Currently on display in the Lord Hall Gallery is the senior art exhibition “16 minds,” featuring the art of 16 University of Maine seniors. The works displayed incorporated a variety of media including a number of prints, paintings, sculptures, photography, digital works, mixed media and found objects.

Art made with printmaking techniques makes up a large number of the works on display. The printmaking styles showcased included woodblock, relief, silkscreen and intaglio prints, and the seniors’ work address a variety of subject matters. Some works appeared to focus inward, like Olivia Bradstreet’s complex and strange woodblock prints, while others displayed intricate handiwork and wonderful design, like Kendra Green’s large patterned prints. Other students, like Katelyn Jordan, used painting to capture everyday photo-like moments with lifelike detail. The body of work presented by the seniors showcases their wide variety of talents, interests, themes, concerns and skills. 

One artist in the exhibition, Olivia Bradstreet provided some of her thoughts and described her experience as an art student here at UMaine. She has worked in several mediums but is currently focused on printmaking. 

“My medium as of now is primarily woodblock relief printmaking. I also work with fiber, specifically needle felting and hand sewing to create 3D pieces. I really enjoy fiber as a medium and asking questions about the intersections of craft and fine art, which is something I was lucky enough to get to study at Haystack last summer. This year, I am continuing to build my print portfolio with larger relief prints, and I am completing my Honors creative thesis which is in the handmade paper medium,” Bradstreet said.

Bradstreet has several prints in the exhibition, including a number of intense and striking woodblock pieces that present abstract scenes in black or red.

“For my larger prints I wanted that immediate positive/negative space to read, and with black, you can more easily demonstrate working in both black line and white line,” said Bradstreet. “Black is an excellent color — it’s deep, and it can be dramatic, and it’s rich when done in oil. I always choose an oil ink because I want the inherent luminosity that is in the ink mixture, much like oil paints. Black, red and white paper is a striking pallet, and I chose it for my ‘Bite Me’ print collection because I wanted to reference those ‘thank you for shopping’ plastic bags as well as Barbara Kruger’s propaganda art. Although I primarily use those colors, I also will work with a full-color pallet. It’s all dependent on what the image needs, and thankfully we have a fully stocked print shop which can meet any color whim I have.” 

As a senior, she was also able to shed some light on the experience of studying art in a university setting and some of the surprises that come with the environment.

“Something that surprised me is how even when working under a lot of pressure and seriousness there’s always still a sense of humor and play when it comes to the art-making process, and I’ve been really lucky to have been able to feel that while studying in this discipline,” Bradstreet said. “There can be real fear sometimes going into critique, but there are also lots of laughs. Being able to engage with professors and other students on that messy, human level has really helped my art and process.”

In addition to looking back at her undergraduate career, Bradstreet looks forward to post-grad life.

 “When I graduate, I plan on taking at least a year and moving Southwest to immerse myself in the art culture there, all while developing my own work,” Bradstreet said. “After that time, I plan on applying to several MFA programs to continue my papermaking and printmaking studies.” 

The work presented at the “16 Minds” exhibition presents a varied and thoughtful body of work by a class of students that will certainly continue to do interesting work in a cultural landscape that will benefit from their input.

The exhibit will run through Feb. 7 in Lord Hall Gallery on the UMaine Orono campus.

Rating: 4 of 5

It’s January, meaning we’re fast approaching this year’s edition of the Academy Awards. The award season is often full of controversy and the Academy is certainly an imperfect institution. It’s not uncommon for them to present award nominees that can range from confusing to disappointing, particularly when big categories inevitably leave out worthy contenders or pick movies that don’t seem especially interesting. But not all is necessarily lost. A number of incredible movies are up for Best Picture, like the Korean thriller “Parasite” which received six nominations in total, as well as Greta Gerwig’s moving rendition of “Little Women,” also with six nominations. And with six being the apparent lucky number, Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” received six nominations as well.

“Marriage Story” is the thirteenth full-length film that Baumbach has directed and tells the story of a couple, Nicole Barber (Scarlett Johannson) and Charlie Barber (Adam Driver), as they go through the process of a divorce. The plot is direct and we see them communicate amicably at the beginning, grow tense and angry as the divorce becomes real and ultimately  reach a deeper understanding of themselves as the dust of the separation settles. 

If you’re entering this movie expecting it to be standard as far as drama movies go, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised, as it may prove much more gripping than expected. Horror movies and thrillers provide stress and excitement in the movie theater, but something about watching these divorce proceedings take place before you is a physically exhausting watch.

Charlie and Nicole own and work in a theater company together, and when they decide to get a divorce, they consistently say that they want things to be easy, with “no lawyers.” But they eventually both sign hefty checks for legal representation, and in their naivete are forced to realize that there is nothing “easy” about what they are trying to do in separating. While the lawyers appear to almost encourage them to treat each other as an opponent, it really feels like they are being forced to enter arguments that they never seemed to have and instead avoided while they were together.

“Marriage Story” succeeds in large part due to the construction of Nicole and Charlie as characters as well as the actors that bring them to life. While their divorce is not easy, it is also strangely not hard. The process works, then it doesn’t. They say they wanted an easy divorce, but inevitably find themselves in aggressive conflict, Driver and Johannson delivering intense scenes of yelling and screaming. These contradictions feel like they represent the hardest part of divorce: attempting to be without someone you were with for so long. Moments of love pepper Nicole and Charlie’s divorce, as she still cuts his hair and they spend family holidays together.

The characters are complicated and the actors do a compelling job of making the characters feel so average and flawed. The ending is a little neat and tidy but, just as the divorce is the hardest part of separating, it is the most exciting part of the film, kind of like watching a car accident, except no one gets hurt and instead, everyone moves to West Hollywood.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

As the year comes to a close, many movie lovers are putting together their best-of-the-year movie lists, and A24’s “Midsommar,” directed by Ari Aster, is likely to make many of them. Aster received considerable acclaim for his 2018 film “Hereditary,” his full-length directorial debut. “Midsommar,” his second film, is another hit and demonstrates that Aster is making a good case for himself as one of the premiere horror film directors, releasing strange, uncomfortable films that depict complicated characters and offer interesting social commentary.

“Midsommar,” for all its frights, might fall more squarely into the thriller genre than conventional horror, opting for a psychologically effective narrative instead of a visually frightening narrative. The movie’s narrative centers on Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh), a college student whose sister and parents all die within the first few scenes of the movie. What follows is her unexpected trip with her boyfriend and his friends to a festival called “Midsommar,” which takes place at a commune named the Harga, in Sweden, which celebrates the human connection with nature.

One of the most important dynamics in the movie is the relationship between Dani and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). After dating in college for a couple of years, by the time of the movie, they are both grad students and their relationship appears to be on the rocks. Christian, due to his considerable apathy and indecisiveness around the relationship, appears to be the one causing most of the issues. Christian’s grad school friends are also pretty irksome as they try to encourage Christian to find another girl; they also communicate the Midsommar Festival will be about partying and sex.

Though Christian has been planning this trip to Sweden with his friends for months, he doesn’t tell Dani about it until a week or so before. He invites her almost gratuitously, expecting she will just say no. But she doesn’t reject the invitation and instead has the best experience at the commune out of all of them.

“Midsommar’s” depiction of relationship trouble is evidence of the fact that the movie is great at mixing genres, and some reviewers have even considered the film to be a kind of hybrid break-up film. Given that the movie is billed as a horror film, it should be apparent that things at the commune take some pretty freakish turns. An interesting aspect of the commune is the understanding of the bond between the human and the non-human world. The people at Harga are very interested in ideas of oneness, demonstrated by their group interest in raising children. Life at the commune is all about community, but when Dani and the students witness some concerning displays of the commune’s values, their way of life becomes a lot less appealing. 

Being able to make strange and complex themes engaging and provoking is a testament to Aster and the film itself. The commune is weird and the ending is strange but, given the circumstances, desperate times call for desperate measures. Look out for more bizarre and extraordinary films like “Midsommar” from Ari Aster in the future.

