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Michael Thomas Berkley
Arctic is a concept album, as each track is "inspired by the arctic deserts of Canada's Ellesmere Island," which is located at the country's northern most landmass. Created with acoustic and electronic instruments, infused with ambient backdrops and creative drumming, Berkley is joined by Wayne Bennett on clarinet, Ari Langer on electric violin, and Mike Frietas on assorted percussion. Each track expresses a measured, almost ponderous, spiritual life, expressing a far greater joy and sensibility than the composer's works have previously displayed. "With this album," Berkley says, "I wanted to paint a surrealistic image of the barren, polar deserts of a very lonely land - among the most isolated on the globe. One of the most important issues this album needed to address was the concept of time... At the north pole the conventional understanding and meaning of time completely breaks down." Artic shows Berkley is first and formost a musician, one who uses unique sound design as a tool for experimentation in his music. The album opens with the atmospheric "Ellesmere Island Part I" wher Berkley rolls out a remarkable new map, the kind used by adventurous travellers to move across stricken borders, through unusual terrain and down lost highways. Still present are the cerebral qualities of his past recording 'Images from Earth', only now they are focused on one region represented in the eleven tracks. Ultimately, the key to this recording seems to lie in it's embrace of both the darkest despair and cathartic exultation which can encompass the experience of life in the Artic tundra. Artic is music for deep contemplation... extremely interesting and ambitious. Review by Ben Kettlewell information:
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Composer
and producer Michael Thomas Berkley has just released his
second album on the record label, Numinous Records, The
first release was the calm and introspective atmospheric
"Images from the Earth," an album where Berkley in his own
words wanted to represent a "history of the planet through
music". His followup is an active contemplation of profound
flux, tinged with sadness, ambiguity, alienation and
foreboding, just like the terrain he is musically
describing. He explores the edges of music and sound in a
very intimate way.
