Bersarin Quartett’s music is actually done by a single person. The German composer and electronic music producer Thomas Büker has chosen the name of Nikolai Berzarin for his project, because it brings forth a complicated range of feelings. General Berzarin — Berlin’s first Soviet military commandant, whose name is perpetuated on the city map — is a contradictory historical figure, whose life and death raise disputes to this day. As befits the project’s name, Büker’s music is full of paradoxes, and its principal objective, according to the musician, is to arouse strong emotions in people, showing them the difficulty of drawing clear lines between good and evil, success and failure, love and hatred.

Thomas Büker says that he writes the “music for imaginary films,” and adds that these are “good films, whose characters and plots have more than one dimension.” The abstract musical pieces of Bersarin Quartett, which closely interweave the elements of academic minimalism, neo-classical, ambient, smart electronics, modified drum-n-base, and even post-dubstep, are wide open for interpretation, just like the best movies. In manipulating the surprising timbral solutions, that arise at the collision of melody, beat and noise, the sounds of electronic instruments and acoustic guitars and strings, Thomas Büker keeps his eyes on the main prize, the narrative of emotional experiences. Each of his works tells an intriguing story that produces real feelings. Bersarin Quartett’s debut album came out in 2008, on a reputable German label Denovali Records. Following the debut, the German composer put out two more albums, collecting a long list of positive reviews in the publications that follow unusual and experimental music.

The new project, 7.1 Surround Concert, provides a more distinct view of Bersarin Quartett’s invisible connection to film soundtracks. By using the Dolby Atmos sound technology, the composer prepared a special live performance for eight-channel sound systems that are used in contemporary movie theaters. This provides an incredibly dynamic and detailed sound of the Bersarin Quartett’s resonant installations. And, like it usually happens in movie theaters, the lights will be dimmed, so that nothing distracts the listeners from the stories told by the music, and each person will be able to see a perfect film of their imagination to the sounds of Thomas Büker. 7.1 Surround Concert by Bersarin Quartett is a unique and unusual experience, which expands our ideas of the ways sound and music can transform the person’s state.

In Moscow, 7.1 Surround Concert will be performed at the iconic Illusion Cinema, located in one of the “seven sisters” skyscrapers at Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. Once upon a time, this was the only place in Moscow to see the masterpieces of world cinema, and its stage had welcomed Akira Kurosawa, Sidney Pollack, Giulietta Masina, and other famous filmmakers who visited the Russian capital. 7.1. Surround Concert by Bersarin Quartett already boasts two killer features in the form of the multidimensial music and its technological innovation, and its performace in the Illusion Cinema will provide a third one — the majestic atmosphere of a cinema show as a festive ritual, preserved from the times, when cinema was truly humanity’s most important art.