as seen on Hear Nebraska
This is a story of a St. Paul, Neb., native who played in some bands and studied film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the ’90s. Sure.
But it’s also a story of an American and a Frenchman who met in Paris and decided to try and play music together. Right away, they came up with great material, so the American extended his and his wife’s yearlong stay in Paris another, oh, six years. They recorded two albums and toured extensively, playing high-profile international festivals like the Primavera Sound Festival.
This is the story of Shane Aspegren and his band The Berg Sans Nipple.
At home in Omaha with his wife and daughters (ages 7 and 4), Aspegren has settled down 4,500 miles away from his BSN bandmate Lori Sean Berg in Paris. Separated, this is how the percussion/electronics twosome developed much of their latest LP, Build With Erosion, out on Team Love today, March 15.
The trans-Atlantic band situation caused frustrations — material would sit for months sometimes before the two would meet in Paris for week-long recording sessions, Aspegren says.
“The pay-off was actually getting together, having not created anything together for so long,” he says. “It’s almost kind of magical, getting together and then all of a sudden remembering the way that you can have an interaction with somebody like that.”
A long time in the making, Build With Erosion is the band’s third LP and latest record since 2007’s Along the Quai.
Beginning as an instrumental band (Aspegren on percussion, Berg on electronics), BSN has evolved to include vocals beyond the ambient/instrumental type with Build With Erosion. Much of the album’s lyrics are written and sung by Aspegren. Berg’s vocals are evident in loops and background.
The album is created out of rhythm foundations, namely tribal, he says — aspects upon which BSN sound has always been constructed. For the most part, their writing process remained the same.
Listen to three tracks from the new album