On Friday, Dec. 6, the University of Maine Writing Center hosted a lecture from student Connor Ferguson titled “Queering the Fin de Siecle.” Ferguson is an English student and McGillicuddy Humanities Fellow. This lecture and discussion panel was a part of the culmination of his fellowship research. Laura Cowan, English professor and project advisor to Ferguson, introduced the event and Ferguson followed with a lecture which then opened up a roundtable discussion. Students, grad students, professors and community members packed the Writing Center, eager to engage and listen to the important issues that Ferguson brought to the table.

Ferguson’s project for the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center (MHC) ties in with an English class he’s taking on Modernist writers Rebecca West and Virginia Woolf. His interest in the subject and his research can be traced back to before he started college, however, and the questions he is interested in have been on his mind for a long time. 

“I am originally from Iowa, I moved to Maine in 2017 and started attending UMaine in the fall of 2018. I identify in the LGBT community. I identify as gay … My entire life I have always been looking for queer narratives or queer characters in the music I listen to, the movies I watch, the books I read,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson’s personal relationship his research is a driving idea for Ferguson and in an English class last year, he found that this project could be a possibility for him. 

“It wasn’t until I took Modernism with Laura Cowan, that I realized I wanted to do this project,” Ferguson said. “The title of this project is ‘Queering the Fin de Siecle.’ The fin de siecle is this term that means the end of the century or the death of the century. It’s this idea in modernism that at the turn of the 19th into the 20th-century modern society and our ideas of what being a human meant were completely changed because of industrialization, globalization and the rise of WWI in 1914. A lot of modernist literature from the authors of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Wilfred Owen and others are about redefining identity in this new infrastructure of society.” 

What concerned Ferguson was the discrepancy in the attention given to different authors’ identities and how several authors who did have queer relationships or wrote about those topics were underexamined and underrepresented in his classes.

“[When] we got to Virginia Woolf and Wilfred Owen and while we talked a little about their lives … we never talked about the fact that both of those people identify in the LGBT community. That really frustrated me because so much of those two author’s work have queer subtext in them,” he explained. “So I approached Laura Cowan about it and she was very receptive to me being upset that these queer author’s identities weren’t being put into the curriculum. And when I saw that the MHC was offering a fellowship for a research project involving the humanities I knew I needed to pursue this look at how queer identities have been erased and also why it’s important for them to be included in academia.” 

Ferguson’s work surrounded the texts of Virginia Woolf including “Mrs. Dallaway,” “To The Lighthouse” and “Orlando,” as well as the poems of Wilfred Owen and how queer language and themes occurred in their work. But Ferguson is also concerned with how queer identity can become more included in curricula to make learning better for students. For Ferguson, letting queer identity be discussed is essential for allowing more students to have texts and works to relate with.

“Even just the slight indication that these authors might be queer opened up so many academic doors for me,” Ferguson said. “It pushed me to do this research; it inspired me to apply for this McGillicuddy Fellowship. Even just acknowledging this identity can open a lot of doors for students who don’t feel seen because they identify in the queer community. Or even educators who want to give a broader scope and understanding of what, for example, modernist literature is actually like.”  

Nolan Altvater has made both learning and working on his tutoring and teaching skills a big part of his work here. He is also a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, which is part of the Wabanaki Confederation. Being a Native American is an essential part of his identity and is related to the work and research he does with tutoring and teaching.

Altvater, a third-year English and secondary education student, is currently enrolled in ENG 395: English Internship, the prerequisite course a student must pass in order to become a tutor in the UMaine Writing Center. This course has already afforded him the ability to explore the many ways in which he can work on his tutoring as well as be involved with Native American communities in Maine. 

“I am not a tutor… but the professor gives you a lot of chances beyond tutoring. I’m doing a lot of research with tutoring right now; I already have one internship on campus through the Wabanaki Youth in Science Program (WaYS). So, I’m taking my work with that and converging it with tutoring work and exploring ways to relate those to each other,” Altvater explained. “[WaYS] is a program rooted in science but it is Native American scientific methods so a lot of it has to do with oral storytelling and oral discourse, so that is also implementing tutoring. Using those [practices] to make it more accessible to Native American students is my main goal.”

