A new Helado Negro album is coming soon. Phasor is dropping in February, and today Roberto Carlos Lange has shared its opening track

The inspiration for Phasor dates back to 2019, when lange had a five-hour visit to Salvatore Matirano’s SAL MAR machine at the University of Illinois. The machine is a complex synthesizer that generates music via old-school computer technology and analog synths and can create an infinite number of sound sequences. “I was enthralled by it,” Lange says in a press release. “It gave me special insight into what stimulates me. This pursuit of constant curiosity in process and outcome. The songs are the fruit, but I love what’s under the dirt. The unseen magical process. I don’t want everybody to see it because not everyone cares to see it. Some of us just want the fruit. I do. But I want to grow the fruit, too.” This is also the first Helado Negro album since Lange moved to Asheville, an environment that was supposedly intrinsic to the creation of the record.

Lead single and opening track “LFO” is not about Lyte Funkie Ones, the boy band who recorded “Summer Girls.” The title stands for Lupe Finds Oliveros. The Lupe in question is Lupe Lopez, a Mexican American woman who built amplifiers for Fender in the 1950s. The Oliveros in the title is Pauline Oliveros, the experimental electronic composer who practiced sonic meditation. The song is about “ambient stress and endless scrolling.” Lange adds:

Lupe’s amps are sought after, her care and touch apparently harnessed a special sound from this design. I fell in love with this story and this legacy and the mythology surrounding it. How craft touches us so deeply in the smallest ways. Deep care for the littlest things makes all the difference.

Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “LFO”
02 “I Just Want To Wake Up With You”
03 “Best For You And Me”
04 “Colores Del Mar”
05 “Echo Tricks Me”
06 “Out There”
07 “Flores”
08 “Wish You Could Be Here”
09 “Es Una Fantasia”

TOUR DATES:
10/29 – Vigo, Spain @ Radar Estudios
10/30 – Madrid, Spain @ Sala Mon Live
10/31 – Sevilla, Spain @ Sala X
11/01 – Málaga, Spain @ Sala París 15
11/02 – Alicante, Spain @ Fundación Mediterráneo – Aula de Alicante
11/03 – Valencia, Spain @ La Rambleta
11/04 – Barcelona, Spain @ WOLF
11/05 – Zaragoza, Spain @ Espacio Las Armas
11/08 – Paris, France @ Trabendo (Pitchfork Music Festival Paris)
11/09 – London, United Kingdom @ Hackney Church (Pitchfork Music Festival London)
11/10 – Segrate, Italy @ Circolo Magnolia
02/09 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
02/10 – Orlando, FL @ The Social
02/12 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
02/13 – Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room & Garage
02/14 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips FTW
02/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
02/18 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
02/19 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box
02/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
02/22 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
02/23 – Sacramento, CA @ TBA
02/25 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
02/26 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
02/29 – Tallinn, Estonia @ Paavli Kultuurivabrik
03/02 – Vilnius, Lithuania @ Kablys
03/03 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Loppen
03/05 – Berlin, Germany @ Hole44
03/06 – Warsaw, Poland @ Jassmine
03/09 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg @ Kulturfabrik Krefeld eV
03/12 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
03/14 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ekko
04/21 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy
04/22 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cats Cradle
04/23 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
04/24 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
04/26 – Boston, MA @ TBA
04/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
04/30 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
05/01 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
05/03 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
05/04 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Urban Lounge

Phasor is out 2/9 via 4AD.