59 Perlen - Zerfall

​59 Perlen

Zerfall
Petite Victory Collective; 2025

By ​Dino DiMuro

59 Perlen is a highly unique artist from Zurich, Switzerland who doesn’t use a DAW to create his music, instead exploring the outer limits of the Soma Lyra-8 synthesizer in live performance. Some of these live moments have been captured for his newest album titled Zerfall.

59 Perlen uses various hardware set-ups in live situations, creating minimalist tracks that combine dub-techno elements and ambient atmospheres “while still remaining danceable.” This particular collection was recorded on February 22, 2025 during a special Zurich event called The Synth Club. 59 Perlen utilized two different Soma rigs, an Elektron Digitakt and a Strymon Big Sky.

Zerfall intends to “encapsulate the raw energy and evolving soundscapes of 59 Perlen’s fully dawless setup, emphasizing real-time composition and organic sonic texture creation.” The Soma Lyra-8 synthesizer is new to me, but from my research it appears to be like a cranky Moog. Comments I found include: “Lyra works best when you push it around a bit” and “trying to keep it in a tonal space with other instruments is wasting your effort.” The release is available both by download and on vinyl.

The opener “Signal” got me a little crazy at first, as I initially thought it was a loop of a record needle lowering onto vinyl (which is exactly what it sounds like). Turns out it’s an unconventional “rhythm” track for the waves of Soma synth that slowly fill the soundspace. The musical movements are between two eerie chords, ghost-like pads and contrasting synth sounds. The placement and timing of the different sounds feels exactly right, even more amazing for being a live performance. Directly connected to the first track is “Nullpunkt” which features traditional-sounding tribal percussion, upping the danceability quotient while continuing many of the previously introduced audio tropes. As we progress the beat takes on a steam train-like cadence. (Alas, this is the only danceable track!) 

With “Schwarze Welle” we enter a realm of pure, foreboding sound (indeed, the title means “Black Wave”). The sense is of giant, surrealist gears slowly grinding. “Nicht Gefunden” (“Not Found”) is the polar opposite, featuring high-end trills and chirps that are actually somewhat soothing. In place of a lead melody we have ship horn-like synth chords. This track may have the most satisfying variety of tones and moods thus far, though the final track “Urprung” stretches out for quite an audio journey over thirteen minutes. Not exactly pleasing (my wife freaked out, wondering where all the noise was coming from!) but these roiling black clouds of overdriven patches and feedback will definitely take you someplace strange and wonderful.

This artist and album are most definitely not for everyone, but certainly rewarding for the more adventurous among us! An excellent, challenging collection!

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