INGE BERGE: The Zerosum

Inge Berge

The Zerosum

© 2007 Inge Berge (634479489204)

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Existential Progtronica for the Nihilistically Inclined. Dark, melodic, brooding and beautiful.

tracks

1 Short Satanic Mass
2 Samsara
3 Cold Steel
4 Only Son I
5 Sweet Girl Insincere
6 Leave
7 Walk You Down
8 New Fuckosphere
9 Only Son II
10 The Zerosum
11 Alexandra Leaving
12 2 Little 2 Late
13 Father Want Me Come Home
14 Home
15 Goodbye America
16 Home Again
17 Sir Percie Natase/Superstring
18 Who's the Joke On

notes

What if it all adds up to nothing? What if it really matters zilch what we do or how we do it, or when, or with whom? What if my very being is irrelevant? Questions of this ilk have been begged by nihilists, heretics and contrarian artistic types since critical thought began. They’re the type of questions whose answers one might hope to mine from the pages of Kierkegaard and Kafka, or from the celluloid images of, say, Bergman and Buñuel. With his new CD release The Zerosum, Cape Ann artist Inge Berge seeks to toss his own musical cosmology into the fray – for perchance a fleeting glance into whether the grand total might add up to something other than the looming cipher.

The Zerosum is Mr. Berge’s first release since his collection of mostly acoustic cover-songs two years ago, and marks a distinct departure from his earlier style. While still retaining hummable melodies and the occasional catchy pop-refrain, as in tracks like Samsara, Father Want me Come Home and Goodbye America, The Zerosum is very much a journey into more sinister musical and lyrical territory: largely electronic soundscapes and beats overpainted with darkly poetic musings on the nature of existence, and, according to the artist, a “daring rendezvouz with personal demons, up to and including the distinct possibility of my own artistic irrelevancy.” To quote the album’s liner notes: “[The Zerosum] attempts to evoke a kind of spiritual search which can result only in nihilsm and despair, but fails to accomplish this. If reaching the ‘zenith of mediocrity’ is a valid non-claim to non-fame, let it be known that the author of this work understands he has fallen short in this endeavour as well.”


"The Zerosum" comes with a 24-page booklet containing blasphemy, full frontal nudity and other semi-disturbing imagery, and should not be purchased by anyone under 18 years of age.

reviews

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  • A thoughtful, well-crafted commentary on the human condition in a post modern wo
    author: Amanda Cook

    I was a little nervous to listen to "The Zerosum," having committed the sin of reading the liner notes first. I was expecting anger and angst and vague symbolism. I was expecting "dark," with an emphasis on the quotes. "Short Satanic Mass" held up to my expectations with it's collage of screams and plucked strings. But after the grating first line of "Samsara," Inge seems to let the black curtain rise and he finds his own voice. As discordant as he would like to think he is, Inge writes some good pop music. I don't mean this as a glib clumping together with radio fodder. I mean to say that he writes songs that catch in your head, songs you can enjoy listening to. After hearing "Walk You Down," even my 2-year-old said " I like that song." That being said, "The Zerosum" is more than a collection of pop songs. Inge questions the self, ending up with no answers, at zero. The title implies that nothing is gained. I'm not sure that is the point of music, of literature, of art in general. Zerosum spirals outward from the self, through love, family, faith and community, ending up looking for the joke somewhere in the ether. And it is a showy spiral. Inge sounds like Lou Reed channeling Leonard Cohen, with a bit of Robyn Hitchcock thrown in for good measure. Like all three he falls victim to a bit of self-indulgence. The most egregious example is "New Fuckosphere." What can I say about fuck, repeated over and over again? This hasn't held meaning since sixth grade. "The Zerosum" is otherwise a very thoughtful album lyrically. There is a turn of phrase, a subtle twist that keeps the listener involved. There is simple beauty in the lines "The only good winter day / is the day when the snow melts away / and you see it go...". "Father Want Me Come Home" addresses the want to be seen as an adult by a parent without leaning on cliche. It's ending echoes a parent's repetitive plea. "Goodbye America" is a clever sort of break-up song, a political anthem. Its Lady Liberty metaphor works so well until the last verse, where it gets a little confused. The song has something to say and I'm afraid it loses some of its credibility by taking the metaphor too far. Inge promises in the liner notes that this album is "dark, un-catchy and poorly executed." He is wrong on all three. It is a thoughtful, well-crafted commentary on the human condition in a post modern world. Since there is no faith to be found in anything else, maybe he should find it in himself. Amanda Cook

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