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At the end of 2023,
Clemens Bacher - otherwise known as
Cid Rim - skipped Austrian winter for the first time in his life, opting instead for the sun drenched climes of Mexico. What emerged was his fourth studio album
SPRINT - a technicolour ode to joy and a study in leaving your comfort zone - which will be released via
LUCKYME® on Friday 27 June.
Finding himself on the other side of the world, Bacher took up boxing classes in the park, where he met local creatives. He ate delicious fruit and drank light beers on the balcony at 4pm each afternoon; he rented a studio and promised himself he’d write a sketch every day. He lived a happy and habitual life, dedicating himself to doing what felt right.
It’s no surprise, then, that
SPRINT feels like a pure dose of Vitamin D. The music that came out of Bacher embodied the natural goodness of his surroundings and daily routine; in short, the opposite of a cold European winter. Lead single “Yes” is a case-in-point, with its unashamed and persistent positivity, its cartoonish staccato piano chords and barrelling breakbeats: a song waiting to be plucked out of the air, arriving almost fully formed in Bacher’s studio in the space of minutes. He describes how quickly the track came together as an “almost magical experience”, but that’s the spirit of
SPRINT: trusting the process, underthinking, letting it happen.
True to its name,
SPRINT is always on the move. The album flies out of the blocks: from the playfully staccato “Thunderstruck”; to the blaring Leslie speakers in “Limbo” and the headbanging energy of “Light Me Up”. The twelve tracks zip past in a multi-coloured blur of delightful earworms and big swings, drawing from 70s jazz fusion and the playbook of pop; all of it underpinned by Cid Rim’s wickedly clever drumming. Bacher, who holds a degree in jazz drums from Vienna Conservatory, deliberately took a less engineered approach to the composition than in previous albums. “Writing pop is risky,” he explains, “I’m used to hiding a bit behind my technical ability…it feels scary to step out of that and be more to-the-point.”
Usually a solitary worker, Bacher learned to lean on the direction of trusted companions for
SPRINT, namely his high school friends
Dorian Concept and
The Clonious - for years the three of them were residents at Viennese club night The Loud Minority; held in a literal bathhouse beneath a local theme park. “It felt like a precious gift…like taking care of someone’s child—that kind of trust,” says The Clonious, who mixed and mastered the album, “I told him straight away: this music is special.”
SPRINT is a family affair, then, rather than a solo project. The album creative was even done by fellow LUCKYME® artist and ex-roommate
Joe Marinetti, who invited him to Mexico in the first place and who Bacher credits with connecting him with all the right people there: “These are literally my best friends in the world…it made the whole process fun.”
On the cusp of fatherhood,
SPRINT marks a departure point for Cid Rim. Leaving his beloved Vienna to let the sunshine in, the album is a monument to fresh perspectives, positive life decisions and trusting those closest to you. “To me, this record feels like a bold step outwards for Clemens…almost like he's rushing towards something,” says Dorian Concept. Four albums into his career,
SPRINT sounds refreshingly unencumbered - the expression of an artist with nothing to prove and who just wants to have fun.