We Collide, We Shatter, We Grow - Hainbach & Simon Spiess Stack Records

There is a third contributor to this record, but it’s not a human, it’s a space. In one of the stranger live sessions I've ever had, I broadcast music from my studio to an abandoned water tank on the outskirts of Colorado. The goal was to test its resonance before conducting an actual session inside “The Tank."With my phone zoomed in on the crew in the control room and my studio computer connected to the interior of this metal monster, I experimented with no-input feedback, test equipment, piano, and many other instruments — playing and waiting for the sounds to return. And I was captivated. My sounds folded into phasing fractals, bouncing from top to bottom.After recording, I assembled the pieces by simply following the movement of the echoes. An accidental album took shape, but something was missing.The next day, I was playing basketball at a nearby playground with my kids. In a typical Neukölln moment — where you can’t throw a stone without hitting a musician — Simon ...