The members of Storms In The Hill Country have been playing together informally since the early 2000s, when they all met at college in Austin, Texas. These friendships, solidified by music, have lasted into their third decade now, bridging all the changes life can bring in that amount of time - from marriages to children to distances across states and time zones.

Storms officially put a name to their collective in 2016 when they prepared to make their first record. Recorded in Austin at Estuary Recording by producer and engineer John Michael Landon, “The Self Transforming” is a simple and bouncy folk outing, with bright-sounding acoustic guitars and drums and lush layered strings. The songwriting is straightforward and at times playful (see “Beautiful Alien” and “Butter Battles” - based on the Dr. Seuss book).

With lead singer and main songwriter Jens Langsjoen now living in New Mexico, the collaboration became slightly more premeditated and spread out, an aspect that only increased with the onset of the 2020 pandemic. The band had convened a couple of times prior to the outbreak and shut downs to rehearse new material, but quickly decided that if they were going to continue working on a new record, it would have to be done remotely. Each member composed and recorded their parts at home studios in Texas and New Mexico during the early pandemic, and continued to flesh out the arrangements and final mixes over the following couple of years.

The final outcome of this work was Black Mesa, an album that is starkly different in style, tone, and content than their previous work. According to Langsjoen, the album is an experiment in spontaneous songwriting. “I wanted to bypass the middle-man of consciousness and tap directly into the unconscious as a means to dredge up songs from the underworld.” Composed on piano - a less familiar instrument to Jens - many of the songs were written in a trance-like state, some using transcriptions from personal dreams. Combing an archetypal psychology and an esoteric outlook on life, these songs deal with the human struggle with the underworld of the subconscious, and are full of apocalyptic imagery and non-human entities.

As a band, Black Mesa showcases the growth and maturation of Storms In The Hill Country, as a whole and as individuals. Drummer Matt Latour delivers performances across the gamut of percussiveness, from the soothing rhythm of “God of Night” to the driving battle-toms of “A Stranger Passed By” to the frantic urgency of album closer “Snake, It Lies,” all of which are anchored by the steady low end of Josiah Spence’s bass playing. Guitarist Matthew Payne and cellist/violinist Julie Wang both demonstrate a mastery lacking in many musicians - that of subtlety, giving equal measure to notes played and notes withheld, creating a tension between melody and silence, between being and non-being, and perfectly complementing the sparse piano work of Langsjoen. Joined by brother Luke Langsjoen on backing vocals along with Latour, Wang, and Payne, Jens’ vocals shine through with earnest clarity and a naked truth as he gazes into the darkness and brings forth a light from the abyss.

With echos of albums like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “No More Shall We Part” or PJ Harvey’s “White Chalk,” Storms In The Hill Country makes use of its heroes and influences by creating something personal and original. Black Mesa comes out on streaming platforms on February 29th, 2024, and will be available on black vinyl and CD in April.