Bérangère Maximin

Dangerous Orbits

BY Glen HallPublished May 18, 2015

8
Equatorial and intergalactic, Dangerous Orbits takes Musique concrète into trance-inducing new dimensions. Insect-like thrumming, watery burbling, obsessive-compulsive scratching, haunted erotic groaning: all are delicately intermixed and juxtaposed. 
 
Born on France's Réunion Island and transplanted at 15 years old to Paris, Bérangère Maximin was trained in electroacoustic composition by GRM member Denis Dufour. Her highly developed ear for sonorities and unlikely sound sources is in evidence on every track here; unlike her electro-predecessors, Maximin subtly uses looped pulsations that keep the dizzying array of I-know-that-sound-but-can't-place-it audio entrances and exits grounded and accessible. Resonances of and references to Pierre Henry, Brian Eno, Luc Ferrari, Laurie Anderson and Pole bring extended tracks like "OOP (Our Own Planet)" to life with sonic allusions and aesthetic connections. "No Guru Holds Me" bristles with metallic clatter held aloft by eerie drones, as an insistent scratching loop throbs while an underwatery, reverb-drenched "bubble" and indistinct croakings ebb and flow over the something being dragged away.
 
Dangerous Orbits is hallucinatory and visionary.
(Crammed)

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