Thomas Hildebrand's work is based in the foundations of musical thinkers who emphasize the sounds of the physical world as fodder for compositions. Influenced by the ideas of Cage and the like as much as the landscape of modern electronic music, he applies his unique sensibility to an approach which individualizes the vision of the artist – an approach which he makes the most of throughout his tangentially connected musical pursuits. Growing up with an opera singer and a big band arranger running the household afforded Thomas a wealth of education to absorb, and this background certainly seeps into his work, though through extremely subtle maneuvers. Using his relative outsider status in the crowded techno scene as a virtue, Hildebrand is slowly forging his own sound, embracing a variety of interests and sources and making them his own through jangling, moody tracks which hang in the balance between proper club music and personal couch listening.
Though his current work is predominantly in the minimal techno/microhouse vein, his perspective is shifted by his occasional, yet ongoing collaborations with leftfield hip hop/downtempo groups (Mainframe, Innaverse) and his background as a drummer in rock and funk bands. This consistent sense of moving away from his comfort zone helps his work satisfy enough genre conditions to fit, without ever unconditionally adhering to anything – adorning itself in its greatest virtue – adventurousness in not only its perspective on terms like techno or found house, but in the appropriation of his chosen sound sources. Digitally rendering the material culled from trains, key chains and random occurrences into rhythms which fit the 4/4 minimal form, yet are coming from a rock/hip hop/metal/funk drummer mind, helps position Hildebrand's music in a place which is always searching for something else, without losing sight of the matter at hand.
Hildebrand's debut EP will be out on Microcosm Music this summer.
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Hello, I have a remix on the "Summer Tour Remix Volume 2" compilation on the Anticipate website as a free download. Download Summer Tour Remix Volume 2 now.
The project concept was to take the sounds from Anticipate recording artist Sawako's field recordings, from her Summer 2007 tour of Europe and Japan, and use the sounds as source material for new works. I took this to heart and only used carefully selected edited pieces of her original field recordings with some audio processing and effects. To be completely honest, I did add a little synthesized kick drum
underneath to make it really thump. =)
Hope you enjoy the FREE download!