German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten are as dark and grimy as they are poetic. The scraps of metal and broken tools they employ in their songs, both in recording and on stage, create unique, resonating sounds that fit perfectly with the themes found within lead vocalist Blixa Bargeld’s haunting lyrics.
Sabrina is one such example. The music video for the song – which released on their 2000 album, Silence is Sexy – is a complicated reflection on Germany’s troubled past.
Undoubtedly, Sabrina is inspired by the band’s upbringing in a Germany divided in the Cold War era, and that theme transcends the lyrics. It is not just Blixa and co. who are lamenting Germany’s position, it is the entire nation. They see the country’s past as an ugly blight, and nothing can be done to hide that fact.
The most interesting image the song inspires comes from the line “It is the black of Malevich’s Square”, referencing the 1915 painting by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich.
The painting marked a new age in avant-garde suprematism, and is closely associated with the new age of Russia under Soviet leader Lenin. Is Blixa invoking a future as forlorn as that which Russia faced under Communist rule for nearly 80 years?
It’s hard to imagine. The Germany depicted in Sabrina is much different from the modern day humanitarian refuge it has become under Chancellor Angela Merkel. It’s interesting to wonder how Blixa, 16 years after the song’s release, feels about his home nation now.