Recorded in that liminal space of late-night hours when it seems everyone is asleep, even the dozing dog at your feet, and the emptiness becomes unconfined, Ben Hackett’s debut album Songs for Sleeping Dogs is described as “a study of subconscious beauty.” Courtesy of Strolling Bones Records, the 12-track instrumental album will be released on streaming platforms and vinyl Friday, May 16.
The serene album cover, featuring lush vegetation in the foreground and rolling mountains in the background, introduces the listener to the white-and-beige dog for which the album was named—Tombo. The art is a watercolor painting by Abby Deschenes, made perfectly to size for a record sleeve, so Hackett says each vinyl is like having a print of the original artwork.
Known as being a member of New Madrid and BennyHonda SuperShifter in addition to his work as a staff engineer and session player at Chase Park Transduction, Hackett didn’t set out to record a solo album. In 2021 Hackett moved from an apartment into a house with his then-partner Deschenes, with Tombo shortly thereafter joining them. Setting up his home studio, Hackett finally had the space to record without disturbing any neighbors, but instead of cranking up the volume, he still felt himself drawn to quieter composition.
“I would record at night—there’s sort of this special thing about recording at night and knowing that nobody’s listening. You’re like, ‘Alright, if it’s bad, no one’s gonna hear it, right?’ You can take all these chances, and you can experiment,” says Hackett. “So a lot of times these songs would come from that sort of space of me just like with a guitar or playing the piano or something then realizing I’ve been playing the same thing for 15 minutes. It sounds like a thing now. If I haven’t been thinking about it, then it’s [like when] people say you feel like a conduit more than a creator.”
For the most part Hackett completed whole songs as he went, starting and ending a thought as he felt inspired in the moment. He would play and record every instrument on a track, then mix it himself until the time he had to work on it was up. Hackett explains he likes to “ride the wave until it hits the shore” to avoid getting too separated from the moment, which can result in “trying to experience the memory of a feeling, rather than just tapping into the actual feeling.”
On this album Hackett plays dozens of different woodwinds, acoustic instruments, electronics and other components of the songs. Creating an instrumental album was a new experience for Hackett, but he says that he always tries to replicate the experience of doing something new when collaborating with others in his own solo sessions.
“I’d been playing woodwind instruments for a long time, but I had always wanted to sort of get better at arranging and orchestrating them,” says Hackett. “So that was a bit of an objective of this record and something that I meant to practice and get better at… just to practice arranging in a way that felt natural and organic in that I could take to other projects after this.”
The 12 tracks that appear on Songs for Sleeping Dogs are curated from over 30 songs Hackett worked on within the same time period, some even featuring lyrics and vocals. But when he realized the overall instrumental direction of what he was doing, he decided to lean in rather than fight it. As the first release under his name as a solo project, Hackett says it’s reflective of him and what he does in his home studio for fun.
Once Hackett’s collection of songs was heading toward an official album release, he took them to Jason Kingsland (Deerhunter, Belle and Sebastian, Youth Lagoon) to co-mix. Reflecting on the release process, Hackett says this is the most local project he’s ever made, from Kingsland’s studio being down the street to Strolling Bones being a locally-based label and the vinyls being pressed at Athens’ own Echo Base.
As a final note to anyone interested in getting the most out of their listening experience, Hackett says, “If you get the vinyl, listen to it at 33, even though we pressed it at 45, because it sounds crazy and stretched, and I think it sounds sweet.”
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