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Victor Bermon

Electronica / Ambient / Hip Hop

Fremantle

About

"I chose Arriving at Night as my own personal album of the year not despite that it's an instrumental record of unobtrusive electronica, but, in a way, because of it. The album is almost as old as the year, and has inhabited secondary listening status throughout; it's been a wingman on a year's flight through my mailbox's detritus and delight. Sure, Bermon was gently placed nearby when Battles, Parts & Labor, or Deer Tick crashed through my listening regimen and became the new album over which to drool and analyze with picky fingers. But when my dissection was done and staleness inevitably ossified each listen, it was to Bermon that I returned. Each CMG writer tasked with submitting a personal list for 2007, I always knew Arriving would be on mine. But it was only when I was looking at the year's output together that I realized that Bermon has solidified his place among albums to which I'll be returning for many years. There are few other albums on my list about which I can assume that.

As I said, perhaps it's because of Arriving's sense of accommodation. It's not that there isn't exploration; each song fleshes out its confines, intersperses polyrhythmic (not to be confused with "messy") patterns with the gentle chimes and reorganized guitars of laptop pastiche. But it's more for the fact that it stands proudly beside those simply stated criteria and assembles a near-perfect collection of instrumental pop songs that -- from its production, to its sublime assemblage of melodies, down to the minutest of songwriting decisions and deviations -- is a testament to the prevailing value of musicianship over hype or fashion. Bermon's unblemished debut is pure listening joy."
-Conrad Amenta, COKE-MACHINE GLOW

Arriving At Night is seamless, self-effacing and unobtrusive, yet it consistently manages to provoke pleasure...There are artful jazz drum loops of the kind that can only be gleamed from a lifetime of crate-digging; there are long-held saxophone and woodwind notes breathing delicate warmth into the gaps between bars; there are wistful guitar arpeggios which wind through the track like a silken net. In fact (perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Hefty is based in Chicago), there's more than a hint of The Sea And Cake's post-jazz articulations, and this convincing sense of musicality overrides and suspicion Bermon is merely a superior cut 'n' paste beat merchant. And, as they work their way into the imagination, pieces like "Unprepared" speak with genuine authority."
-THE WIRE

"For those who think that homespun, lo-fi bedroom-tronica isn't "street" enough, Victor Bermon is here to inject more than a little boom-bap into its pastoral existence. Boldly stepping out like an extroverted introvert, Bermon pairs Frankenstein-like ambition with earnest, infinitely beautiful instrumentation and some DJ Premier-wise beats."
-XLR8R

"Bermon's full-length is airplane music for the soul: soft, lilting compositions comprised of acoustic guitars, piano, synths, found noise and electronic percussion that walk the line between ambient folk and opening credits majesty. "Farewell Lunch for Laura" opens with an off time back beat and snare play that quietly pulses through the rest of the song's subtle horn and string whispers, creating an atmosphere that lingers for the entire album. If Bill Evans-inspired instrumental tracks that work with layers of both real and produced sounds seems appealing to you, you will no doubt enjoy this record."
- AUSTINIST

"While the comparable Album Leaf seems to often get by on pretty alone, Bermon's compositions are more heady and sly. One intuits in him a keen eye for natural patterns and symmetries-- concentric ripples on a pond; the delicate vein structures of leaves-- that he's simply unwilling to disrupt when translating them into sound. Even his glitches, like the staccato lunges of "View of the Islands", betray a love of order-- Bermon's glitches slot neatly into one another to produce somnolent, buttoned-down cadences, and the tones sliding away from the mix seem locked into invisible curves. From the shivering waves of "We Face Each Other" to the sun-struck slush of "Unprepared" to the chime-laden haze of "Stacked Notebooks", you always know just what to expect from Victor Bermon-- some permutation of clatter, hitch, shuffle and glide, drenched in gentle reverb and melodious samples, repeated ad infinitum. That Arriving at Night still merits repeated listening speaks to the care that went into crafting these tracks, which demand very little from listeners in return for their pleasure."
- PITCHFORK

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