HYMNS by David August

Following up 'VĪS', David August's most expansive, ambitious album to date, the Italian-German composer and producer lets his vast sonic universe collapse, rediscovering in its wake an instrument that's been a constant presence in his life. 'HYMNS' is a deeply personal set of candid piano-led reflections that tell a simpler but far more distinctive story; rather than concentrate on the life cycle of humanity and civilization, August narrows his field of vision, tracing his own background and re-asserting his relationship with a musical language he'd tried hard to unlearn. An intimate, instinctual album that emerged from isolation and contemplation, 'Hymns' is also a surprisingly hopeful suite of soft hued, evocative improvisations that well up from the depths of the soul. In August's own words, "it should recall light, not darkness."

Born in Hamburg, to an Italian mother and a West German father, August started his musical education at just five years of age, following in his professional pianist dad's footsteps and dedicating himself to the instrument and to classical music. But life's course is rarely a straight line; when August was still a teen he became fascinated with electronic sounds, teaching himself to DJ and producing dancefloor-friendly tracks that made him a household name. Since that point, he's been routinely challenging himself to refine his artistic outlook, establishing the 99CHANTS label in 2018 as an outpost for bold, genre-agnostic experimental music and exploring a variety of expressions as a solo artist, from the beatless 'DCXXXIX A.C.' to 'VĪS', a multi-disciplinary chronicle that linked sound, dance and language itself, culminating in an elaborate performance at London's Barbican Centre.

In 2021, for the first time in his professional career, August made the decision to dedicate himself solely to the piano once more. Academically trained from such a young age, he had always approached the instrument from the classical perspective, learning to play with a score and letting that inform his relationship to the music. Even though August has used the piano in plenty of recordings before, he had never sat down to develop a more personal dialog with the instrument. "I felt the time was right to look back to my musical origins in some way," he explains, "but in a non-restricted form." Having connected with his mother's ancestry while he was developing 'VĪS' in Rome, this was a chance to reflect on his paternal line, playing the piano his father had also used as a child and healing and finding balance through that process.

'HYMNS' emerges from August's many attempts to "listen to the instrument", letting the piano itself, rather than someone else's score, guide his hands. And it evolved over countless improvisations where he would sit day after day, night after night, playing freely and recording the results to his phone. Listening back, he was able to formulate a structure that he later captured more professionally, but still on improvisational basis, placing microphones strategically to pick up the unique creaks and resonances. Even the sound of the piano is distinctive, prepared intentionally by August take on a warm and percussive character that provoked him to use the instrument in a completely new way. That unique sound is evident on the album's first track, where August's rounded chords gently punctuate his weightless soundscape of echo traces and eerie resonances. Placing objects on the piano's strings, August is able to make the notes buzz and rattle to form rhythms or delicately skew the pitch.

Take 'HYMN III' for example, August's skills are evident from the way he plays, but he's unusually controlled, letting the piano's resonant notes decay in thrumming trails between his phlegmatic but dextrous runs. And on 'HYMN VI', August creates a muted, woody beat that languidly dances around his skeletal, meaningful notes. Not exactly ambient music as such, 'HYMNS' is a selection of autobiographical cues and hazy visions of the future that conclude a period of soul-searching for August. If 'VĪS' was one side of the coin, 'HYMNS' is the other.

The Italian-German composer, DJ, label-owner and multi-instrumentalist has been releasing music since 2010, but it took self-evaluation and a re-examination of his priorities for August to lean towards the future and follow his most experimental inclinations.
In 2023, his output is harder than ever to define, stretching across genres and disciplines to chafe the heart of the human experience.