Through WaYS, Nolan has been connected to a number of opportunities around the university including a recent research project done in conjunction with the Penobscot Nation and UMaine researchers and scientists. 

“I did a project that involved exploring ways to take that Native American scientific community, at the water quality station, and the communications and science departments here and, doing a research project where they came together, [we found] ways that two different communities could come together and do work together,” Altvater said. 

Altvater was awarded the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center award for policy-related research for his work with the different groups and was presented as “Covering Traditional and Western Scientific Methods to Highlight Penobscot Sovereignty.”

Attending UMaine has allowed Altvater to work with these two large forces in his life; his Native American identity and how to use his educational, teaching and research skills to benefit Wabanaki peoples. 

“I moved away from my reservation when I was little so I didn’t grow up [in] a Native American family or the culture of it,” Altvater said. “But when I came to college I had the internship through the WaYS [program] which really helped me find that native identity that was still inside me.” 

This self-realization coupled with his community-oriented research has given him the opportunity to broaden his horizons and approach ideas regarding Native American identity. 

“Through the work of that [research], it has really established a Native identity in me which has also … inspired me and [I’ve] found passion to implement that into my educational work that I want to do as a teacher and my pedagogy decolonizing education,’” Altvater said. 

His pedagogy, or teaching mission, is in part concerned with “changing the world of education to make it relatable, where kids have the critical consciousness and a self-conception of their own identity and what’s really special and true to them.” 

Realizing one’s own identity is crucially linked to Native identity for Altvater. Though it is a complex task that seems almost at odds with traditional academia, which has hardly been an inclusive space, Altvater has a positive outlook about working to promote Native American identity. 

“I feel fortunate to be here and be in the position I am in today [and] I want to use that for other people,” Altvater said. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Andy Stott is a UK-based electronic music producer who has been making music for about 15 years now, and  “It Should Be Us” is his most recent release. Up to this point, he has put out a steady stream of albums, EPs and singles that have been consistently interesting and sonically unique. Stott is primarily a techno artist, but it is tough to say that his music is aimed at a dance floor audience. Past projects, like the EP “We Stay Together,” demonstrate his penchant for making rough lo-fi electronic music that tends to do more creeping and plodding than it does manufacturing a dance groove. Compared to the previous EPs, “It Should Be Us” has some commonalities as well as plenty of novel sounds for Stott. It is certainly still mysterious, mechanical and slightly uneasy, but it could well be one of his most accessible, and possibly danceable, projects.  

One initial aspect that makes “It Should Be Us” sound different from Stott’s other albums and EPs is precisely the “sound” of the album itself. The noises, synths, textures and percussion are more clean and polished on most tracks than they have been in the past. With a more polished sound, the album has fewer eerie moments, or certainly less at the forefront of the listening experience. Most of the tracks are creepy and cold in subtler ways. The opening track, “Dismantle,” is a good example of a sinister groove that is more compellingly accessible than enigmatic and noisy. The first synth lines are bassy with low frequency, but when the percussion mixes with the high, flickering synths, the song instead takes on a shimmering and entrancing mood. 

The second song, “Promises,” is an even more smooth listen than “Dismantle,” with the textures being immediately comfortable, sleek and more squarely upbeat. The different percussion elements flicker and flutter back and forth until about a minute and a half into the song when a pulsing bass drum begins to control the rhythm of the track. At that point, the established sounds begin to slowly oscillate and evolve, changing intonation or effects slightly, as well as welcoming other noises into the mix. In that sense, it is a good example of a song that slowly takes you over, or maybe creeps in.

