Hackedepicciotto + Horizont

“Keepsakes” (Mute) – Release September 2023

„hackedepicciotto“ are Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto.

Alexander Hacke is original member and the bass player of Einstürzende Neubauten. Danielle de Picciotto is the co-initiator of the Berlin Love Parade, a collaborator of the electronic Ocean Club & Monika Werkstatt project with

Gudrun Gut; former member of cult band Crime & The City Solution and Alexander’s partner in crime. She is also a visual artist.

hackedepicciotto glide across genres that take in cinematic drone, industrial, experimental and spoken word that shift between meditative sung harmonies with soundscapes to heavy drones and meteoric, vivacious symphonies comparable to a perfect mixture of OM, Suicide, Dead Can Dance, Low and Arvo Pärt.

hackedepicciotto have a long history of collaborations  in their music (Mick Harvey, Lustmord, Eric Hubel (Glenn Branca Ensemble), The Tiger Lillies, Kid Congo, Julee Cruise).

The couple has released seven albums, the last one “Keepsakes” was released by MUTE records in September 2023. “Keepsakes” is a collection of midtempo pieces with a newly added touch of heavy jazz beats and is based on personal stories & remembrances.

„This new album is very special to us. Usually we speak of universal topics but this time our themes are very personal. It is an album of gratitude and every song is dedicated to a friend that is important to us, many of them musicians.

The theme of friendship touches the complete production because everybody we worked together with was chosen because they mean a lot to us: long-time collaborator Victor Van Vugt mixed the record, David Hochbaum painted the cover and Manolo Luque worked graphics.

Every single detail of the album including the fact that it is being released by MUTE is filled with gratitude for having these people in our lives.

While this is our central theme, our recording environment always plays a significant part to the feel and sound of our albums. This time it was the Auditorium Novecento in Napoli that proved key: It is one of the first recording studios in Europe, where Enrico Caruso and all the great artists from Napoli recorded in the early days of records. Located in a huge and beautifully-sounding room that can record up to 17 people at a time, we threw ourselves into the vast array of instruments housed there – utilising everything from brass to grand piano and tubular bells to a celesta that was owned by the maestro himself, Ennio Morricone. It was very, very inspiring!

Our choice of instruments was expanded not just on an excitable whim, but in order to document the nine different people we are dedicating the songs to. We needed to stretch out and expand our sonic palette so gentle piano, rich brass, and celestial bells can all be heard echoing and rippling through the record, alongside our signature sound of engulfing strings, pummelling bass, atmospheric drones, sparse drums and the dreamy tones of Morricone’s celesta.

We will be releasing more videos and start rehearsing the new songs so that we can insert them into our many upcoming concerts and hope that you will enjoy them as much as we do.“

Art collective with the intention of merging all kinds of different art forms (including music, obviously) through contributions of various artists.