Thomas Hildebrand

Microcosm Discography:

MCOSM1023
(details to be announced shortly)

Thomas Hildebrand's work is based in the foundations of musical thinkers who emphasize the sounds of the physical world as fodder for compositions. Influenced by the ideas of Cage and the like as much as the landscape of modern electronic music, he applies his unique sensibility to an approach which individualizes the vision of the artist - an approach which he makes the most of throughout his tangentially connected musical pursuits. Growing up with an opera singer and a big band arranger running the household afforded Thomas a wealth of education to absorb, and this background certainly seeps into his work, though through extremely subtle maneuvers. Using his relative outsider status in the crowded techno scene as a virtue, Hildebrand is slowly forging his own sound, embracing a variety of interests and sources and making them his own through jangling, moody tracks which hang in the balance between proper club music and personal couch listening.

Though his current work is predominantly in the minimal techno/microhouse vein, his perspective is shifted by his occasional, yet ongoing collaborations with leftfield hip hop/downtempo groups (Mainframe, Innaverse) and his background as a drummer in rock and funk bands. The fact that Thomas was recently the acting drummer in a heavy metal band is a testament to both his willingness and desire to broach new musical subjects, and the breadth of range and experience which he incorporates into his material. This consistent sense of moving away from his comfort zone helps his work satisfy enough genre conditions to fit, without ever unconditionally adhering to anything - adorning itself in its greatest virtue - adventurousness in not only its perspective on terms like techno or found house, but in the appropriation of his chosen sound sources. Digitally rendering the material culled from trains, key chains and random occurrences into rhythms which fit the 4/4 minimal form, yet are coming from a rock/hip hop/metal/funk drummer mind, helps position Hildebrand's music in a place which is always searching for something else, without losing sight of the matter at hand.