Another highlight of the album is the seventh track, titled “0L9,” which is definitely the most danceable song, mostly due to its straightforward house beat and structure. The song begins with a cyclical set of percussion sounds that sound like the chugging of a moving train. Like other songs on this album, the theme of the track becomes more nuanced as sounds are added, giving it a new atmosphere. A steady, high-tempo kick drum offset by shifting hi-hat offbeats facilitates the mood shift. The main melody of the song is a loud, low-frequency warbling synth that has an unusual and mysterious quality. The melodies sound uncannily organic, yet so unnatural which is such a central idea of Stott’s projects. This feels right where the project as a whole lies, right between the organic and the mechanical. The album is at its best when it can move between these two ideas in the most engrossing and mesmerizing ways.

On Tuesday, Nov. 5 the latest installment of the “Human Beans: A Bean Supper Series” was hosted by college of liberal arts and sciences faculty member Taylor Ashley and the McGillicuddy Humanities Center. The event took place on a rainy night at the Church of Universal Fellowship in Orono. But Tuesday’s cold and rain did not stop dozens of families and friends from piling into the church to eat bean-centric foods and discuss culture and society through those meals. 

The Human Beans series is a series of bean suppers that take place throughout the semester, all of which have taken place at the Church and have been hosted by the McGillicuddy Humanities Center. The series is a part of their annual symposium theme on “Society, Colonization, and Decolonization” and consists of five total suppers.  

This series has had three installations which have featured dishes “including Franco-American bean-hole beans with brown bread, U.S., southwestern-style beans with red & green chiles, Cuban bean chili,” according to the event description, but this week the focus turned south to Brazil, featuring “Brazilian Black Beans” as the main course. 

In addition to the food, the evening included illuminating talks from Professor of Ecology Eric Gallant, who discussed his research experiences in Brazil, and local farmer and chef Billy Barker who discussed her farming and small business experiences. Both addressed the importance of local communities and how those communities relate to agriculture/food production. 

The progression of the night was led by Taylor Ashley who thanked and introduced the dozen or so volunteers who helped the night happen and then discussed the story and message of the Human Beans series. 

“The Bean Series began as a way to bring our community together in the name of a free, traditional and vegetarian meal,” Ashley said. “It’s also a way to let folks know about our upcoming Pan-American overland expedition to explore America’s bean culture with a special focus on cultivation, cuisine and community. The Bean Suppers are simply a way to share aspects of our upcoming expedition with our local community.”

Ashley described his plans for traveling across the Americas with his wife, Katie, to explore food and community more in-depth.

“[We] are setting out on a Pan-American Overland Expedition to explore the bean culture of the Americas” Ashley said. He went on to describe their plans to drive from Maine to southern Chile to the mouth of the Amazon River, with their journey beginning on Dec. 13. Those who are interested can follow along on their blog at stepforwardtravel.com. 

“We’ll also be doing outreach to local middle school classrooms by producing educational content that will be incorporated into their curriculum, as well as Skyping along the way,” Ashley said. “Finally, our goal is to shed light on the beauty of the Americas, to highlight their similarities and celebrate their differences.” 

This celebratory atmosphere was felt at the bean supper on Tuesday, with people enjoying the food and company of those around them. The meal served was ostensibly rice and beans with veggie sides and orange slices each dish was home-cooked, unique, hearty and very enjoyable. 

The series is made up of five installments: Maine, New Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and Global, with each night exploring new bean-centric dishes from different geographic areas. Taylor discussed some of the planning that went into these decisions. 

“We decided to begin with Maine because that’s our community and where the Bean Supper was first introduced,” he said. “New Mexico and Brazil are along the route we’ll be following. Since I’m Cuban-American we wanted to share aspects of our culture with the community, plus the food is delicious! Finally, the Global Bean Supper is a way to share everyone’s culture and traditions and serve as a way to wrap up the series. It’s important to note that the first four meals all used beans that were originally cultivated in the Americas. That’s important because it expresses contributions to the global food supply that the original inhabitants of the Americas made.” 

The Human Beans Series highlights how food is an excellent and delicious way of understanding our culture as well as the many cultures of the world, and how we are all so connected. 

