Lust 1 n (sensuality); passionate desire (for). 2 (enjoyment) Pleasure without limits. Enjoyment (of). 3 (sexual) n Irresistible desire for sexual gratification 4 Strong attraction (to have a lust )

Bergman (stage name of Barcelona musician Xavier Bergman) is presenting his third CD, called LUST. While his first CD was praised by the international press (the prestigious British magazine New Musical Express selected him as one of the best European groups), it was with his second album (Inner) that this avant-garde musician’s artistic concept really received extraordinary recognition outside of Spain, especially in Japan, the USA, Germany, and France.

Nonetheless, with LUST, Bergman surpasses even the most ambitious expectations generated by his former work. LUST takes its musical concept to a new sound level in the purest essence of desires. Bergman has created a complete work in the style of the old operas. From the beginning of the album (Prelude of Lust) until the end (Coda of Lust), every song is a chapter in a single story of longed-for pleasures, as deep and rich as his outstanding harmonies, considered as highly by some critics as those of the Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. So if Bergman was compared before with Kid Loco or Air, LUST is now closer to “pop-soundtrack” groups like The Divine Comedy or the French groups Benjamín Biolay or Dominique A.

In creating this album, Bergman counted on the outstanding quality of the Bratislava Symphonic Orchestra, not only for the entire string section, but also for instruments rather seldom used in current productions, such as sections of up to five French horns, or groups of English horns. As far as keyboards go, Bergman has completely abandoned any electronic reference and has replaced samplers and synthesizers with church organs, Hammonds and Baroque harpsichords.

But without a doubt, where Bergman really breaks the rules is with the voices. His characteristic obsession with weaving the magic threads of exquisite voices into the tapestry of his music led him to collaborate this time with the Austrian opera singer Uma Ursula Pietsch. In LUST, Bergman has transformed Uma’s academic voice (she has a profound knowledge of classical music, piano, and violin), into a tremendously sensual voice, devoted and close, which openly confesses her most intimate desires and passions to you, drawing the listener on, song by song, into an inner world of irresistible sensuality. Another stellar performance is that of the singer from the group Mishima, David Caraben, who provides the male counterpoint in one of the pieces with his Perry Blake-style voice.

The mastering of LUST was a complete luxury: carried out in the historic Abbey Road studios in London by the engineer Chris Blair (Oasis, Pulp, Radiohead, Morrisey, Sting, the Cure or The Divine Comedy, among others).

Once again, LUST is more than a CD. Bergman has created a true object of desire. The prestigious British company Pentagram (publications: Colors, Matador, Liberation, Metropolis …) has come up with an extraordinary design that plays with the cinematographic idea of Bergman´s music, as if the design were the credits of a film. With its richness and personality, it draws you into the story, becoming a part of it, until the curtain falls. All told, LUST is clearly a heady, undeniable work of art.

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