Touching Extremes (IT)
It’s virtually impossible not to appreciate the gentle movements, kissed by faint colours and timid resonances, which Northern is made of. Inspired by the author’s recent move from Brooklyn to upstate New York, in a more direct contact with natural elements and far from urban chaos, this music – conceived on electric piano, melodica, guitar and field recordings – reflects Deupree’s impression of what surrounds him now, his being connected with something too profound to be expressed by mere words. Shifting, looping organizations of spurious melodies try to move a basic staticity where what seems fixed is instead undergoing a process of tranquil decomposition – or changing its state, if you will – just like a snowman under the sun, his body progressively giving, becoming shorter and hunched while his button eyes and carrot nose remain with the same smiling expression until everything’s over. Nostalgically elegant, this is probably Deupree’s most personal statement, a record imbued in delicate sadness.