Taylor’s blog for his upcoming trip can be found at: stepforwardtravel.com. The McGillicuddy Humanities Center can be found at https://umaine.edu/mhc/ or on social media as @McGillicuddyHumanitiesCenter. 

Though Halloween has passed, spooky movie season is still in full swing. This year has been host to a number of notable thrilling and horrific movies, from “Midsommar” to “Climax.” Falling right in with these creepy films is “The Lighthouse,” directed by Robert Eggers. The film stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe as lighthouse keepers on a remote island in nondescript New England who gradually lose their minds as a storm prevents their departure and they must encounter the mysterious and disorienting natural world.

The film is shot in black and white, giving the movie an old-timey quality. The cinematography really leans into this grainy, rough character, a creative decision that makes the movie feel grimier and damp.

“The Lighthouse” fits well into the category of thriller, focusing less on gore or big scares than on gradually building suspense with ominous or foreboding scenes. With the isolated characters gradually losing sanity, combined with their inability to escape, the movie displays quintessential thriller qualities. The dynamic between the characters is set up early, with Defoe playing Thomas Wake, the older more experienced lighthouse keeper or “wickie” and Robert Pattinson playing Ephraim Winslow, the new recruit. Wake makes Winslow do all of the menial and strenuous jobs around the island, like carrying buckets of coal or cleaning the floor several times for perfection or repainting the walls of the lighthouse while Wake holds Winslow by a rather worn-out rope. 

Tension quickly rise between the two as Winslow begins to resent Wake for giving him responsibility for so many tasks while Wake sits in the lantern room of the lighthouse, mesmerized by the rippling gleam of the lighthouse lens. As a result, the men begin to doubt each other, both seeming to lose their bearings while trying to give competing claims of truth. The competition starts with small questions they ask each other, eerily building to questions that might not have an easy answer, like how long they’ve been on the island. A few days? Maybe a few weeks? 

The way the movie plays with reliable narrators or characters makes it difficult to exactly believe who is truthful or in the right. While Defoe’s character has clearly already spiraled, often spending prolonged periods of time staring into the light of the lighthouse, Pattinson’s character mental state falls into a more ambiguous area. Defoe’s character had already been won over by the powerful forces. Good evidence of this is the way he sits naked staring at the bright light of the lighthouse totally transfixed. 

The movie felt a little long; some parts, though they helped build the tension, did not exactly cash in on that tension, instead feeling a little slow. In that vein, the movie may have benefitted from diving more into the world of horror, allowing things to get more intense or frightful. But that’s why it’s a thriller. If you’re looking for a foggy, haunting, “mysteries of the sea” kind of movie, with an almost dreamlike atmosphere, do check out “The Lighthouse.” The brooding and creeping exists in all the waterlogged cracks and fractures of the lighthouse and even the characters themselves.

On the weekend of Oct. 26-27, the University of Maine hosted the annual University of Maine Alumni Weekend Craft Fair as a part of Homecoming weekend festivities. The craft fair hosted over 150 local brands selling homemade products including honey, jewelry, paintings and much more. The craft fair fits right into Homecoming weekend as another event among the many events that brings together thousands.

The event was hosted in the New Balance Field House, located next to the sports fields, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, which meant that the craft fair was directly adjacent to all the tailgating and excitement of the Homecoming football game. The atmosphere of the Field House was similar, albeit a little quieter, as people’s attention turned from games of corn hole to buying Christmas wreaths. 

Craft fair events can vary but often feel like a larger farmer’s market that is focused less on food and instead on people’s crafts. They provide a great opportunity to see how the arts are more pervasive than one may initially think, as well as the chance to see all the niche and delightful things other people in the community are creating and all the talent that may otherwise be overlooked. 

Plenty of the craft makers, in fact, produce their crafts for fun in their free time as a labor of passion outside of their day job or as a post-retirement activity. 

Sherrie Brann, the owner of Out On a Limb Jewels from Sidney, Maine, said she makes plenty of her bracelets or other items “while watching TV” and that she enjoys the process because “it’s very relaxing.” The UMaine Homecoming Craft Fair is important for Brann because, for her, it is her biggest fair of the year, noting that while she may visit a few in a year, none compare to the size and scale of the one in Orono. 

