Berlin psych/post-punk band The Third Sound are today releasing their new album ‘Most Perfect Solitude’ and sharing a video for the final single ‘On Returning’. Out digitally now and on physical May 17th via Fuzz Club, the follow-up to 2021’s ‘First Light’ is also supported by UK and European tour-dates kicking off next week.
Talking about the newly-released ‘Most Perfect Solitude’ LP, The Third Sound’s sixth full-length, Hakon Adalsteinsson says: “After touring First Light’ heavily and releasing our Fuzz Club Session LP last year – a career-spanning, retrospective document in a way – this album feels like starting with a clean slate. There is a certain warmth to some of the songs that has not been there before, but they still flicker between light and shadows, kind of like a slow-motion audio version of Brion Gysin‘s Dreamachine.”
Arriving following recent singles ‘Another Time, Another Place’ and ‘Wasteland’, ‘On Returning’ is a shimmering psychedelic daydream contrasting breezy reverb-soaked guitars against Hakon’s dark, brooding vocal. On the track, he says: “On Returning has a dreamy atmospheric feel to it but in a different way than we have done before I would say, as there is certain rawness to it as well. The lyrics have a simple theme: it's about rising up from the ashes, coming back stronger...that sort of thing.”
Having spent the last few years touring heavily in The Third Sound, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Golden Hours, Hakon’s mileage on the road influenced the making of the record in a number of ways. It was written and recorded over two weeks during a rare break in his gigging schedule, and travelling – and all the isolation and solitude that comes with it – also courses through the themes of the album itself. Hakon explains that the album’s title is a phrase lifted from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that he found by way of Werner Herzog’s journal writings in ‘Of Walking In Ice’, documenting the film-maker’s long walk from Munich to Paris, which Hakon was reading whilst out on tour himself:
“I noticed after the album was finished that many of the songs touched on the theme of trips or some sort of travel, so I knew immediately that it was going to be the title, especially because of the context I found it in. When you are travelling or touring you can find yourself in a weird sort of isolation, whilst also often looking for solitude to get away from everything. And, sometimes, it is best to listen to music in that most perfect solitude. We made this album relatively quickly as we only had a tight time frame to make it in. The odds were against us but just like gambling big and ending with a winning hand, it felt incredible, as well as a huge relief to realise when we pulled it off. It’s an album that we are extremely proud of, moving the band forward artistically.”
Watch:
