After what feels like years of waiting, we’re finally getting a new Hunter Complex album, Open Sea. It releases Wednesday on Death Waltz Originals, but today the label has the excellent instrumental album live on its Bandcamp page.
Hunter Complex, AKA Dutch musician Lars Meijer, pairs dreamy and majestic cinematic synthscapes with a tight synth-funk and synth-pop foundation, creating an atmosphere of endless possibilities with the kinesis of the dance floor.
Open Sea is Hunter Complex’s third album, following up 2013’s acclaimed album, Heat.
Death Waltz Originals, a sublabel of MONDO/Death Waltz, will start selling the Open Sea vinyl on Wednesday, Jan. 23. James Plotkin mastered the album, with the inimitable Eric Adrian Lee providing the gorgeous artwork.
Here’s what Meijer, co-owner of the Narrominded label, says about his release in an exclusive interview with Vehlinggo:
“Account of the Moon” was written while thinking of living on other planets. It’s overwhelming and beautiful, but sometimes also pretty terrifying. Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall was an influence when I wrote this. The whole album is actually very movie-influenced, so it fits perfectly on Death Waltz.
“We Fought for America” was inspired by Vietnam-War movies with Gene Hackman: Bat 21 (awesome OST by Christopher Young!) and Uncommon Valor. That impenetrable jungle, the heat — I love it. “A Float for a Marker” coincidentally was written while watching Night Moves, another Gene Hackman movie. There’s a scene in the middle of the ocean, with a penetrating sun, a waterboat landing, a big fight, and people drowning. It looks really gorgeous.”
And here’s what MONDO/Death Waltz label manager Spencer Hickman said about Open Sea in a press release:
“The long awaited new LP from Hunter Complex features 10 tracks of supreme synth goodness that are at the same time retro and totally futuristic. It’s musically rich in ideas: melodies intertwine with soaring synths and ’80s style drum machines, but it never feels like a pastiche or a carbon copy of a bygone era. The hooks on this record are incredible: its mix of warm analog and bright digital synths are at a layer of complexity that most records in this genre can’t manage to achieve.”
