Arriving At Night - Victor Bermon

Arriving At Night

Victor Bermon
Hefty Records.

SCQ Rating: 57%

If I had never given electronica a chance before 2007, I feel confident that Victor Bermon would’ve been my gateway artist of choice to bridge my love of rock with his less organic, instrumental endevours. With its dewy keys and shimmering arpeggios, Bermon's work summons pastoral ambience with the aid of Four Tet pioneered beats to create Arriving At Night; a record too calculated in its muses to transcend its New Age leanings.

Beyond the fact that much of Arriving At Night sounds like the more androgynous work of Broken Social Scene, Victor Bermon could’ve changed my idea of electronica because it’s so easy to listen to. Test it for yourself: on not one of these thirteen tracks will you find an out-of-place key or sudden shift. Not once will you encounter anything surprising… and that’s what kills this album’s would-be universality; Bermon’s approach is too meticulous and professional to bare any personal aesthetic or trace of ego. Without any human touch to this collection, the early charms of ‘Photographs are Not Memories’ or ‘Unprepared’ are stretched thin to the point where closing tracks (‘Prospect Park’ and ‘On This Night’) are virtually indistinguishable. Take any of these tracks individually and they offer a curious distraction from your daily playlist, but consumed as a whole, Bermon’s work is an exercise in banality... technically proficient as it may be.