HELIOCHRYSUM – WE BECOME MIST

WE BECOME MIST

BACKGROUND

HELIOCHRYSUM IS A BRAND NEW PROJECT BASED IN LOS ANGELES A COLLABORATION BETWEEN COMPOSER MICHAEL DERAGON AND DANIEL LEA. A SCULPTED JOURNEY INTO NEW AURAL AND IMAGINATIVE COSMOLOGY.

TO MINE THE DEPTHS OF INDUSTRIAL AND SCIENCE FICTIONAL, PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDSCAPES, OFTEN CINEMATIC IN TONE AND TEXTURE. HELIOCHRYSUM ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF THEIR VISCERAL, DEEP AND EXPLORATORY DEBUT ALBUM WE BECOME MIST. THE ALBUM HAS BEEN MIXED BY BEN FROST AND MASTERED BY VALGEIR SIGURDSSON.

HELIOCHRYSUM IS THE WORLD BUILDING MEETING OF MICHAEL DERAGON AND DANIEL LEA ( L A N D, IMPORTANT RECORDS), IN WHICH A COLLABORATION BECOMES A SCULPTED JOURNEY INTO NEW AURAL AND IMAGINATIVE COSMOLOGY.

WE BECOME MIST USES ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL PROCESSES TO MINE THE DEPTHS OF INDUSTRIAL AND SCIENCE FICTIONAL, PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDSCAPES, OFTEN CINEMATIC IN TONE AND TEXTURE.

TAKING THEIR CUE FROM A SHARED PALETTE OF SOUNDS, TEXTURES AND RHYTHMS, HELIOCHRYSUM CREATE A UNIFYING SCORE THAT IS AT ONCE IMPROVISATORY AND SONICALLY CERTAIN.

WE BECOME MIST IS NOTHING SHORT OF THE PROGRESSION FROM A SOUTERRAIN AWAKENING TO THE TERRAFORMED SOUND OF A NEW WORLD COMING INTO EXISTENCE.

"AS WE OFTEN TOLD, THE
DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL...."

RELEASE NOTES

TAKING THEIR CUE FROM A SHARED PALETTE OF SOUNDS, TEXTURES AND RHYTHMS, HELIOCHRYSUM CREATE A UNIFYING SCORE THAT IS AT ONCE IMPROVISATORY AND SONICALLY CERTAIN. WE BECOME MIST IS NOTHING SHORT OF THE PROGRESSION FROM A SOUTERRAIN AWAKENING TO THE TERRAFORMED SOUND OF A NEW WORLD COMING INTO EXISTENCE.

THESE TRACKS OVERLAY ANALOG SOUND SOURCES, DIGITAL HARD WROUGHT PROCESSING AND VISUAL SOUND DESIGN, CONSTANTLY MORPHING AND TURNING ON THEIR OWN SEARCHING TORQUE. MIXED BY BEN FROST AND MASTERED BY VALGEIR SIGURDSSON, THE ACCUMULATION OF SHEER VISION AND DEPTH IS TRANSPORTATIVE, IF NOT OUTRIGHT MIND WRENCHING. IN BETWEEN THIS MELDING OF THE ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL WAS MIXED ANOTHER ELEMENT: THE ALBUM IS TINGED WITH PSILOCYBIN TECHNOLOGY. AS A LISTENER YOU CAN HEAR AS YOU MOVE THROUGH A PSYCHEDELIC PASSAGE, LIKE OUT OF A STATE OF LOCKDOWN INTO ONE OF ALIEN OTHERWORLDLINESS.

THE PIANO, INDUSTRIAL CRESCENDO OF ‘WE REMAIN BENEATH’ IS EVIDENCE OF THIS, SOUNDS MODIFIED INTO CAREFUL, LUSH ARRANGEMENTS. ‘A FUTURE UNFOLDS’ SOUNDS LIKE A BURNISHED UNFURLING, A RESPLENDENT DISTORTION BRINGING TO MIND SOME EPIC REVELATION WHILE TRACKS SUCH AS ‘INFINITE DARK’ OR ‘PRE DAWN’ BRISTLE WITH CHROME PULSES THAT BURN WITH ALARM AND DULCET DRAMA.

