Hintergrund - Nemesis Digital Release

Album Cover

I'm happy to say that the new Hintergrund album, 'Nemesis', our second release is finished and is now available for free to stream and download. I'd like to say a few things regarding details about the albums production and completion.

What we were able to accomplish with 'Nemesis' encompasses a much more expansive sonic range than our previous effort, Signal Blister. The sounds range from crushing walls of dense distortion and feedback, to screeching oscillation, to airy and colorful ambience. One of the beautiful things about noise and the likes of experimental music is the process, which many times is a wholly improvised matter that always leaves room for the possibility of failure and spontaneity, an aspect that is unfortunately all too often alien to music. In noise this additional element played a large role in how the album was created. We worked with what we had at the time; a broken guitar, an old broken karaoke microphone, prepared saxophone, circuit bent electronics, and whatever else we could find that we felt was worth recording. Much like the sound of 'Nemesis' the instrumentation directly reflects this brokenness. I think it is safe to say that, for me at least that 'Nemesis' is not only to be heard as a piece of music but to be seen as being representative of an exercise in experimentation, our instruments not simply being used as they were intended to be but rather used as an extension of our collective ideas, improvised and elaborated on in that moment.

From this point on I will be focusing on putting together the artwork for a physical release of the album. You can stream and download 'Nemesis' at the links provided below. Enjoy.

Download Nemesis Here

Also, Brian recently finished his latest solo effort under the name Glasslung entitled 'New Martyrs'. You can download and stream that here: Sleeping Glass.

Links:

Nemesis on Last.fm

Brian Sopher on Soundcloud

Tyler Thompson on Soundcloud

Moosick Records

Illustrations For New Hintergrund Album

Exterior Artwork

During the summer of last year my good friend Brian Sopher and I got together for a jam session in which we spent time making noises, drones, and generally experimenting. Out of these freeform jam sessions our experimentation evolved into what is now known as the drone / noise duo Hintergrund. We released our first album Signal Blister during the summer of last year. Sometime back in January nearing the end of my winter break away from school Brian and I got together once again to record with no specific goal in mind before departing back to our respective colleges. Early in the first weeks of summer we met up to finish what we had started and to say the least, having given multiple listens, I'm pretty pleased with the results. What we were able to achieve is much more diverse than what can be heard on our first full length, Signal Blister.

Interior Artwork

The artwork is nearing completion. The two images seen above, that of the interior and exterior spreads are complete. All that is necessary now is the addition of type and the application of color.

As I have stated in past posts I believe the artwork is a crucial part, perhaps even on an equal level as the music in which it accompanies. Sometimes the artwork can determine whether or not I actually purchase an album whereas I could simply download it for free. Not only is it important in that aspect but also reflectively. I believe the artwork should serve a purpose not separate from the music but rather compliment the music visually in a way that reflects the mood, the concept, and emotions derived from it. With that said the artwork I have begun working on can be looked at as my interpretation of the sounds on this album in a visual form; fragmented, disjointed, chaotic, and broken which needless to say are a few words that essentially summarize the music that Brian and I have created together sonically in a visual sense.

On Repeat: Pigeon Breeders - Luminous Debris, Teotl Expansion - P:1, Heccra - The Last Weekend of Summer, White Suns - Sinews

Choice Cinema: David Lynch - 'Mulholland Drive' and 'Blue Velvet'

Good Reads: Mark Z. Danielewski - 'House Of Leaves'

Blogs / Sites: The League of Movable Type, Fonts of Chaos