OUT FEB 28th ON MATADOR/BEGGARS
Today DARKSIDE announces their third album ‘Nothing‘. The album will be released on February 28 via Matador Records/Beggars. With the announcement, the band shares the new song “S.N.C.” with accompanying video, see below.
On their first two albums, ‘Psychic’ (2013) and ‘Spiral’ (2021), Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington worked with loose ideas and melodies. They took a different approach for ‘Nothing’: the album emerged from spontaneous jams, acoustic guitar playing and digital experiments. What is new is that drummer and friend Tlacael Esparza joined them as a permanent band member.
‘Nothing’ is an album that reveals new details and depths with every listen: a slowly bubbling, electro-acoustic symphony of subtle movements. In the music you feel a constant excitement and openness with a desire to break out of patterns and explore new possibilities.
Jaar and Harrington met at school in Providence in the early 2010s. While on tour in support of Jaar’s debut album, their first single “A1” emerged on a recording day in a Berlin hotel. The recording blew up their speakers and filled the room with smoke – a sign of their unique musical chemistry.
Shortly after breaking a seven-meter mirror that accompanied them on their 2014 tour, DARKSIDE announced a six-year hiatus. During that time, Jaar released a series of acclaimed solo albums, both under his own name and his dance alias Against All Logic. The Chilean artist left New York for a nomadic existence and devoted himself to film music, production work and sound editing workshops around the world.
Harrington followed a different path, influenced by his roots in New York’s avant-garde jazz scene. He moved to the West Coast and became a key figure in the Los Angeles underground scene. He led his own band, played in various ensembles and co-founded the band Taper’s Choice.
In the fall of 2022, DARKSIDE returned to Los Angeles and booked a series of performances, their first live shows in eight years. To prepare for this return, they rented a storefront in northeast Los Angeles. Esparza joined as a full member, radically changing the sound and spirit of the band. Over the summer of 2022, they rebuilt themselves, with improvisations in their studio, The Spiral House.
A central element in this process was the “Nothing Jam”. This idea came partly from Harrington’s mornings with his newborn daughter, when he found the beauty in simply sitting on the floor together without doing anything. For Jaar, the concept of “nothing” became applicable to other aspects of life. “Nothing” is the reflexive response when someone asks what is wrong, when there is too much to express. In this context, “nothing” means the opposite of what it would normally mean. Or “nothing” can be a devastating illustration of the lack of change in the world, such as the frustrating inaction on climate change, the political hypocrisy and the repeated cycles of violence against the people of Palestine, Sudan and elsewhere.
“Nothing” became a recurring motif during DARKSIDE’s subsequent European tour in the spring and summer of 2023. The sense of absence in the “Nothing Jam” instead became a space for creation. Recording sessions for the album began on a day off from the tour, with the trio heading to a studio in the south of France. They soon found a playful, loose groove. The sessions in France were followed by a week in Los Angeles and another round in Paris.
Tracklist “Nothing”
1. Slau
2. S.N.C
3. Are You Tired
4. Graucha Max
5. American References
6. Heavy is Good For This
7. Hell Suite (Part I)
8. Hell Suite (Part II)
9. Sin El Sol No Hay Nada
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