JUST AS THEY DID WITH THEIR PALETTE OF SOUNDS, HELIOCHRYSUM TAPS INTO A WIDE RANGE OF EMOTIONS FROM HOPE TO DEVASTATION, GROWTH AND CONTAGION.

THE NAME HELIOCHRYSUM EVOKES THE LATIN FOR SUNFLOWER BUT ALSO A HEALING TINCTURE: IN THE OVERLAID ORCHESTRATION AND DISTORTED LIGHTNESS, THE ROILING, LIFE-GIVING POUR OF THE SUN CAN BE HEARD. SIMPLICITY WASHED WITH EMOTIONAL INTENSITY, THE REMEMBERED DREAMS OF FAR-OFF, SCIENCE-FICTIVE DISCOVERIES.

"CONSTANTLY EVOLVING AND CASTING NEW SONIC SHADOWS...."

PROCESS

THE SOUND PALETTE WAS CONSTRUCTED WITH A CONTRASTING COLLECTION OF INSTRUMENTATION INCLUDING A DULCITONE AND UPRIGHT PIANO, GUITARS E-BOW’S, BASS, TEXTURAL TIMBRE’S,SYNTHESIZERS AND SAMPLER INSTRUMENTS WERE MADE FROM ISOLATED PARTS, PEDAL PROCESSES AND FIELD RECORDINGS.

RECORDINGS THEN WENT THROUGH HEAVY ANALOG AND DIGITAL PROCESSES, MANIPULATIONS TO THE POINT WHERE THE SOUNDS WERE COMPLETELY UNSHACKLED FROM THEIR INSTRUMENTAL ORIGINS, THE CHROME LIKE WAVE TEXTURES OF “A FUTURE UNFOLDS” FOR EXAMPLE WERE CREATED BY BLOWING OUT SYNTHESIZERS THROUGH CLIPPING AND RE-PROCESSING AGAIN AND AGAIN.

APART FROM MICHAEL AND DANIEL PLAYING ALL THE INSTRUMENTAL PARTS ON THIS RECORD, BETHAN KELLOUGH (TYPE RECORDS) A COMPOSER, SOUND ARTIST AND STRING PLAYER WHO SPECIALIZES IN CREATING SPATIAL IMMERSIVE SOUND WORLDS WAS BROUGHT IN. HER WORK CAN BE HEARD ON THE SINGLE “WE BECOME MIST”

“WE BECOME MIST” WAS THEN MIXED BY BEN FROST AT HIS OWN STUDIO IN REYKJAVIK. LATER STEMMED OUT AND FINALLY MIXED THROUGH A NEVE DESK AT KINGSIZE STUDIOS IN LOS ANGELES.

FINALLY THE ALBUM WAS MASTERED BY VALGIER SIGGERSON (BEDROOM COMMUNITY LABEL OWNER AND COMPOSER) AT GREENHOUSE STUDIOS IN REYKJAVIK.

RELEASED BY BEDROOM COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 2021

BEDROOM COMMUNITY I HVALUR37 I LP, TP, DIG I

TRACKLIST

1. INFINITE DARK
2. PRE DAWN
3. WE REMAIN BENEATH
4. ALIENA
5. MY DREAMS SLEEP IN YOUR HANDS
6. A FUTURE UNFOLDS
7. INFINITE VESSEL
8 WE BECOME MIST
9. FORSAKEN STRUCTURES
10. WE BECAME MATTER

CREDITS

COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY M.DERAGON & DANIEL LEA

M.DERAGON: GUITARS, SYNTHESIZERS, DULCITONE & PIANO

DANIEL LEA: SOUND DESIGN, PRODUCTION, EBOWS, SYNTHESIZERS, DULCITONE & PIANO

BETHAN KELLOUGH: STRINGS ON “WE BECOME MIST”

MIXED BY BEN FROST

MASTERED BY VALGIER SIGURDSSON

ARTWORK BY ROBERTO CRIPPA

RELEASED BY BEDROOM COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 2021

ALL RECORDINGS