10-Year Anniversary Re-press on Orange & Red Marbled Double LP
"Nearly a decade passed before the release of Hansen’s first proper Tycho LP, Sunrise Projector (later expanded and reissued under the title Past Is Prologue). And while three striking singles have emerged since then, the sum of all those sepia-toned parts is nowhere near the double-exposed soundscapes of Dive. The product of a prolonged break from IS050’s design work and blog, it pays tribute to Tycho’s prismatic past (the dense, guitar-guided turning points of “Daydream” and “Adrift”) but spends most of its time pointing to the project’s not-so-distant future.
That can mean any number of things, really, from the halcyon hooks and hopeful horizons of “A Walk” to the expansive, wildly expressive tone poetry of the title track, an eight-minute epic that unfolds like a compressed concept album. Or at the very least, a restless vision of prog-rock—one that’s been coated in neon colors and filtered through a thick piece of blotter paper. And then there’s “Elegy,” a spare curtain closer that pairs a vulnerable crescendo with a fitting bridge to future works.
And with that, Dive establishes its position as the most diverse musical statement of Hansen’s multi-medium career; the point where his skills as a performer finally catch up with his vaporized vision of a world that doesn’t belong to any particular time or place.
“Nostalgia is a common thread in my work,” says Hansen, “but this album wasn’t driven by that idea. I see these songs as artifacts from a future which might have more in common with our past than our present.”
| A1 | A Walk |
| A2 | Hours |
| A3 | Daydream |
| B1 | Dive |
| B2 | Coastal Brake |
| C1 | Ascension |
| C2 | Melanine |
| C3 | Adrift |
| D1 | Epigram |
| D2 | Elegy |
