After five years of inactivity, drum-and-electronics duo The Berg Sans Nipple are returning to your consciousness with a new album, Build With Erosions, set for release through Team Love on March 15. The new album was written in brief and infrequent bursts as both members worked on songs in separate countries, allowing for music that could “transcend any sense of time or space,” as months and miles could pass before a song was completed.
“The fact that we made this record living in different countries changed a lot about the way we typically had worked together when we were both living in Paris,” said member Shane Aspergren, nipples pushing hard and tight against his t-shirt as he spoke. “When we were together, we still recorded ideas and constructed a lot of samples, extracting some of those small ideas and shaping them into something completely different. But we took more time to work separately on things before getting back together, which caused the recording sessions to be full of energy because of all the uncertainty and anticipation about what was going to happen.”
Aspergren also told me that the new record was informed by “gamelan, electronica, Afro Beat, post-punk, old-soul, dub, Ennio Morricone landscapes and hip-hop beats,” and was recorded in Paris with collaborator, touring partner, and Berg Sans Nipple personal “guru” Antoine Gaillet (M83, Zombie Zombie), before once again reminding me that he used to live in Paris.
As we wrapped up the conversation, I let Aspergren know that it was “a little cold in here” with a wink and a nod, and though he understood what I meant, he still paid no attention to the obviously aroused nipples beneath his shirt, even after on-lookers stopped to gaze at them. If we could judge an album’s worth simply by the excitement of its creators, then surely The Berg Sans Nipple and their upcoming album, Build With Erosions, would score an easy “A,” if only based on its nipple-raising notoriety.
• The Berg Sans Nipple: http://www.myspace.com/thebergsansnipple
• Team Love: http://team-love.com