Guilt Box is the new album from musician and sound designer Keith Hillebrandt on his new digital imprint Sistema Sequencia. Following his previous releases Blue and Flood, Guilt Box continues Keith's exploration of electronic and found sounds manipulated into instrumental song form. While Blue and Flood were more moody audio scapes, Guilt Box is more aggressive, noisy. Using the wealth of knowledge and experience gained from extensive studio work with artists from Trent Reznor to Li Alin, Keith crushes together aggressive bass and drum backbones with soaring melodies and dynamic musical effects to create another step in his audio evolution. From the opening track Suspend to the last, Curious Twin, Guilt Box delivers Keith's more aggressive vision without compromise or simple studio tricks.Guilt Box originally found expression in New Orleans in October 2006, where Keith went on a writing spree in his one-time adopted home. The lack of post-Katrina progress inspired tracks like Do Not Thieve and In Terra Sanche, which include elements of found sounds from his time in New Orleans. Keith returned to San Francisco and his studio to finish the tracks in January 2007. The tracks Suspend and Match Box are both improvised tracks from his live set. The remainder of the tracks from Guilt Box were written from March through June, as Keith continued experimenting with software such as Reaktor, Live, and beta versions of Logic 8, as well as his old hardware standbys, the ARP 2600 and Roland Jupiters. Guilt Box was mixed in August and mastered by Bryan Gibbs at Asphodel Studios in San Francisco.
Keith Hillebrandt is best known for his work with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails from 1996 to 2002, but has been working in and around the music technology and studio scene for 15 years. He's touched all facets of studio life including producing (Koyi K Utho, NOMADD, Zen Voodou), mixing (Li Alin), remixing (NIN, David Bowie), playing keyboards/programming (NIN) and sound design (NIN, Nearly). He has released 3 solo instrumental albums: Blue (2005) on Piggyback Records, Flood (2006), his post-Katrina tribute EP to his one-time adopted home of New Orleans, and his latest work Guilt Box (2007). Keith has also releases several critically acclaimed sound libraries of his noise including the Useful Noise series and Arhytmia with former NIN drummer/Nearly founder Jerome Dillon.
