HD Hausmann is masterminded by a man who prefers to be known only as LP. He is accompanied by ten musicians who are also identified only by their initials.
The fact that the individual parts were completed in isolation from each other (they never played in the same room) adds to the singularity of this project.
In the Internet age, such anonymity is hard to maintain and, indeed, LP has already been unmasked as one Liam Palmer whose previous project was the band Grass House.
The notion that the record might, like the band name, combine elements of architecture (Georges-Eugène Haussmann) and literature (AE Houseman) could be a case of wish-fulfilment but does indicate the extent of the artistic ambition behind what might otherwise be mistaken for straightforward pop songs.
LP's voice and lyrics comes over a bit like Jarvis Cocker with a thesaurus (who or what are a "landfill of our accolades"?) but he does at least manage to sound like he knows, and cares, what he's singing about.
Documentary maker Nicholas Jones who made a video for the album's keynote track Old Satellites interprets the song as "a person trying to grasp back control". I'm quite sure other listeners will hear something entirely different but this one of the advantages of being enigmatic.
An Island Without hints at the idea that this is the voice of someone lost and/or forlorn. It also touches upon the oceanic themes running through the seven songs, culminating with I Am Here And I Am Cold In The Water.
Overall, the tunes strive, and largely succeed, to convey depth out of the pathos and a sense that the truth lies between the words and beneath the surface.
