Kong Must Dead
Psychopomp, CA

Begun as the solo project of composer/songwriter Ben Hjertmann, Kong Must Dead was named for a mysterious graffito on a Prague bridge, and from 2008-2011 it was the place for Hjertmann’s experiments in songcraft, collaboration, and general off-blowing-of-steam from graduate studies in composition. KMD self-released 2010’s avant-hiphop …feat. Andrew Davis II and 2011’s indie rock On Myth and Memory.

A psychopomp is a spiritual guide, often animal, in this case generally musical, who guides the newly deceased soul to the afterlife. Taking a breath from avant-garde composition and re-exploring beloved music from the 1960s and '70s, Hjertmann began composing Psychopomp, CA in 2013 at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program—an idyllic cliffside retreat in coastal California which offers ample mysterious mist and Neil Young as an irascible neighbor. Hjertmann assembled these songs slowly over the subsequent three years. In summer 2015, the first full-band realization of Kong Must Dead convened in the mountains of North Carolina. Hjertmann (voice/guitar) had rented a tiny old house, probably haunted, to use as a rehearsal and recording studio. Bandmates Luke Gullickson (piano/rhodes/guitar), Chris Fisher-Lochhead (pedal steel guitar/viola), and Ryan Packard (drums) all cut their teeth in the avant-classical realm and bring their wide listening to bear on Hjertmann’s limber songwriting.

Psychopomp, CA is split in two halves: the first, Psychopomp, CA, glows with theatrical, lavishly orchestrated songs that dissolve into the fog for the more austere second half, Psychopomp 29, which explores darker inner landscapes and features the live-band playing of the KMD quartet. If the house wasn’t haunted before, it sure is now.

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Format

CD / digital

Release Date

25 july 2016

Catalog #

2LR 006

Words

"TOP TALENTS!" — Van Dyke Parks (via Twitter)

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