Inge Berge

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.