1. Don't Crowd the Eye
2. I Love the Room I Live In
3. Relax Redux
4. islands of affinity
5. Plastic Designed Spoonlike
6. Fertile
7. to grow in lightness
8. Words We Choose
9. Take Care
10. Would Be Great
11. outcome inevitable
12. Once Bend
13. unrememberable

Credits
HIGHSIGH is John Dieterich, Ro(b)//ert Lundberg, Matt Mehlan

John played guitar, synths, drum programming, voice
Ro played double bass, bass guitar, guitar, synth, drum programming, voice
Matt played synths, guitar, drums, voice

with
Tim Barnes: drums on Once Bend
Ben Lamar Gay: cornet on Take Care & Once Bend
Max Jaffe: drums on Words We Choose, I Love the Room I Live In & Plastic Designed Spoonlike
Lia Kohl: cello on to grow in lightness, Relax Redux, Once Bend & unrememberable
Alexandra Lakind: vocals on Words We Choose, Relax Redux & outcome inevitable
Paige Alice Naylor: vocals on Take Care & Once Bend
Booker Stardrum: drums on Fertile & Take Care
Jon Starks: drums on Relax Redux & outcome inevitable
Macie Stewart: vocals on I Love the Room I Live In

all music by John, Ro & Matt except
lyrics and melody on I Love the Room I Live In by Macie Stewart
lyrics and melody on Take Care & Once Bend by Paige Alice Naylor

produced by HIGHSIGH
mixed by Matt
mastered by John

Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Suzy’s (Wantage, NJ), The Stuudio (NY, NY), Roulette (Brooklyn, NY), and garages, basements, and spare rooms of homes from Tiwa territory (New Mexico) to Lenapehoking (New York) to Dakota bluffs (Minneapolis) to Zhigaaghong (Chicago) to Tovaangar (LA)

Photos by John, Ro, Matt
Design & Layout by Ryan Hover
Quilt layout and inspiration from “Starburst Quilt” by Eleanor Boyer, 1983, photographed by Gary Lundberg and Karen Peugh

Thanks to
all those that contributed sounds to this record; Ken Brown; our Joyful Noise champions; Tom at Suzy’s; Amanda, Nina, and Lua; Keiko and Ida; Alexandra and Moser; and Eleanor
Boyer and Ro’s parents for the quilt inspiration and assistance

HIGHSIGH—the trio of Ro(b)//ert Lundberg (JOBS), John Dieterich (Deerhoof), and Matt Mehlan (Skeletons)—is just as much about the process as the end result. While the band name is new, HIGHSIGH grows out of years of friendship and collaboration between John, Matt, and Ro in other settings—Deerhoof and Skeletons’ convergence in the Congotronics International supergroup, Ro lending bass to Skeletons’ touring and recording bands, John and Matt both playing on and engineering various JOBS records, as well as many coffees, meals, and hikes. 

Their debut album, Once Bend, presents as both disarmingly familiar and a strangely opaque patchwork of mutant pop and abstract polyrhythmic soundscapes. Created in a collage-like fashion, each member brought in deceptively rich musical fragments that had been cast aside from other projects, almost like little question marks for the other members to decipher and interpret. The initial ideas were all rhythmic and percussive. In an early conversation, Ro, John, and Matt discussed the possibility of the three non-drummers making a drum trio record—like the spirit of the Portsmouth Sinfonia, the idea of a band in which everyone is operating outside their area of expertise.  

These fragments were traded between members freely and with no specific goal, each toying and tinkering with what they were given, adding on phrases, sounds, and textures. The musical layers that returned were consistently unexpected and exhilarating. Suddenly, new sonic colors presented themselves, reframing each artist’s ideas. HIGHSIGH hadn’t started with a pattern, yet a coherent patchwork developed within each song—layered guitars and bowed bass sit alongside languidly propulsive synth tones and crisp, driving acoustic drums. The band expanded its sharing circle, sending tracks to Tim Barnes, Ben LaMar Gay, Max Jaffe, Lia Kohl, Booker Stardrum, and Jon Starks to stitch together drums, cello, and cornet lines. These question marks revealed layered answers through successive waves of rhythm and melody, with a core polyrhythmic sensibility maintained that all of the members and contributors approached from different angles.  

These raw tapestries found final structure and order through lyrics, some written by the band themselves, others by Macie Stewart (Finom) and Paige Alice Naylor “Lyrically, I’m interested in simple moments of revelation,” Matt Mehlan says. “What’s the environment, what’s the feeling?” This theme appears across this album, unifying the distinct voices enlisted. 

On Once Bend, HIGHSIGH presents their homespun musical quilts—stitched through strings and circuits and servers across Turtle Island.