Brands like Out On a Limb Jewels are a good example of the fact that craft fairs often sell high-quality products for low prices; Brann’s earrings were on sale for $5. Lillian Legassey, or, as described on her business card, the Mitten Lady, was selling mittens for $20. Legassey has been making mittens for 14 years using a procedure that was handed down within her family. Lillian was happy to talk about the 10 steps it takes to make a pair and how, in her years making mittens, she began putting fleece linings in, an idea her parents or grandparents hadn’t included in their mitten making. 

Another exciting part of these local artisanal product makers, at least in the family-originated ones, is that the younger family members that often take over are able to put their own spin on a product which says something about how families grow and their traditions can evolve. This is the essence of the Craft Fair and UMaine Homecoming: a large-scale community coming together to celebrate its members.

If you weren’t able to stop by this weekend, there are plenty of other places to get your homemade goods fix. The Orono Farmers Market has two installments every week, 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays in the Steam Plant parking lot on campus. The Farmer’s Market has a great selection of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats and other items. Also, on Nov. 2-3 Bangor will host the “31st Annual Bangor Arts & Crafts Show” at the Cross Insurance Center, and the following weekend, Nov. 9-10, will be the “Augusta Maine Arts and Crafts Fair” at the Augusta Armory in the state capital. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

“Crush” is the third full-length album from Floating Points, the name under which Sam Shepherd performs. Floating Points has been a prominent electronic music artist for the past few years, garnering attention with projects like his 2011 EP “Shadows” or his 2015 album “Elaenia.” With projects like these as well as “Crush,” Shepherd has shown himself to be an artist who can craft thoughtful, intricate, glitchy, techno tracks that contain a considerable depth in emotion as well as dancefloor potential. “Crush” is a wonderful testament to the state of current electronic music and genres like techno and IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) in particular. Shepherd shows just how far artists have come with technology, and further how creatively producers can play with the traditional structures of electronic music. 

 The first track on the album “Falaise” shows Floating Points’ fondness for other genres, namely classical, and here he offers an intriguing take on classical strings, turning these sounds into mechanical pulses and whirrs. It is only a short step, genre-wise, to the next song “Last Bloom” which, for me, is one of the best songs of the album. “Last Bloom” is certainly one of the more conventionally enjoyable tracks on the album, following a more consistent rhythm that translates almost equally well to dancing as it does to studying. The song demonstrates Shepherd’s knack for producing really good sounding electronic music with every synth note and percussive flicker sounding quite pretty and organic. The racing hi-hat percussive ticking bounces around the waves of soft melodic notes and occasional piano-sounding leads and the progression of the song ties them together in the compelling ebb and flow of the song. 

“LesAplx” focuses more specifically on dance floor or nightclub vibes than the rest of the album, pulsing with an earth-shaking subterranean bass from the beginning. You can practically feel the heat coming off this track with its entrancing and mysterious energy, helping one imagine a dark electronic music club pulsing with multi-colored lights.

But Floating Points eschews any claims of being one-dimensional, which can be seen when you compare “LesAplx” to the song that occurs a little later, “Environments.” This song seems to race, but not in a dance-friendly way. Instead, “Environments” sounds more like a rolling train of frantic noise and mechanical cracking and fractures, while wisps of synths bend around the prickling noise, showing how “Crush” is an album with several interesting directions and moods. 

In that vein, the song that follows, “Birth,” is in some sense a song of just piano, albeit a Floating Points piano which entails occasional moments where the piano seems to reveal itself to have more robotic ticks, but all in a pretty natural and riveting manner. “Crush” is, overall, a fairly gripping project that shows Shepherd’s ability to craft a consistent and unique electronic album, which is no easy task. While some of the contemplative nature of the album can occasionally be a little lacking making it seem uneventful, the whole project sounds pristine and there are far more pros than cons about it. The album is a lush world, full of moods and energies that is worth entering.