Sunday, August 21, 2011

Hintergrund - Half Halo / Antithesis

Antithesis
Half Halo

Summer is coming slowly to a close as fall inches closer with each passing day. I believe many of us like to think of the seasons in relation to the basic emotions holiday cliches make us want to believe in. Fall, being the time off year I am most fond is a season I feel indifferently, apathetically toward. To me it represents a time of passing on. For nearly all of us death is indeed a negative occurrence, however, in this context I tend to not think of it in a negative way at all. For me it evokes the sense of a slow and natural death. It is the last breath for summer but for some of us it will be our first. This whole idea of other things passing on and giving life to the still living is something that interests me. It seems ironic how the occurrence of death, a thing many react to so negatively is something that keeps us alive. It is not necessarily a positive thing for those left behind but it is welcome, it is natural and if one looks hard enough there is color beneath all of the gray.


Featured below are two selections from Signal Blister; a project that Brian Sopher and I have been collaborating on over the course of the past few weeks under the name Hintergrund. Although absent of any preconceived concept there is a distinct mood that runs throughout the album. "Half Halo" is filled with fluttering synth sounds while swells of distorted guitar linger, rising and falling in the background. "Antithesis" comes in the form of a wave of sound that washes over the listener, a sense of structure begins to surface as the song progresses before fading out in a hollow sounding hazeThe album has a layered and rather noisy feel, potentially abrasive to some but if one looks past the layers of dense sound melodies can be found hiding underneath.

The images pictured above are a series of photographs I took to use for packaging art. I believe the concept of the photographs follow the mood of the music well. Both of the buildings pictured are powerful structures, each shot from a ground perspective to entail that these structures are threateningly towering over them. Stark cracks of worn gray concrete show through stripped white paint. It is almost otherworldly, reminiscent of some distant world. The photographs pictured above follow the same loosely applied principle/poor analogy. Most of the effect were achieved by dropping the vibrance and bringing the color up slightly in saturation so that it looks as though it is fading away from years of poor weather. I'm currently working on putting together a physical CD version of the album including packaging, layout and photography. 

End your summer and start the fall season with these two tracks. More on the packaging and full album soon. Until then give it a listen, let me know what you think and feel free to let Brian know as well.

-Later

Brian Sopher:
Twitter: @bsophs


On Repeat: Balam Acab - "Wander / Wonder", Yellow Swans - "Going Places", Nadja - "Radiance of Shadows", Defiance, Ohio - "Share What Ya Got".