Pantha Du Prince has announced details of his third full-length, which goes under the title of Black Noise.
All of Hendrik Weber's previous solo releases have been issued by Hamburg's Dial imprint, but this time around his work will be housed on Geoff Travis' Rough Trade imprint, which is more generally associated with indie and rock artists. Fans of his previous output should be glad to know that his melodically rich house and techno sound hasn't changed too much for the hook up, although there are a couple of vocal-led tracks sprinkled throughout the record. Previous Dial single "Beyond The Stars" is one of these, while "Stick To My Side" sees Animal Collective's Noah Gibson (AKA Panda Bear) add his dulcet tones to Weber's orchestral throbs and shuffling beats. Tyler Pope of !!! and LCD Soundsystem also plays bass on "The Splendour."
The entire record is said to be based around field recordings collected in the Swiss Alps alongside Joachim Schütz (Arnold Dreyblatt Trio) and Stephan Abry (Workshop). The introductions to most of the tracks highlight the samples collected by the trio, before developing into fully fledged Pantha Du Prince workouts, complete with plenty of lush tones and restrained but funky percussion. We spoke to Hendrik by e-mail to ask him a few questions about the record.
This is your first full release that doesn't appear on Dial. How did the Rough Trade hook up come about?
Rough Trade contacted me. I was talking to Geoff Travis and we were both into the idea of working together on a Pantha Du Prince release. I've really respected their work since I was a teenager. I've followed their releases since then, and a lot of the music that came out in the '80s influenced me as an artist profoundly, so it felt kind of natural to work with them.
How did the collaboration with Stephan and Joachim work out? What sort of sounds did you pick up during your stay in the Alps?
It was an experiment and we had a good time. It was like a sound lab; a conquest to find new sounds. We did not really work on tracks together, we recorded music, but I used some sounds of the recordings for Pantha Du Prince. It was more about finding the right moment in a recording that tells a story and makes it visible, a hidden story audible. What you don't hear in the first place, like the principle of black noise as a scientific phenomenon.
Can you tell us a little bit about the work you've done on the record that concerns the principle of morphing?
Some of the sounds I used had to be transformed or morphed into electronic worlds, so it is like injecting information into the recorded sound to make the source more visible.
Why has the record been titled Black Noise?
The title has been around for a year, when I discovered we were actually recording in a landslide area. It made sense to me to describe the principle of the process I followed to create the tracks. A frequency you don't hear but it is there in a sublime and intriguing way, and creating tracks out of these magic moments.
What else have you got on the horizon for 2010?
We are preparing a remix compilation with Pantha Du Prince remix works on it, and I will compile an album with my favorite pieces of music by other composers. A new Dial compilation will be out in March—watch out!
Tracklist
01. Lay In A Shimmer
02. Abglanz
03. The Splendour
04. Stick To My Side
05. A Nomad's Retreat
06. Satellite Snyper
07. Behind The Stars
08. Bohemian Forest
09. Welt Am Draht
10. Im Bann
11. Es Schneit
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