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Live show reviews:
Aarktica | 5th October, 2004 at Pianos, NYC (from American Book Congress)
Aarktica | 3rd February, 2005 at Bowery Ballroom w/Low & Pedro the Lion (from The New York Times)
5th October, 2004 | Pianos (158 Ludlow St, New York, NY):
On any given weekday night in New York, there is a limited potential audience for a myriad of performances. As such, any Tuesday night show is bound to be plagued with insecurities about low attendance. This was prevalent on October 5th and, as a performer myself, I was actively carrying those fears. While Jon DeRosa's Aarktica took the stage, my attention was far from their performance but soon a steady stream of music enthusiasts filled the venue.
Aarktica's gentle warm tones and subtle electronics make for a captivating listen on their new CD, Bleeding Light. On the two highlights, "OJ Gude" and "A Wash, A Sea, Goodbye It's Me," Aarktica masterfully blend dissonant post-rock movements with masterful songwriting, swaying beats and DeRosa's melodic vocals.
On stage, Aarktica balloons from DeRosa's studio to a 6-piece band (guitar, drums, bass, saxophone, trumpet and keyboard.) After a humble introduction, Aarktica just, sort of, fell into their first song. Not clumsily, but similar to a crescendo; winding up and eventually soaring. As their fluid timbres floated against each other, the mass of music increased until it reached an apex of rich harmonic sound. A shuffling static emanated from the speaker while the opening guitar lines of "OJ Gude" made themselves audible. As DeRosa reached the line "to be a god in New York City" it's a moment of shared epiphany. Surely this Tuesday night crowd of peers and friends see and feel that desire.
"A Wash, A Sea." truly comes alive on stage in contrast to the subdued and deeply personal recorded version. It mutates away from a laid back shuffle and evolves into a voluminous beast. Live, lyrics like "it makes more sense to be filled with doubt" has extroverted meaning. In a studio, DeRosa is speaking of his own feelings but on stage, they seem like advice from a friend.
As with all rock performances there are lost notes, off-key phrases, missed beats. When an artist spends so much time perfecting a recording, we crave this humanity as it loosens on stage. But the integrity of the recorded work is held up and expanded upon while Aarktica leaves us a wash in their sea of sound and harmony. - Burnside Richard, American Book Congress (13 December, 2004)
3rd February, 2005 | Bowery Ballroom (6 Delancey St, New York, NY) w/Low & Pedro the Lion:
Thursday was introverts' night out when Low headlined a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom along with Pedro the Lion, and Aarktica. None of the three bands bothered with much stage action. They were busy contemplating their instruments, the music's textures and the steadfast desolation of their songs...
...Aarktica, which opened the show, was more meditative, erecting dense noise superstructures around serene loops of guitar. There were hints of South Asian music with the drone of a harmonium and vocal lines suggesting the modes of ragas or qawwali. These were urban, not pastoral meditations; one song, with a rhythm defined by bursts of static, was dedicated to the man who designed the lights of Times Square, as Jon DeRosa sang, "city planning is anatomy/ in your blood electricity." - Jon Pareles, New York Times (5th February, 2005)
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