Description
Label Review.
2020 album. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Alain Johannes, the Chilean-American guitarist and vocalist, co-creator of the highly influential 1990s alternative rock band Eleven, presents ‘Hum’, his third solo album and first for six years. As well as tearing up his trademark Jazzmaster with major acts such as Queens Of The Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures and Chris Cornell he has lent a trusted ear when producing the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Brody Dalle and Mark Lanegan.
His new album is acoustic-based with songs echoing the sounds of artists ranging from Nick Drake to Eddie Vedder. “It’s more about me than probably any album I’ve ever done,” says Johannes about the collection that follows a period of tragic loss, extreme illness and rebirth. “It was something I was striving for and needed to communicate. Coming out of a difficult period, I was liberated. I had lost people who were very close to me. I went through struggles with my own health. There’s a personal energy behind the way it was recorded and the feel of the songs. It’s a document of my life right now.”
"You can think of the album title 'Hum' a few ways," adds Johannes. "Of course, there's a musical hum. There's an electrical hum. To me, it suggests a sense of mystery. When you stop and listen to silence in nature, the hum is underneath the threshold of hearing. It's a mysterious and magical sense of something existing, beautiful, and alive. It's a blanket word for the sound of the ether — something that's always been there, always will be there, and everything comes from it. It's the common connection to everything."
Tracklisting: Mermaids’ Scream / Hum / Hallowed Bones / Someone / If Morning Comes / Free / Sealed / Here In The Silence / Nine / Finis