Local Album Release: Wind Chimes In Traffic Brings Sounds of Denver to Spotify
For anyone looking to further explore the Denver music scene, Wind Chimes in Traffic is the first album under local musician Jacob Hoeffner’s new pseudonym, skozi.b.
Before the album drop, Hoeffner released three singles, “BAHHH!”, “Antoine & Elison” and “Cosmo II.” Each song brought a new element to the impending project. “Those songs represented a good cross-section of the project and I felt they could stand on their own,” said Hoeffner.
Diving further into the aesthetic of the project and the emotion behind the work, Hoeffner revealed that “Antoine & Elison” was inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of popular French novella, The Little Prince.
The Little Prince is “one of my favorite books,” Hoeffner emphasized. “Saint-Exupéry flew mail routes across Europe, Africa and South America during the World Wars. He was also an incredibly distracted, childlike adult, which I resonate with as someone who has struggled to feel at home in corporate or rigid environments. I always felt like I had something in common with him and I think that song expresses those feelings somehow.”
When asked about the album title, Hoeffner was eager to share the backstory.
“I live off 8th Ave, which can be a fairly busy street at rush hour. I had my apartment window open one day and could hear my neighbor’s wind chime through the traffic. I walked across the street and sampled the atmosphere on my iPhone,” Hoeffner explained.
“I have a propensity to notice wind chimes generally. My grandparents had them around their home in Waco, TX—the same chimes are swaying between their headstones today. Hearing the chimes through the traffic captured how easily beautiful things in life can be swallowed or lost in the mundane.”
Hoeffner described “struggling to find satisfaction with the little moments of clarity or restfulness,” in his day-to-day life. “Hearing the chimes gave me an excuse to take a break from work and go do something spontaneous that would inspire me later. I plan to continue to use sounds from my life in my music.”
The project has a distinct Lofi feel while touching the edges of hip-hop and wave music.
“More broadly, I called the collection a sentimental ‘beat tape’ because the purpose was to generate ideas for other projects,” he added.
Another important aspect of skozi.b is Hoeffner’s interest in collaboration as a musician.
“The model I am trying to propagate throughout the Denver community is centered on cooperation and reinterpretation,” he said. Any musician will hear each song begging to be played with, both deep in their building of the soundscape, yet open for harmonies lyrics or even a classic remix. Hoeffner identified “Sunday” and “Cosmo II” as collaborations with fellow Denver musician Matthew Abraham.
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Abraham and Hoeffner continue to build the local music scene with their emphasis on live performance and the collaboration that comes with it. Wind Chimes in Traffic will be recorded live on February 17 at 7pm in Rebel Salon. Hoeffner is collaborating with three musicians to help build this atmospheric recording. After the live recording, there will be at least three versions of those songs in the world.
“My goal is always to write material with staying power—songs that can revisited over and over again. I’m always looking for hidden benefits in the current music industry. The home studio/streaming environment has created an opportunity for artists to continue to breathe life into each other’s material,” said Hoeffner.
Hoeffner playing bass, photo by Carla Ruiz.
Those looking forward to the live recordings may need to check Jacob Hoeffner out under his official name, as they may be released separately from the skozi.b pseudonym.
“I’m reserving the skozi.b title as a way of publicly collecting the ideas I’ve written in my home studio. skozi.b is a project to push me to record ideas and release as much as possible.”
Hoeffner’s creativity does not stop at his beat-making or bass-playing skills. The album art attached are all Hoeffner’s creations as well, primarily using Word on his home computer to build the visuals. Hoeffner further contextualized, “the music was made with older instruments and other nostalgic samples from my childhood. I wanted the project to capture a youthful spirit and I felt that if the art looked like it was from 1998, it would serve the music well.”
Check out Hoeffner on Instagram and Spotify to stay updated and listen through Wind Chimes In Traffic to soothe your ears in these final frigid January days.