Berangere Maximin – Infinitesimal
Berangere Maximin is one of those rare birds: a female composer of experimental music. Let’s throw on our binoculars and take a quick look at her life. Calling Paris France home, she has been studying and working on electro-acoustic music under the guidance of the INA-GRM’s Denis Dufour since way back in the Gay ’90s. Wait a minute, wasn’t that the 1890s? I mean the Grunge ’90s! Following her debut on Sub Rosa, No One Is An Island, her second album on that label is called Infinitesimal. Although that word is really hard to spell, the flowing music contained on this disc of the compact variety is really easy to listen to–unless you’re an uptight narcissistic control freak bureaucrat who just got hit in the eye with a whiffle ball, then diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“Rebirth” kicks off the album with a buncha low-pitched reverb-soaked heaving and sighing that is gradually layered up into a relaxed yet menacing aural stew perfect to ladle into the ears of all of those friends you never had. “Der Stern” brandishes a really low-pitched, muffled bass riff speckled with trebly scintillations. “Distance” sounds like someone cleaning up clutter in a room while electronic crickets and bees make a racket out in the back yard. Later, that heartbeat sound from Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady” makes an appearance. It would be interesting to play this track over the stereo while you actually clean up your own room. The result would resemble the sonic equivalent of a double bacon cheeseburger of room-cleaning sounds!
“Adrift” wafts out a quiet layer of static, soft beeping and sweeping sounds, peaking with more heavy yet subtle riffing. Somewhere along the way, the aforementioned bureaucrat busts out an adding machine to figure out how much the penalty will be for underpaying your taxes. Then, to wrap up, it flows into “Epilogue” with a montage of all of the sounds from the whole album, plus some semi-harrowing descending wails. What it all amounts to is a sturdy nest of non-maximal electronics perfect to pipe out of the speakers and into the leafless treetops on one of those oppressive, overcast winter days.
Label: Sub Rosa Catalog Number: SR362 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 5 Total Time: 42:29 Country: Belgium Released: 2013 More: Bandcamp, Forced Exposure, Official
Text ©2013 Arcane Candy
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