August 31, 2021—Today, emerging musician Henry Hoagland debuts his new song“The Great Filter Sweep” on Brooklyn-based record label Better Company. Arranged by Nico Muhly and Ellis Ludwig-Leone of San Fermin, the track premiered on Under The Radar, who proclaimed, “‘The Great Filter Sweep’ is a striking yet fragile piece of singer/songwriter fare, built around the plaintive tones of Hoagland’s falsetto and the spacious chime of his guitar.” Listen to/share the song HERE and watch/share the official lyric video HERE.
“I recorded the vocals, guitars and synthesizers for ‘The Great Filter Sweep’ in a cottage in Cape Cod, Massachusetts,” recalls Hoagland. “I originally thought it might just be a demo, so I leaned into the snippets of birdsong and room noise that weave in and out of guitars and sent the track to my old friend and longtime collaborator Kyle Joseph. Somehow, though, the song went from Kyle to Ellis Ludwig-Leone who just happened to be hanging with Nico Muhly at the time, and they put together the strings, piano and dulcitone that really elevate and round out the sound-world.”
Last week, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Noah Rauchwerk debuted “Big Mountain,” the second single to be released from his solo project Wormy. Produced by Nathan Stocker of Hippo Campus and Baby Boys, the track romanticizes nature as a pure silver bullet-escape from any problem. Listen to/share the song HERE.
“I wrote ‘Big Mountain’ at a point where I felt incredibly uninspired about living in New York,” says Rauchwerk. “I had this overpowering fear of time passing, knowing I couldn’t control it and had this intense longing to escape to find any way out of my own head… Even though I don’t think ditching your normal life and going off the grid all alone is going to fix anything, I think the idea of the possibility of that escape is enough to help me through a lot.”
In conjunction with the release, Wormy dropped an accompanying music video, which premiered on MXDWNwho proclaimed, ““The song paints a picture of leaving everything behind, embracing themes of nature and exploration. Leading with atmospheric fuzz, Rauchwerk’s tenderhearted vocals creep in to take a grounded approach to escapism.” Watch/share the video HERE.
Better Company was founded in 2020 by San Fermin bandleader Ludwig-Leone and lead vocalist Allen Tate as well as their manager Thomas Winkler. More releases from the label are coming soon, as they’re set to release new music from Wye Oak, Wild Pink and The Districts this year.
About Henry Hoagland:
Henry Hoagland is a singer-songwriter and composer currently based in Providence, RI. After completing a degree in music composition, Hoagland wound up in Brooklyn where he spent the next five years in and around the edges of the music scene—quietly performing and releasing music under various guises while continuing to search for a way of threading together his interests as a lyricist, guitarist, composer, and synthist. In the fall of 2019, Hoagland unexpectedly had to move home to his native New England and took a break from music, eventually spending most of his time working as a landscaper. He has since settled in the Mt. Hope neighborhood of Providence and writes, records and produces out of his home studio.
About Wormy:
Wormy is the solo venture of Brooklyn-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Noah Rauchwerk who’s also the touring drummer for Samia. With Wormy, Rauchwerk seeks to tell moment-to-moment stories backed by a dynamic orchestration that mimics the scattered nature of daily life. It combines the simplistic songwriting of folk music with catchy, bouncy, and largely electronic arrangements that are impossible to resist moving to, even after being trapped in your tiny apartment for a year.
About San Fermin:
Brooklyn-based band San Fermin has released four studio albums on Sony Masterworks, Downtown and Interscope Records. Their most recent, The Cormorant I & II, was released in 2020 to critical acclaim from outlets such as NPR, TIME and Exclaim!. The band’s self-titled debut was named one of NPR’s 50 Best Albums of 2013 and their sophomore release Jackrabbit debuted at #8 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart in 2015. Belong, San Fermin’s third album, was praised by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino for its “knack for simultaneously expressing beauty and crisis.” Described as “masters of highbrow chamber pop” by Rolling Stone, San Fermin has become a widely touring enterprise, selling out numerous shows and performing at major festivals worldwide. Television appearances include ”Last Call with Carson Daly,” “CBS This Morning” and ”Canal + Music.”
