12/01/2009
Some Miscellaneous things:
City of the All-Knowing:
"Entrance to the Cavern of All-Beingness" shown at the Letterheads show at 18 Reasons Gallery in 2008
11/30/2009
Art Shows Page has been updated here:
http://bertbergen.com/artindex.html
Interview and studio visit by Obi Kaufman here:
http://obikaufmann.blogspot.com/2009/10/bert-bergen-severed-arms.html
Review of "The Severed Limbs of My Spiritual Overseers" on artbusiness.com here:
http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/090509.html
Review of Limosine cd and poster on Aquarius Records website (http://www.aquariusrecords.org) here:
LIMOSINE s/t (self-released) cd-r + poster 5.98
SF locals Limosine offer up their debut, a 5-song cd-r about 36 minutes long featuring much in the way of rumbling repetitive percussion, blown-out distortion, ceremonial atmospheres, squealing tape manipulations, droning doomic vocal chant, mad scientist bloops and bleeps, and indie-angsty vox... Limosine's layers of lo-fi loops are a sort of psychedelic DIY industrial musick that we imagine could appeal to fans of such disparate acts as Pain Teens, the Dead C, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, and Wildildlife. Weird stuff, we can say that! And we like it.
Track one, "Only Poise, Only Prizes" is the heaviest, most claustrophobic cut, with the next two "Stillborn" and "Lo And Behold" being much airier and (relatively) blissful, though then the final two songs here, "Weird Waver" and "Alrosa Villa" bring back more of the distortion and shambolic mayhem of the first track. Not that the spacious "Stillborn", in the course of its nearly 12 minute running time, doesn't get into some intense areas too.
The band is a trio, with Sarah Bernat on guitar and vocals, Grant Valley on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Bert Bergen on drums, electronics, and cassette tape loops. The one we know among 'em is Bert, and you can definitely hear him loud and clear here. He's also a visual artist, his work usual featuring fantastical crystalline patterns, bearded gurus, and innocent marine mammals, you've probably seen it around town on wheatpasted posters advertising rock shows and art gallery events. And he was the drummer (as well as what you might call artistic director) for the now-disbanded new age space rock outfit Ascended Master, which also featured former AQ staffer Lauren, as well as members of Crime In Choir. While we're sorry Ascended Master is no more, we're digging Bert's new ride, Limosine.
The way this is packaged, you could easily mistake it for a 7", but like we said it's actually a cd-r with a folded-up 21"x18" poster, a numbered, signed print featuring freaky art by Bert and Grant. Limited to only 59 copies!!
Review of "Surrender to the Infinite" at SFMOMA's Artist's Gallery in January of 2009 here:
04/22/09
Interview on spraygraphic.com here:
http://www.sprayblog.net/spraygraphic-interview-with-artist-bert-bergen/
Review of "The Giving Hands of Altered Destinies" in the SFWeekly here:
http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-04-01/culture/magic-moments
04/01/2009
-New musical collaboration Limosine will be performing April 17th at 18 Reasons Gallery (593 Guerrero Street @ 18th) San Francisco with Piles
Limosine is Grant LaValley (Vocals), Sarah Bernat (Guitar and electronics) and Bert Bergen (percusion and cassette tape loops)
4 song CDR with foldout screen-printed poster will be available at the show.