Answer to Gravity

Recorded between 2022 and 2024, "Answer to Gravity" is the first solo album by Swiss guitarist Florestan Berset, known for his collaborations with Gerry Hemingway and Vera Baumann in the group "MingBauSet", as well as a leader of a trio featuring Norbert Pfammatter and Mario In-Eichen. Florestan has been working in a solo format for many years, and this album reveals his particular sensitivity to the inner and outer world in which he moves."Answer to Gravity" explores the tensions of the modern world and our reactions to them. What posture to adopt in the face of challenges? How to create or even how to incarnate oneself? These are some of the questions that formed a basis for this recording. It's clear that the album's music proposes anchoring, momentum and verticality as possible responses and essential values for navigating one's life.Musically, the album is a fusion of two elements dear to Florestan Berset which reflect his artistic activity: composition and improvisation. He combines these two forms of expression with finesse, while leaving plenty of room for his musical subjectivity and influences: from jazz to contemporary music, via folk and ambient music. Field recordings are integrated into certain pieces, giving them a space - linked to nature - in which to unfold. The result is a unique sonic identity that eludes stylistic categorization. The seven pieces are arranged in the spirit of live concerts to maintain a sense of proximity in a world where ties seem to be growing more distant. The music takes the listener on a journey through a variety of colorful soundscapes, creating intimate, suspended moments which the audience can become attached and detached at will."Answer to Gravity" seeks to express a certain simplicity and unity through an original, organic sense of reality, in order to touch on what is the very essence of existence: a simple, authentic presence in the world and in oneself.