Daniel Bachman shares “Flood Stage” video

Almanac Behind, the new project from the composer, is due out November 18.

September 20, 2022
Daniel Bachman shares “Flood Stage” video Daniel Bachman. Photo by Aldona Dye.  

Experimental composer Daniel Bachman has announced his new album Almanac Behind. It’s due out November 18 via Three Lobed, and today you can hear its lead single, “Flood Stage.”

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An artist who draws inspiration from the world around him, Bachman is channeling the collective sense of doom and impotence caused by man-made climate change. Whereas his 2021 album Axacan (premiered on The FADER) had a lighter touch, the music of “Flood Stage” is a gradually building and eventually crushing wall of sound where beautiful flourishes and compositional notes get swallowed up in the tide.

Bachman described the themes behind the album and the composition of “Flood Stage” in a press statement.

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The hiss of fire, the crack of thunder, and the silence of blackout. Howling wind, hard rain, and the force of moving water. Sounds which are inherently familiar to everyone on Earth experiencing climate breakdown and its effect on their communities. This is the music of Almanac Behind. “Flood Stage” takes you right to the rising waters. The pulsing rhythm that rides atop the waves is created by slowing local AM radio static until the noise separates itself into distinct beats. Fiddle drones weave in and out of the river water, while gong-like guitar notes ring out at regular intervals. This melody was created by digitally cutting and pasting improvisational tape recordings to create an entirely new guitar piece, resembling broken debris floating downstream. The guitar is slowly overtaken by the sound of all of Virginia’s major rivers at flood stage, falling and crashing in on themselves, and cuts out just as the waters have breached the riverbank.

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Daniel Bachman shares “Flood Stage” video