{"product_id":"bendik-giske-cracks","title":"Bendik Giske - Cracks","description":"\u003cp\u003eBendik Giske (NO\/DE) is an artist and saxophonist whose expressive use of physicality,\r\nvulnerability and endurance have already won him much critical acclaim. You can hear all\r\nof this in his debut album Surrender, released at the start of 2019 on Smalltown\r\nSupersound, which can be described as Giske stripped to the core: no overdubs, looping,\r\nor effects. Just his body, breath, the saxophone and a resonant physical space, plus lots\r\nof microphones.\r\nThe body is important for Giske, even more so than as an acoustic musician. Not just in\r\nthe strength and muscle control required to accomplish circular breathing on the\r\nsaxophone, the unusual technique he employs to mesmerizing effect. It's also reflected in\r\nthe tradition of dance he practiced as a child in Bali - where he split his time between\r\nOslo with his artist parents - and enjoyed as part of an electronic music epiphany in his\r\nadopted hometown of Berlin. And body is implied in his sense of queerness, which has\r\nhelped him create his own sound, blossoming luxuriantly not only on record but also in\r\nhis striking, embodied performances.\r\nAs such, in the past Giske has likened his performance to transmuting electronic music\r\nthrough all of his human faults, akin to becoming a machine. And with second album\r\nCracks he introduces a new set of parameters for the automated processes of his muscle\r\nmemory to work against. His decision to collaborate with producer André Bratten and his\r\nextensive studio of electronic machines saw Giske play in the new 'resonant' space of\r\nBratten's reactive studio tuned to his original sounds.\r\nIn a sense, you could call it generative music - a term coined by Brian Eno to describe\r\nmusic made within a set of rules that can constantly evolve within that system. But here\r\nthe only algorithms at work are responding to Giske's self-imposed constraints (or\r\nparameters) - like the afore-mentioned circular breathing. As a practice, it induces in the\r\nplayer - and perhaps the listener, too - a kind of altered state, more open to discovery,\r\nand as a cycle of sound it defies time. This atemporality, or out-of-timeliness, hints at\r\ntheorist José Muñoz's notion of \"queer time\", which is a chronology wholly other than\r\nthe default.\r\nIf this new studio-as-an-instrument process has brought Giske one step closer to the\r\nman-machine, it's also a way to bridge the separation - or crack - between the two. This\r\nkind of liminal space, according to Giske, is to be treasured: \"The tracks wedge\r\nthemselves into the cracks of our perceived reality to explore them for their beauty. A\r\ncelebration of corporeal states and divergent behaviors,\" he explains. He cheerfully\r\nadmits to mining the thought universe of Muñoz - especially his book Cruising Utopia- as\r\ninspiration, and the resulting Cracks have a sensual, deeply-felt and lingering beauty with\r\na touch of the superhuman.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alliance Entertainment","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45298435588401,"sku":"7072822381028","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0704\/2026\/7313\/files\/3985325-2721685.jpg?v=1684195085","url":"https:\/\/vinyl.com\/products\/bendik-giske-cracks","provider":"Vinyl.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}