Helado Negro Releases Short Film ‘Stories of PHASOR’
Helado Negro
Releases Short Film ‘Stories of PHASOR’
WATCH HERE
New Album PHASOR Out This Friday
World Tour Launches on Friday in US
“One of the richest listening experiences I’ve had for years; Helado Negro’s PHASOR is a triumph.” – Loud & Quiet (9/10)
“Warm, hopeful chugs that fuse electronica, folk and chamber pop to harness his light, intoxicating vocals… rendered with a delicate, impressionistic touch.” – MOJO (4/5)
“Helado Negro’s heavy-lidded dream-pop is fine-tuned to the languid luxury of a ceaseless, carefree summer afternoon.” – DJ Mag
PHASOR features recently released singles, the ebullient yet melancholic ‘Best For You and Me’, languid and fuzzy love song ‘I Just Want To Wake Up With You’ and Spanish language single ‘LFO’, which is a song written in tribute to both Fender amp-builder Lupe Lopez and minimalist composer and sonic meditation practitioner Pauline Oliveros (LFO means Lupe Finds Olivero).
Watch ‘Stories of PHASOR‘ HERE or via the player below.
Documentary directed by Spencer Kelly
Lange’s eighth full-length Helado Negro album, PHASOR is his tightest collection – deep, atmospheric, meticulously executed. It’s aligned with 2019’s This Is How You Smile which found him incorporating more upfront drums and bass and focused grooves. His 2021 album, Far In, focused on being in quarantine – talking to your mother through Zoom instead of across a room. PHASOR, in turn, is a homage to going outside again. It’s a returning-to-life record, remembering what the sun feels like and letting it warm your skin.
Some of the seeds for PHASOR were planted in 2019 on Lange’s 39th birthday after a 5-hour visit to Salvatore Matirano’s SAL MAR machine at the University of Illinois. A complex synthesizer that creates music generatively with a vintage super computer brain and analog oscillators, it can create an infinite amount of possibilities in sound sequences. The SAL MAR experience became the bedrock for PHASOR. It taught Lange more about himself and became central to his creative process.
After Far In, Lange relocated to Asheville, North Carolina and the landscape around him was essential to PHASOR —the crystalline mountains dotted with mica, wild blueberry bushes, and inky dirt surface constantly. He made the collection at his studio, across the hall from the studio of his wife, his frequent collaborator Kristi Sword, who created the album art drawings for PHASOR.
Helado Negro kicks off his extensive tour of North America and Europe on Friday in Atlanta, which includes a London headline show at Scala on 7 March. See below for tour dates and further ticket information can be found at Helado Negro’s official website.
PHASOR will be available digitally and on CD, standard black vinyl and translucent vinyl (4AD webstore + UK indie exclusive) on 9 February. To pre-order or for more information head HERE.
Tracklist
1. LFO
2. I Just Want to Wake Up With You
3. Best For You and Me
4. Colores Del Mar
5. Echo Tricks Me
6. Out There
7. Flores
8. Wish You Could Be Here
9. Es Una Fantasia
9 February – ATLANTA, GA, USA, The masquerade
10 February – ORLANDO, FL, USA, The Social
12 February – HOUSTON, TX, USA, White Oak Music Hall
13 February – AUSTIN, TX, USA, Empire Control Room & Garage
14 February – FORT WORTH, TX, USA, Tulips
17 February – PHOENIX, AZ, USA, Crescent Ballroom
18 February – PIONEERTOWN, CA, USA, Pappy and Harriet’s
19 February – SAN DIEGO, CA, USA, Music Box
21 February – LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, The Belasco
22 February – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, August Hall
23 February – SACRAMENTO, CA, USA, Harlow’s
25 February – SEATTLE, WA, USA, Neptune Theatre
26 February – PORTLAND, OR, USA, Revolution Hall
29 February – TALLINN, ESTONIA, Paavli Kultuurivabrik
2 March – VILNIUS, LITHUANIA, Kablys
3 March – COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, Loppen
5 March – BERLIN, GERMANY, Hole44
6 March – WARSAW, POLAND, Jassmine
7 March – LONDON, UK, Scala
9 March – LUXEMBOURG, Kulturfabrik
10 March – PARIS, FRANCE, La Maroquinerie
12 March – BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, Botanique
14 March – UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS, Ekko
15 March – STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, Studion @ Kulturhuset
21 April – ASHEVILLE, NC, USA, Eulogy
22 April – CHAPEL HILL, NC, USA, Cats Cradle
23 April – WASHINGTON, DC, USA, The Atlantis
24 April – NEW YORK, NY, USA, Webster Hall
26 April – BOSTON, MA, USA, Sinclair
27 April – HAMDEN, CT, USA, Space Ballroom
28 April – PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA, Underground Arts
30 April – CHICAGO, IL, USA, Thalia Hall
1 May – MINNEAPOLIS, MN, USA, Turf Club
3 May – DENVER, CO, USA, Globe Hall
4 May – SALT LAKE CITY, UT, USA, The Urban Lounge
Born in South Florida in 1980 to Ecuadorian immigrant parents, Roberto Carlos Lange stitches together memories, impressions, and atmospheres to make detailed dreamscapes as Helado Negro. He produces, engineers, and mixes his own songs, literally creating and populating his own sonic world. Lange has a degree in Computer Art and Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design and works extensively with video, sculpture, sound, and performance. He brings that toolbox to whatever he makes, and there’s a seeming effortlessness to the complexity. His songs are awash with vibrant melodies, sharp lyrical vignettes, and subtle, even whispered hooks. Since his 2009 debut, Awe Owe, across multiple projects and collaborations, through his breakthrough records, 2016’s Private Energy and 2019’s This Is How You Smile, and to 2021’s Far In, Lange’s work continues to move past easy genre assignments. Showcasing that interest in open-ended multi-disciplinarity, in 2022, he and his wife, the artist Kristi Sword, created the multi-disciplinary exhibition, Kite Symphony, with Ballroom Marfa – it was a collection of impressionistic installations, drawings and sound pieces that encourages listeners to “open their ears to the sky, the sound of cacti, and the feeling of the wind on their skin.” Lange has been awarded a United States Artist fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant. He lives in Asheville, NC.