Hydrogen Sea's third full album Creature Comforts is a luscious, fresh, and vibrant collection of new songs that explore everything that offers us, fragile creatures, physical and mental comfort, and makes us feel good. It's the duo's first collaboration with producer Luuk Cox. The record sounds unapologetically light and colorful but dares to look at the shadows. As the soft-spoken TV painter Bob Ross once said, 'You need the dark in order to show the light.'
Hydrogen Sea started out in 2012 as the brain and love child of the duo Birsen Uçar and PJ Seaux. For their most recent record Automata from 2019, they wrote and performed in full band formation alongside Steven Van Gelder, Joris Caluwaerts, and Patricia Vanneste. Forced by (but also pretty much enjoying) the solitude during the pandemic, Birsen and Pj huddled together in their studio and started to write and demo their Creature Comfort songs. It was an attempt to find some hope, softness, and joy in the slow apocalypses we live through. The duo wanted to explore sounds and themes that offer us, fragile creatures, physical and mental comfort, and make us feel good. On the other hand, Birsen's lyrics could never overlook the mechanism of instant gratification and toxic consumerism. Above all, the new music was Birsen and PJ's way of relieving their own stress and soothe their nervous systems. In February 2023, after having written and recorded the bulk of the songs in the solitude of their home studio, Birsen and PJ called in the multifaceted skills of Luuk Cox. He was welcomed into their creative process and produced and mixed the album, making it sound effortlessly bright, crisp, and filled with color.
After opening the album with the atmospheric Ammonite, Hydrogen Sea offers you their first sun-filled single Candy. It is deliciously addictive with catchy vocals, playful drums, guitar, and percussion. Wine, PJ and Birsen's second single, starts out with bouncy vocals but its sizzling synths and beat mark the darker side of things that ignite pleasure in the world, pointing out that some creature comforts can be addictive or toxic if repeated too often. Dragons kicks off gorgeously bare and evolves into a sweeping, heart-pounding song with Birsen encouraging you to breathe, even if there's smoke and fire coming out. Cherry Milk is an upbeat invitation to go beyond superficial comforts and to try to talk about it with others, because it's important to look at the unrest beneath the surface. Wolves is a call to 'cradle every weird idea', to connect with your body and your true wild self. Electrifying and hypnotic Mycelium dives into the comforting psychedelic notion of never-ending and all-encompassing interconnectedness. Appalachia paints a picture of desolate mountains and describes the pitfalls of staring into the darkness too long. It also reminds you of the importance of finding someone to crawl back up seemingly insurmountable hills with. The velvety synths and vocals of Watermelon transport you to magical 'butterscotch fields, under sangria skies'. Finally, Creature Comforts ends elegantly with the brilliant and hope-filled Earth.
