As Helado Negro, the world-building multi-instrumentalist Roberto Carlos Lange stitches together memories, impressions, and atmospheres to make detailed dreamscapes. Born in South Florida in 1980 to Ecuadorian immigrant parents, his songs are awash with vibrant melodies, sharp lyrical vignettes, and subtle hooks - switching seamlessly between English and Spanish. Since his 2009 debut, ‘Awe Owe’, Helado Negro has held to a central core: the daily sounds of his childhood and earliest surroundings and, as an adult, his day-to-day life.
The new album Phasor’s title was initially inspired by a dictionary definition. “I love the phrase They’re helpful in depicting the phase relationships between two or more oscillations,” Lange says. “All we do is oscillate. Partners, friends, people, music, movies and animals. While Phasor feels loose and expansive, it’s Lange’s tightest collection—deep, atmospheric, meticulously executed.
After previous record Far In, Helado Negro relocated to Asheville, North Carolina where he made Phasor at his home studio, across the hall from the studio of his wife, his frequent collaborator Kristi Sword, who created the album art drawings for Phasor. Many of the songs started with baritone guitar as the skeleton. He then builds frames around a core that can explode at any time—a balloon stuffed with glitter. Phasor is magic. It’s music about seeing your aura and living inside of it. It’s music as landscaping.
