molded the song to fit the cello and dark electronic sounds – rather, it sounds like he made a dark electronic track and simply threw the cello behind it all. 

Susurration’s ‘Consensual Noise Content’ isn’t the best song I’ve heard in a while, nor is it the worst, but it isn’t something I would listen to again in my own free time. There are elements of it that make me think that whoever wrote it is competent, but there are so many things wrong with it that makes me wince and cringe. I think there’s a need to go back to the drawing board with this sound design. Four-and-a-half out of ten.