We Were Here Before, We Will Be Here After is a recent album from Yair Etziony- an Israelian artist living in Berlin, who creates electrionica soundscape that move been downtempo and ambient. The album appears as a digipack CD on Seaside on Postcards.

According to the albums liner notes, Yair Etziony observed that some parts of Berlin are just like small villages, with each having their own subtle idenity & culture- it’s a idea that many of us who live in big cities are quite aware of and can identify with.

The title itself has something oppressive about it, because the sentence "We Were Here Before, We Will Be Here After", translated into German, sounds more like a promise made up by a corporation or given by an insurance company ...and this mood can also be found in Yair Etziony's music. Electronic tracks with lots of flowing movement and a sense of wonder.

The album was conceived and recorded by Etziony in Berlin’s Neukölln district, and his pieces cover a broad spectrum of electronic music genres, ranging from downtempo, ambient, and electronica. In addition, there are tastefully arranged beats and melodies, which the artist recorded with the E-mu sampler. The album features dynamic production and enough volume- all of which results in some interesting sound-scaping,  which have an almost neo-dystopian sci-fi soundtrack feel

Especially with the first two tracks, “Northern Home” and “Mountains Of Debris”, you can feel the influence of Berlin very clearly, because the melancholic mood of the tracks are reflecting the dark charm of the city very well. Berlin is growing, Berlin is changing - and so are these two pieces. However, the music on We Were Here Before, We Will Be Here After is not as dirty, chaotic and nested as Berlin, but rather very clear and structured.

Yair Etziony transforms the energy of the city and its inhabitants into rhythms and depicts quieter moments emotionally, which can be heard on the track “Nowhere” or in the second half of “Breather”. The darker side of the album surfaces on the track “We Were here Before” and keep sprouting up in “We Will Be Here After”. Yair Etziony's recordings are permeate the tonal exploration of a megacity and its, perhaps sometimes bizarre, inhabitants. You have the feeling of being moved through urban landscapes while listening to the tracks.

What is most striking about the album is the flawless,  glassy production, which offers stability to the compositions. From time to time the production could use a little more organic texture, but the minor keys are well balanced and purposefully worked out. The whole soundwork arises a certain coldness, and this awakens the associations with sci-fi  that is not exactly dystopian, but also not entirely trustworthy.