Berlin-based musician Hákon Aðalsteinsson, originally hailing from Iceland, can be found fronting neo-psych outfit The Third Sound and gloomy alt-country troupe Gunman & The Holy Ghost, as well as being the live guitarist for The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Anton Newcombe’s ongoing collaborations with Tess Parks. Now, Hákon is also turning his attention to another project: an electronics-inflected solo endeavour going by the name of Diagram and BSM is pleased to bring you the first track taken from the debut album Transmission Response which is set for release on Fuzz Club Records on 17 May.
Detailing the self-recorded album, a marked departure from his usual rock-oriented work, Hákon explains: “The sound is inspired by the minimalism of Suicide, Chrome and 70s German electronica, as well as the film music of Angelo Badalamenti and John Carpenter,” he continues: “In the beginning I had this one beat-up keyboard and limited knowledge of making electronic music so I was just learning as I went. As this was a process of exploration I ended up with around 40 song ideas before I even thought about making an album. After deciding I wanted to take things further I set upon the task of reworking all those ideas and cutting a lot of them to put together a record that worked as a whole, and this is the result.”
Talking about the track, Hákon reveals: “‘In My Heart, In My Soul’ is a song I did very early on in the process and one of the few that didn’t change so much from the original idea when I first started thinking about these songs as part of an album. I added little things and did a little bit of fine-tuning regarding the sound, but I really wanted to keep the rawness of the original recording so I was careful not to make it sound too polished.” Always one to immerse himself in new projects, Hákon Aðalsteinsson’s new material as Diagram sees him enter a whole new world, and a sublimely cinematic one at that. With plans for a live show in the works it’s more than likely we’ll be hearing quite a lot from this one too
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