WESPHERE

WESPHERE.

July 2020

no brainer 0202 is the second album of the Barcelona-based band WESPHERE, released under the new record label Amen Discos. The new step of the project comes with glimpses of unbind music style aiming for an undefined journey, preceded by a short film directed by Hector Prats.

As they define it, no brainer 0202 is a compilation of tunes simmered between 2013 and 2020, which functions as a narration through high-definition fragments of pop culture. It is an ephemeral experience that numbs the soul.

The four elements of WESPHERE: Roman (water), Juan Luis (earth),

Borja (fire) and Max (wind),

at Mies Van der Roe.

“The gathering became a ritual, and they’ve met once a year with that same idea”.

WESPHERE was born in 2010 as a gathering of four friends and its purpose was merely to make music. Max Grosse, Borja Ruiz, Román Daniel and Juan Luís Batalla met in Asturias, at Borja Ruiz’s place, where they experimented without a pre-assumed form or objective, trusting their instincts, each one of them bringing their own elements and qualities into the table. From then on, the gathering became a ritual, and they’ve met once a year with that same idea.

The experimenting came from different places: driving all night and making a song upon arrival, taking sounds to their limit and entering deep inside a wave form, or simply looking for ways to “psychoactivate themselves”, as they put it, in order to be present and find new perspectives within their creative process.

“WESPHERE’s music demands the listener's attention and immersion in its deep spheres”.

As the four WESPHERE members remark, they didn’t intend to give the project a definition from the beginning. They were just friends having fun. Now, for the first time in seven years, the four of them are back together in Barcelona, which, to them, is an opportunity to focus on this project on a deeper level and try to give a proper shape to what WESPHERE means to them.

The band’s essence is thus characterized by their creative attitude towards music, made of electronic and psychedelic tunes. no brainer 0202 contains songs that are very different from one another, all within a computer based production filled with delayed and bubbly samples and textured vocal harmonies. In the album we find tracks like Sol, the can opener, breathing gently with a crystal atmosphere that puts the listener already in a specific peace of mind. Then there’s others like Boss Emo, which can make us think about the trap genre, reinvented, of course. Others like Connection or Casitas, which could be labeled into a more experimental noise-music genre, which leads us to assume that WESPHERE’s music demands the listener's attention and immersion in its deep spheres. Swimming Deeply, literally.

album cover “NO BRAINER 0202”

by David M. Romero

“It removes the idea that it all should be pretty and delicate and it makes you start with the small and mundane things”.

WESPHERE’s music moves between depth and irony. The origin of the album’s title, no brainer 0202, is a random statement that came up during a recording session after working for many hours straight. Contrasting with the music itself, the title gives a sense of relief. “It removes the idea that it all should be pretty and delicate and it makes you start with the small and mundane things. Because the music is a bit “brainer”, it is not mundane at all, so the words sort of bring it all a bit closer to the ground” explained Román.

The new album has been released alongside a short film: Bones In The Waters, directed by Hector Prats. The film is fruit of unreleased material that never found its place until Hector and Max Grosse, who knew each other’s work from before, met at the right place and at the right time, almost randomly, and found that it was time for them to work together. Both found a meeting point in the stories they wanted to tell in Kharon’s mythological figure, the ferryman who carries the newly deceased souls from the world of the living to the world of the dead; a non-binary soul on a never-ending journey between shores. Alongside Luca Dobry, who developed the textual narrative concept, they gave birth to what ended up as yet another slowly-crafted art piece.

The release of no brainer 0202 is a double premiere because it is also the first album that the record label Amen Discos is publishing. This label is made for the artists and creators, founded with the sole purpose of releasing unreleased music. “There are loads of people making music that are not publishing albums, maybe because they are still thinking about it or maybe because their music does not fit in the standard parameters. Amen Discos simply wants to encourage them to put it out there and show it to the world.”, said Juan Luis, guitar player of WESPHERE and one of the founders of Amen Discos and El Pumarejo de Barcelona. It was in this place, El Pumarejo that a community of artists began to congregate and find an eclectic space in which to share ideas, meet artists, organize events and, of course, throw tremendous parties.

El Pumarejo de Barcelona went from Vallcarca, their birthplace, to L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, where they are now located, giving a voice to the local underground music scene. Now, with Amen Discos, they are being literally a “label”, as they say, a quality stamp for musicians that are part of this artistic community, growing day by day.

Besides Wesphere, other artists that will also release music in the future with Amen Discos are:

Monodimpled

Remi Pradere

Habla De Mi En Presente

Clara Aguilar