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

Screen Printing Hintergrund T-Shirts

So its been a minute since I've updated this blog.

Late last year I purchased a Speedball screen printing kit which due to time constraints from school work and a general lack of motivation (mostly the latter) I didn't bother messing around with. With all of the free time I had during the summer away from school I decided to set aside some time to learn about the process of screen printing.

The image I worked with is a photograph of an old factory tower I took that was used as artwork for the album sleeve of the first Hintergrund release, Signal Blister. I used the diazo photo emulsion technique to reproduce the image seeing as that is pretty much the only way of replicating it while retaining as much detail as possible. The process involved much trial and error as I often ended up with either an under exposed image or an over-exposed one but finally I was able to achieve a proper exposure.

I think the final image turned out nicely and have printed around 12 black on white t-shirts for the first run. If demand is high enough I may print more but until now this is it.

In other Hintergrund related news, during the summer Brian and I got together to record material for the next Hintergrund release, all post-production and mastering has been completed and having given multiple listens the results sound great. More details regarding the new album and a release date will be determined as soon as I finish completing the art work, which I will post the progress of here.

On Repeat: Wreck and Reference - 'No Youth', White Suns - 'Sinews', Bosse-de-Nage - 'III', Death Grips - 'No Love Deep Web'

Choice Cinema: Last Year At Marienbad, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Julien Donkey-Boy, Naked

Good Reads: Mark Danielewski - 'House Of Leaves, Miranda July' - 'No One Belongs Here More Than You', Jack Kerouac - 'On The Road', Alison Bechdel - 'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'

Signal Blister Design and Layout

Hintergrund's Signal Blister is well on it's way to becoming a realized physical product. With the design and layout of the packaging complete I am currently working on assembling the CD case. Everything is being cut and put together by hand so it is taking some time to complete each one but it is coming along well. I have never assembled a CD case or any physical package for that matter so this has been a great learning experience.

Above is the cover art. The album cover is a wrap around gatefold style CD case. The right half of the image is the front of the album with the left half being the back. Since the music relies heavily on textures and soundscapes I saw it fitting that the artwork should convey the same feeling one might receive while listening to the album. Prior to this project, I had never taken photographs for art purposes so I seized this as an opportunity to try it out. Pictured below is the interior art for the album. Together the images reflect a cracked and fragmented landscape, something distant, far away from here. Something that has barely survived a long tormented relationship with a dangerous and unknown act of celestial wrath.

Above is the design for the CD sleeve with the credits and the track list. The sleeve will house the CD and slide into a pocket within the case.

More soon on details regarding the final product. Stay with me...

Black Line by Tyler.Thompson
Loss of Light by Tyler.Thompson


On Repeat: Yellow Swans - "At All Ends", Heavy Winged - "Sunspotted", The Weeknd - "Thursday"

Other Blogs / Sites of Interest: Incurably Optimistic, Zug Zwang Productions

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 haze. The 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:

Blogspot: http://sleepingglass.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @bsophs

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/briansopher

Music Review: http://incurablyoptimistic.blogspot.com/

 Hintergrund - Half Halo by Tyler.Thompson 

 Hintergrund - Antithesis by Tyler.Thompson 

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