Hey!Tonal is the first album by HEY!TONAL, a project helmed by the guitarists, multi-instrumentalists and sound designers Mitch Cheney (Rumah Sakit, Sweep the Leg Johnny) and Alan Mills (Chiisai-oto).

Each member constructed the album instrument-by-instrument between 2006 and 2008 over a vast geographical area from NYC, Chicago, Florida, San Diego and Nantes, France.

Main collaborators included Kevin Shea (Storm & Stress), Theo Katsaounis (Joan of Arc), and Dave Davison (Maps & Atlases). Kenseth Thibideau (Rumah Sakit, Sleeping People) and Julien Fernandez (Chevreuil) joined the group for a song as well.

Cheney initially conceived H!T as a project to be called “Drummers’ Perspectives“, and that working title sums up its ethos. He became inspired to write melodies based on the drumbeat being the starting point of the composition, opposed to the other way around.

A providential meeting with Alan Mills meant another collaborator would try his hand at the resultant rhythmic and melodic tangle. The basic concept for their compositional process stemmed from Cheney’s experience with television editing. They manipulated all the catalogued sounds as if they were visual elements.

The result of this unusual approach is a striking record, full of delicate incongruities hidden in the music; happy accidents were meticulously given purpose during mixing, malleable drums and guitars intertwined with a myriad of improvised and shaped sounds.

The overall impression is of some oblique explanation to an unsolved mystery.

In 2009 the album was released by Africantape in CD format; now Hey!Tonal has been remastered and pressed to vinyl for the first time.

This unique release is the second in our Anatomical Reissues series, which devotes aesthetic and analytical re-examination to existing works.

Notes —— Please read carefully before placing your order.

Hey!Tonal is available on double white vinyl with all four sides running at 45 rpm.

It is packaged in a 6mm spine gatefold cover with matte finish featuring the artwork of Mitch Cheney and illustrations by Evelyne Laube and Nina Wehrle from Swiss studio It’s Raining Elephants.

The release includes a massive double-sided poster designed by Jeremiah Maddock and Mitch Cheney.

The entire package is housed in a futuristic-looking heat-sealed aluminum foil bag courtesy of Computer Students™.

Anatomical Reissue

2LP — M4A — MP3

3700604733683

October 8, 2021

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