Ether

NOISE - Heno. - Relief (Solo)

“Relief (Solo),” off Heno.’s upcoming album "I'm Tired Of Being Hypersurveilled," marks a turning point in the poignant narrative of the artist, producer, and innovator’s larger concept project. Accompanied by the RELIEF pixel game where arcade tickets minted on ZORA unlock power ups, “Relief (Solo)” soundtracks Heno.’s character’s pursuit of an escape. “Dealing with a topic like surveillance, there's a lot of nuance, and a lot of ways to go–different topics or subtopics to speak on. But I knew escape, relief or pursuit of being free was a sentiment that needed to be on an album like this,” says Heno. 

Speaking to Heno.’s personal experience as a black man in America–the project’s allegorical storyline was introduced by a three-part short film released last January in which Heno.’s character attends a PTSD Anonymous meeting that turns out to be a ploy for the S.Y.S.T.E.M. (Securing Your Safety Through Extreme Means) to spy on attendees. Eventually, his character is kidnapped (as depicted in the “Neybors” and “SIMMER DOWN” videos) before being thrown into a simulation seen in the interactive RELIEF pixel video game at which point Heno.’s character realizes he must find relief and escape. “This is the point where I recognize I need to get out of the simulation one way or another, even if it means I have to burn the establishment down. I needed to get out. And I wanted to capture the frustration and the feeling of being gaslit while dealing with surveillance and people invalidating your experiences.”

Written, produced, and performed by Heno., “Relief” –the ninth track off HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2–viscerally captures the feverish and exhausting feeling of being chased. “It started with the production–playing around with different synthesizers, and then I came across certain sounds that sounded like a chase. The beat sounds like I’m running from something, I'm literally trying to get the fuck out of there, and that urgency of being in pursuit.” 

Both futuristic and retro, the industrial nature of the track is perfect for the addictive video game, while simultaneously drawing attention to the very real experience that fueled its creation. “You gotta make this shit make sense for you but for me, freedom from it all (as well as relief) is what I really want.

Collectors of “Relief (Solo) on Sound will receive 1 airdrop for RELIEF arcade tickets on Zora that unlock power ups within Heno.’s RELIEF pixel game, will be added to the allowlist for the song’s upcoming lyric video drop on Zora, and be added to the allowlist for Heno.'s forthcoming album "I'm Tired of Being Hypersurveilled", dropping in January 2024

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This is the ninth track from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2 — a compilation album curated by NOISE and the web3 music community. 

Read interviews with each artist at noisedao.mirror.xyz.