Hamerkop

Hamerkop is the duo of <a href="spotify:artist:3FJ6fErQn48ILQel1yaRbv">Bachelorette</a>'s Annabel Alpers and sound engineer/drummer Adam Cooke. Their intricate and powerful sound is constructed from sampled field recordings and Alpers' instantly recognizable vocals, and meant to be experienced live in concert, thanks to the care put into the sonic presentation. They didn't eschew the album format however, issuing their debut, Remote, in 2020.

After Alpers released <a href="spotify:artist:3FJ6fErQn48ILQel1yaRbv">Bachelorette</a>'s self-titled 2011 album, she decided to take a break from recording music with that project in mind. She moved from New Zealand to America and worked for years capturing and manipulating field recordings and found sounds from her native country and around the world, including the duo's house in Baltimore. The recordings were turned into loops and Alpers began building songs out of them by adding synths, vocals, and Cooke's drums. Working in a slightly different fashion than in <a href="spotify:artist:3FJ6fErQn48ILQel1yaRbv">Bachelorette</a>, where the songs were made for the album experience, Alpers instead constructed the music so she and Cooke could play it in a live setting. With the help of a successful crowd-funding campaign, she was able to bring the project to life in a concert setting starting in 2017. The live show featured the duo in a surround-sound environment using multiple speakers to envelop the crowd with their layered, soaring indie rock. Along with getting the gear needed for the live show, the crowd-sourced funds also went toward the completion of an album, Remote, which was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> in early 2020. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi