Photo by Simon Habegger

Swiss band Egopusher, comprised of Alessandro Giannelli and Tobias Preisig have released their sophomore album Beyond, the follow-up to their 2017 LP Blood Red. Produced by David Hofmann the new record is a sopisticated marriage of experimental electronica, club, jazz and post-classical. Beautifully composed, the intricacy and finely sewn details thorughout the album are masterfully done with this cinematic soundscape being a true work of art.

For this feature, Egopusher have decided to break down Beyond in three songs, giving us and readers an inside look at the process and the backstories behind the music.

Alessandro Giannelli: Two tracks that play a very central role on Beyond are ‘Faint’ and ‘Sheen’.

In the summer of 2018, when it was scorching hot in the city, we went to an old inn in the mountains for a few days. This space has become a retreat for bands and all types of artists. You are allowed to play music there, like 24 hours a day! Isn’t that great? In any case, we wanted to use the time to work on our demos but also to make new tracks.
On one particular night, we set up to do an improv session and to record it. We started and then went on this crazy 20 minute journey together. Everything was right from the beginning to the end. We knew right away that this moment had to get on the album, somehow. So, we decided to split it into two tracks. One is “Faint”, which is the first 6 minutes of this magical session. And “Sheen”, which is more or less a remix of “Faint”, and we worked on it in the studio with our producer David Hofmann.

The improvisation plays a central role for us. It helps us collect ideas and get the most honesty out of us both. We have a hard disk full of improv sessions. From their essences – that’s what we call them – these small bits which carry the core dna of a song, we create the final LP-ready songs

Tobias Preisig: The track ‘Blue Moon’ kicks it off for the whole record. When we wrote it, we were having an existential crisis as a project. It started with a discussion regarding how should continue musically. Both of us were fighting for our personal ideas and projections. We went for a walk to Uetliberg, a small mountain just outside of Zurich, and the discussions was intense and meandering, we couldn’t come to a conclusion that would satisfy us both. After coming back from the walk, we decided to go to the studio and just jam, as we always do. And boom! ‘Blue Moon’ happened, just like that. Suddenly everything was clear again. It showed us that when we over think and over discuss things, and that a lot of misunderstandings happen as a result of us being so cerebral. Let the music just speak for itself. At least, that’s how it works best for us.

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