A one-man band can either be a blessing or a curse. Either you can be pigeonholed as a singer/songwriter who can put together a nice patch of songs or can be seen as an idiosyncratic genius or lastly, a lunatic. Spencer Berger, aka Auditorium and formerly known as Field, fits into the first category.   His self-released debut album, Be Brave, clocks in at a brisk 31 minutes, yet manages to pack tight melodies and intricately woven arrangements into 14 tracks tightly knit tracks.

Recorded, performed, and mixed solely by the man himself, Be Brave is a genre-defying stunner.  The man can’t do it alone of course. He performs live with the talented quartet of Justin Hogan, Chris Littler, Elizabeth Berger, and Daya Wolterstorff. While the palette Berger constructed Be Brave minimalistically (think only acoustic guitars, electric bass, and vocals), the album is a lushly orchestrated tour-de-force, anchored by Berger’s stirring voice. The album was recently mixed and mastered in Los Angeles and is set to be released in early 2011.

Some artists who do it on their own have it and others don’t. Sometimes you get Siamese Dream and other times you get Chinese Democracy. Though none of these albums or artists could Berger be compared to, but this much is certain: he has the talent and songwriting ability to gradually make waves and release good music over the coming years.

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