PHASOR, Roberto Carlos Lange’s latest as Helado Negro, was partially inspired by getting to visit Salvatore Matirano’s SAL-MAR synthesizer at the University of Illinois. “I was enthralled by it,” Lange says. “It’s like sailing; you set a destination but how you get there always changes.” This one of a kind “organic sound creation device,” as one of the synth’s caretakers puts it, is perfect for Helado Negro’s earthy, vibrant and highly empathetic universe. It’s a wonderful record and you can listen to the whole thing below.
We asked Roberto to tell us more about the album and he obliged with a list of 10 mostly musical inspirations for PHASOR, including Joan Armatrading, Joao Gilberto, Trans-Am and more. You can check out his list and commentary below. For even more on PHASOR, you can watch a gorgeously shot short film on the album by Spencer Kelly below.
Helado Negro – 10 Influences behind PHASOR
1. John Tchicai With Strings – is a remarkable record. This is my introduction to his work and I’ve been slowly listening to more of his work. There is a poem and mystery in every song. Challenging at times but those are the moments you remember and bring you back for more. Those feelings of discovery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfWhzziANDM&pp=ygUZSm9obiBUY2hpY2FpIFdpdGggU3RyaW5ncw%3D%3D
2. Freddy Mamani – is a Bolivian architect whose work I stumbled upon online. The work he makes is so captivating. Bold colors and shapes, dreamlike buildings. It feels like he’s inhabited a world with a language all his own.
3. I spend so much time on Archive.org – it’s such a great library of the world. It’s the odds and ends getting filed away. The most mundane and the most amazing. Lots to sift through but it scratches that itch when i want to find something exciting and inspiring like this and this.
4. Carlos Cutaia’s “Sensacion Melancolica” is a song I love. Dark room synthesizer with one low powered strobe in the corner creating silhouettes of people dancing in an unbothered way holding cigarettes and a glass with ice.
5. Bobby Hutcherson’s Manzanita is this seductive wonder. Vibraphone notes tripping into the ether. Guitars and voices floating harmonies and textures. It’s some type of air breathed on a different planet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS3-QkA4XGI&pp=ygUcQm9iYnkgSHV0Y2hlcnNvbidzIE1hbnphbml0YQ%3D%3D
6. Joao Gilberto – “Bahia Com H (ao vivo no Sesc)”: this live performance of this wonderful song is such a good document of wonderful wizardry that Joao can create with melody. A master of melody. They seem like they can never end. Endlessly inspired celestial bodies orbiting each other.
7. Special Request – “Salsa Smurph” – this song is embedded in my bones. The arrangement is in my DNA. I grew up in south Florida listening to Power 96 in ’80s and ’90s Miami Bass, freestyle and more pumped through the speakers. 808s, Juno synth stabs echoing down i-95 into my bedroom.
8. Trans Am – “Love Commander” I hadn’t listened to this song since I was in college. It brought me back and really made me feel inspired to think about how they would juxtapose processed sounds and the freedom and liberties they took with extremes in the sounds.
9. Cecil Taylor – “T(beautiful Young’n)”: I’ve known and heard Cecil’s work over the years but I hadn’t sat with it too often and in 2021, I began to really listen to it and it has had a profound effect on me. His distinct virtuosic approach to creating on the piano is singular. It’s challenging and enlightening. Makes you want to know what his intentions were too. Like which planet did you come from!
10. Joan Armatrading – “Barefoot and Pregnant.” This song is glorious. Such a beautiful complexity in the arrangement. Her voice coasts across such illuminating harmonies and unexpected turns. Its got this boogie feel but sits in between so many worlds.
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Helado Negro will be on tour starting this weekend and plays NYC on April 24 at Webster Hall with Marem Ladson. All dates are below.
HELADO NEGRO – 2024 TOUR DATES
2/10 – Orlando, FL – The Social
2/12 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
2/13 – Austin, TX – Empire Control Room & Garage
2/14 – Fort Worth, TX – Tulips FTW
2/17 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
2/18 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet’s
2/19 – San Diego, CA – Music Box
2/21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco
2/22 – San Francisco, CA – August Hall
2/23 – Sacramento, CA – TBA
2/25 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
2/26 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
2/29 – Tallinn, Estonia – Paavli Kultuurivabrik
3/2 – Vilnius, Lithuania – Kablys
3/3 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Loppen
3/5 – Berlin, Germany – Hole44
3/6 – Warsaw, Poland – Jassmine
3/9 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Kulturfabrik Krefeld eV
3/12 – Brussels, Belgium – Botanique
3/14 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Ekko
4/21 – Asheville, NC – Eulogy
4/22 – Chapel Hill, NC – Cats Cradle
4/23 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
4/24 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
4/26 – Boston, MA – TBA
4/28 – Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
4/30 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
5/1 – Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
5/3 – Denver, CO – Globe Hall
5/4 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Urban Lounge