hd hausmann‘s ‘Old Satellites’ is a teaser for the release of their debut album ‘wring the moisture from the surf’ on 6th November, a grand, majestic anthem for a modern life filled with people that make you yearn to capture brief moments of solitude that you can control. Its dulcet poetic imagery scatters this first person narrative (“thoughts of every silhouette that fell upon our beaten chest”) that’s lashed by insistent pianos and shuddering circular rhythm reminding one of the grandeur of The National, or the enveloping majesty of mid-period British Sea Power. Its tremulous waves of emotion are like a camera that gradually pans out from the sharp focus of pain to widescreen, to gawp at the life-affirming beauty of nature. In short, it’s bloody awe inspiring.
hd hausmann – ‘Old Satellites’ from Nicholas Jones on Vimeo.
It’s accompanied by a short film created by documentary maker Nicholas Jones, he says of its inspiration:
“Upon listening to and reading the lyrics for ‘Old Satellites’, I was struck by the idea of a person trying to grasp back control and I decided I wanted to represent this with the idea of loneliness in contrast to solitude. These days we rarely get a chance to be alone and appreciate the benefits of solitude. We are inundated by information, technology and people, feeling lost when we don’t have access to the world through our phones or social media. Our everyday lives can be overwhelming, seeking out solitude could be a path to understanding ourselves and others. This film juxtaposes images of claustrophobic crowds against isolation in nature, in an attempt to analyse that no matter how many people are around us, if we don’t know ourselves, we are ultimately alone.”
“I liked the idea of a band going under a moniker that could umbrella them as a single individual”, says LP, the primary songwriter behind the geographically disparate group hd hausmann. “I wanted to create ambiguity and a certain amount of anonymity.”
“hd hausmann features a series of musicians from across the country to contribute to the album’s palate. Drums by RH in London, backing vocals/keyboards by AS in Manchester, random horn players found online, experimental piano parts played by JH without having heard the songs themselves; and when the whole lot was finally finished, it nearly broke LP’s computer, so he passed it onto SD who mixed the whole thing and laid down the bonding glue.”
