Double Youth

Helado Negro, aka Roberto Lange, recorded Double Youth, his fourth LP, in his home studio with a computer, his voice, and telepathic input from a poster he found buried in a closet in his childhood home. Seeing the poster after cleaning out a closet evoked a sudden rush of memories, but also a sense of isolation and separation. Who was this person in the photo? And what else had Lange forgotten? The poster’s impact was so significant it framed a new recording process for Helado Negro and now serves as cover art, title, and the conceptual framework for the lyrics and song structures. The constant denominator of Double Youth is its extraction of music from an intangible space and migrating it to a physical realm. It’s an album without a façade or a hidden message; it’s honest and sincere, exhibited in Lange’s vocals, which are now more present and exposed than before. The album sounds like Lange is slowly lifting a veil and allowing us, the listeners, to be part of his world, the all-embracing atmosphere of Double Youth. Recorded at his home studio, the album conveys a warm intimacy. Double Youth Lange welcoming us into his home and personal space to hear his thoughts and secrets, to be aware of his surroundings. And by allowing us to enter, we understand what is created in the mind of an innovator. He offers everything; nothing more is required but music and the listener.

New York-based, Florida-born producer/singer Roberto Carlos Lange's latest album as Helado Negro is his boldest and most intricate work to date, grappling with memory and its uncanny tendency to wear away despite our best intentions to preserve it.

The dreamy soundworlds Roberto Carlos Lange created on Awe Owe and Invisible Life were steeped in a nostalgic haze that, in theory, seems like a perfect fit for Double Youth, which was inspired by a long-lost poster he discovered while cleaning out a closet in his childhood home.