Track by track: Son Cesano - Emerge
Introduction
Shortly after starting Reverb Dream, I discovered Son Cesano having gone through a lot of the discography on the Monobuster Records Bandcamp page. The instrumental band have put out two albums so far. Their debut album, Submerge, is a great introduction to the band but its follow-up, Emerge, sees Son Cesano taking it up to another level. I have found myself going back to the album quite often, I am a fan of the ambiance throughout - from the more laidback passages, to the explosive moments, passing by the suspense-laden build-ups.
In any case, it’s a pleasure to find out more about this fantastic album from the Schwyz-based band. In this latest edition of Track by track, Simon Marty, one of the band’s two guitarists and audio engineer for Monobuster Records, provides us with an insight into the making of Emerge. I would like to thank him for his words!
[The band will also be performing this Saturday (25th April) in Zurich as the support act for The Early Greys at the Safari Bar]
Introduction from the band
The songs for the album, Emerge, were written between 2019 and 2021. At that time the substitute drummer Dominik Zgraggen took over the chair of the original drummer Dominic “s’Chrümmelers” Gwerder. That changed a little bit of how we wrote songs and how we sounded. Emerge was recorded in July and August 2021 in our own rehearsal room and studio. It was recorded live with every member playing simultaneously. It was a big effort to practise, have everything ready that summer and manage to have a good final take. There was somewhat of a deadline since one of us was about to go travelling. However, travelling always played an important role for us as it delivered fresh impulses and inspired new songs. On the other hand it somewhat delayed the songwriting as a complete group of four. Back after the vacations we were always motivated to play and flesh out newfound ideas.
After writing and recording all the songs we came up with the theme for the album because we wanted to better highlight connections to our previous work . Emerge felt like a metaphor to us, we rise / come back with a new sound. It should be a continuation to the previous album called Submerge. We named the songs randomly but there are links between each project title and the corresponding final song titles.
We decided to go the full DIY route and record and mix the record by ourselves. This would give us the advantage of “unlimited” time, opposed to a few expensive studio days. Simon accepted the challenge and rabbit-holed himself into the world of recording and mixing. There were a lot of things to learn but in the end after a lot of trial and error, we got a satisfying end result. The investment in time and money of this would also give us the advantage to record future albums by ourselves with less effort than the first time. (Written by Simon)
It was also the time of corona virus, which fortunately did not stop us from making music together. It felt like we haven't stopped gigging since 2017. We even played some of the songs before they got released in November 2022. Let’s have a look at each song individually:
Monus Bonus
Chronologically it was the second song written. It is the result of jamming together. The main riff in combination with the drum groove in the beginning of the song was there for a long time. The riff itself is melodically very simple, but makes it interesting rhythmically with a dotted 8 delay. Together with the driving drums it makes for a fun combination. At first it had a different ending and it even was played live like that at Treibhaus Lucerne in 2019. The same goes for the monstrous final part. We kept listening back to a jam we did. The mid-section/build up of the song was created because we decided to break it down and make it psychedelic between the starting and the end. This song is already a classic but probably does not sound like most of our songs. In the end we decided to release it as the first single.
The Nordic One
The name of the song is influenced by the trip to Denmark and Norway where Simon and Robin met and wrote parts of the song. The riffs and chords were written by Robin on acoustic guitar. The drum and the bass guitar pretty much just support these cool riffs in the song. The exception is the middle of the song where the complex drum groove leads to the breakdown and eventually to the build up. This section took a lot of practice since it is so dynamic. Regrettably, it is not played perfectly tight on the record. To hear it in all it’s greatness, you will have to visit one of our shows, where we of course nail it everytime ;-) .
The Mystic Four
This song was really difficult to nail down. Initially the chords were there to continue from the first part (The Nordic One). These two songs always belong together if we play them live. Then Simon came up with this amazing melody but we had a different understanding on where the chords are repeating. So the problem was that we ended up not going to the next section at the same time. Eventually we overcame this problem and decided to keep this song calm and chill and not distorted until the end. It even features the ending riff of The Nordic One in clean. We figured out this is definitely a hit to play on the radio, so it should be the second single.
Ruskial
Was one of the last songs we wrote. Simon took two isolated drum grooves Dominik had recorded and wrote riffs and melodies over that. The main rhythmic guitar part was the outcome of a long week of Simon’s Covid-Quarantine in Bergen, Norway. So we had the first and second part of the song ready. Finally we discussed these jazzy harmonies and if we like it or not. So we decided together in the rehearsal room to make a heavy/fast ending to the song. The melody in the second part was composed and recorded by Simon before mixing and not played when recording initially.
Pos. T
Was the first song written. Soundwise it arguably fits right after our song Dust Age which is the last song of the first album Submerge. The entire song was pretty much composed by Simon. So we changed some minor stuff when rehearsing but we were pretty happy with it very soon. The name is a reference to the genre Post Rock and you can make up the meaning of Pos. T besides that.
6. Akt
Most parts were written by Robin on acoustic guitar and brought to rehearsal. It features an odd time signature which initially confused us a bit. Once we figured it out we really liked it. Drum and bass follows Robin’s riff. Simon’s harmonies were a nice addition to create a psychedelic atmosphere. The buildup in the mid-section was leading nowhere when we first played it. So we jammed a heavy ending. Since Simon’s soloing gave us goosebumps, we wanted to have that in the album. The name of the song is a reference to the time signature 6/8 (in German). When putting the songs in order to fit the vinyl it coincidentally ended up as song number 6. Julian says the song reminds him of the dreamy atmosphere of the game “Disco Elysium”.
Hardangial
This song is a combination of different parts that were not related to each other in the beginning. The first part was like in “Ruskial” a drum groove that Simon took to write a riff and melody over it. The third part of the song was an idea that was there for a long time and Robin eventually played it after we rehearsed the first part. This was a surprise but we enjoyed it a lot. The rest of it was as well jamming and writing together which took us quite some time. It was the last song we finished writing before the recording (or even while recording).
Conclusion from the band
We are really happy with how Emerge turned out. It’s in a way more structured and less jammy and loose than the first record, but also more diverse and advanced in melodies and rhythms. Some Son Cesano fans like Submerge more and some Emerge, and that’s how it should be. Nevertheless we look very forward to our third album, which is going to be really interesting…
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