Alain Johannes announced he will be releasing his third solo album, Hum, on July 31 via Ipecac Recordings. Along with the announcement Johannes dropped the title track for the album, a moody and soothing melody with soft hums throughout.

“It’s more about me than probably any album I’ve ever done,” Johannes said in a statement. “It was something I was striving for and needed to communicate. Coming out of a difficult period, I was liberated. I had lost people who were very close to me. I went through struggles with my own health. There’s a personal energy behind the way it was recorded and the feel of the songs. It’s a document about my life right now.”

“Hum” shows Johannes strumming his guitar in Los Angeles woods and taking a short walk down a secluded path. The video was shot by Frank McDonough near Johannes’ home in LA and was edited by Felo Foncea. The track’s melody delivers a post-grunge style, with a soft sound while Johannes’ rough voice gives a quiet edge. Low synths can be heard from the background while a choir hums faintly through the chorus. 

“You can think of the album title, Hum, a few ways,” Johannes said in a statement. “Of course, there’s a musical hum. There’s an electrical hum. To me it suggests a sense of mystery. When you stop and listen to silence in nature, the hum is underneath the threshold of hearing. It’s a mysterious and magical sense of something existing, beautiful, and alive. It’s a blanket word for the sound of the ether – something that’s always been there, always will be there, and everything comes from it. It’s the common connection to everything.”

Johannes’ title track successfully encapsulates what he was hoping to achieve, each sound faintly humming through the two minutes as it encourages one to listen more closely. 

The Chilean guitarist has contributed to releases from Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures and Chris Cornell, as well as forming his own trio with Jack Irons from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johannes’ late wife, Natasha Shneider in the band Eleven. Johannes’ more recent projects include a return to Chile and forming the Alain Johannes Trio with brothers Cote and Felo Foncea.

Hum Album Cover

Hum Track List

1. Mermaids’ Scream
2. Hum
3. Hallowed Bones
4. Someone
5. If Morning Comes
6. Free
7. Sealed
8. Here In The Silence
9. Nine
10. Finis