#television explosion

[recommendedlisten]

Bernice - “We Choose You”

Photo courtesy of Colin Medley

Early next month, the Toronto avant-pop collective Bernice will be releasing their sophomore album Eau De Bonjourno. Listening in to the freeform R&B moving through early singles “Groove Elation” and the existential blips of “It’s Me Robin”, their sound is amorphous in shape while tapping into brainwaves and the emotional connect of those thoughts. On the LP’s latest preview, its closing track “We Choose You”, Bernice surface the opposite of that spectrum, as the listen searches for a focus on connection amid the noisy, over-saturated lines of our current communication and in turn ends up separating us further. That comes through the soundscape’s hollow alien space in which Robin Dann’s voice wanders and where signs of life from the outside are only momentary Hear it below...

Eau De Bonjourno by bernice

Bernice’s Eau De Bonjourno will be released March 5th on Television Explosion / figureight.

[recommendedlisten]

Video: Bernice - “It’s Me, Robin”

“It’s Me, Robin”, the second single from Toronto art-pop quintet Bernice’s sophomore effort Eau De Bonjourno, is a conversation with the self many of us are probably having every single second we are alone with ourselves. In our heads, we only have one small desire, and that is to exist unconditionally as is without our achievements or our titles defining us. Still, we are at odds with what the world around us has cultured into our perceptions of one another.

As vocalist Robin Dann attempts to pull apart these cobbled string of thoughts, the band’s sound around her begins to spill onto blank canvas colors, patterns and designs shaped by saxophonic lifts, percussive fits, and airy synths. “We’re living a in a disaster / We choose to see only what we want to,” she sings. “I heard you you heard we’re divided / It’s not as straight-forward as having a career.” The problem is visible, yet the answers to obtaining a pure existence continue to elude us.

Sonia Beckwith directed the listen’s surreal visuals.

Bernice’s Eau De Bonjourno will be released March 5th on Television Explosion / figureight.

[recommendedlisten]

Bernice - “Groove Elation”

Photo courtesy of Colin Medley

If you made it to this point in 2020, that in itself is a tiny victory, and we should all be rooting for one another to keep on moving in our best directions despite each of the respective hardships that have slowed us in our paths. “Groove Elation”, the lead single from Bernice’s forthcoming sophomore outing Eau De Bonjourno, is a celebration of that, introspecting on the self’s ability to be here right now no matter the shape it finds you in.

The Toronto art-pop quintet’s sound matches the amorphous thinking of leading chanteuse Robin Dann throughout, with a freeform R&B soundscape budding under a shifting synthetic DNA strand. “Maybe we’re all evolving / Maybe my time is enough,” she sings. There’s peace to be found within Bernice’s “Groove”, if only we take the moment to feel it within.

Eau De Bonjourno by bernice

Bernice’s Eau De Bonjourno will be released March 5th on Television Explosion / figureight.