It’s not so often that I get submissions from people who claim to create soundscapes. hd hausmann is a UK-based folk/noisescape band, and they’ve just released a single “old satellites” from their upcoming LP, wring the moisture from the surf, out Nov 6 on Marshall Teller Records. The band sees this project as a way to combine identities into one musical being as well as a pathway to anonymity and ambiguity. The band name is an amalgam of various literary references, but in particular a reference to the architect who redesigned Paris under Napoleon III and a Haussmanized boulevard from which author Marcel Proust gained inspiration. Take a listen to their lofty-minded efforts below.
I’m having trouble pinpointing exactly what this track reminds me of – their press release mentions Grouper and Angel Olson, which I agree with, but I’d also want to add Nils Frahm perhaps and still another vocal influence which is eluding me. There’s a very delicately composed cadence to this track, beginning with staccato piano and hazy guitar layers before the hushed vocal part provides an urgency to the rhythm that the piano part had been hinting at. hd hausmann describes this song as an effort to bridge the gap between traditional songwriting and soundscape creation, and I think it succeeds in that (even if there could have been a tiny bit more instrumental variation). It’s a five minute long exercise in crescendo and decrescendo, and it certainly succeeds in making the listener feel some type of way.
You can keep up with hd hausmann on social media or stream more of their music on soundcloud.
