Steven Hess + Rutger Zuydervelt

1. 23:57
2. Soon
3. Floored I
4. Fade
5. Sedate
6. Mute
7. Ripple
8. Afloat
9. Bell
10. Floored II
11. Away

Available to pre-order here

A note from Steven and Rutger

Re:construct is our second album, following Re:collecting, which was released in 2016 on Umor Rex. We were very happy with how that collaboration turned out and knew that we wanted to make another album together at some point. However, being both quite busy folks, the follow-up has taken us a full decade to do. Not that we spent all that time working on the material—far from it. But once we reconnected and decided to begin working on this collaboration, creating the material and the momentum came easily, and the album was purposely completed at a fairly quick pace.

The key was setting limits and trust. Although this album is quite different from our previous one, the working method was similar. Steven recorded a variety of raw material which was sent to Rutger, who then edited and reworked that material into more structured pieces. Rather than discussing and planning the album ahead of time, we preferred just seeing where inspiration and our ears would lead us, adopting the approach of “first thought, best thought.”

While Re:collecting consisted of four longer, drawn-out pieces, each of which was very textural and hypnotic, Re:construct ended up being more varied, with shorter songs and more emphasis on form and rhythm. This was not by deliberate design, but it was what the source material (and our personal interests, of course) dictated at the moment.

Perhaps the first album, in its moodiness, would be a more appropriate soundtrack for the state the world is in today. But something more open, energetic, and–dare we say–hopeful might be a better way to counter this dread.