The album lands via Montserrat House Music with a 50-unit hardware collaboration.
Photo credit: RESØR – Website
Eric Hilton has released his new solo album ‘A Sky So Close’ via Montserrat House Music, arriving alongside a hardware partnership with Berlin-based analog atelier RESØR. The collaboration introduces the ‘Trust A Thief — Eric Hilton Signature Series’, a limited rotary mixer and hi-fi preamplifier designed around Hilton’s personal listening and performance philosophy.
Described by Hilton as “an atmosphere, a state of mind,” ‘A Sky So Close’ unfolds across 12 tracks shaped by his layered production style. “I indulge myself by making music that I want to listen to,” he says. “It’s a more solitary record than some of my other work, there is not a big list of guest performers on this one. It’s really like my stream of consciousness.”
A co-founder of Thievery Corporation, Hilton builds on the downtempo foundations he helped define in the mid-’90s. On this record, he leans into bass-driven composition and textural detail, weaving samples with live instrumentation. “I’m really a bassline designer,” he explains. “I mean, I’m a passable bass player, but if a lick is a little too tricky for me, I’ll bring in a friend to play it. And I also really like to weave bass samples and live playing together, so you can get new kinds of grooves that one person couldn’t really play.”
Cuts such as ‘Kali’ and ‘Ghatam’ center on low-end movement, while the title track expands into cinematic territory through layered percussion and melodic flourishes. The album closes with ‘The Lotus Gate’, a restrained finale that maintains the record’s suspended atmosphere rather than resolving it.
In parallel, Hilton’s RESØR collaboration materializes as a purpose-built analog and discrete rotary mixer, limited to 50 hand-built units worldwide. Each piece is individually assembled and calibrated in Berlin, housed in a solid mahogany enclosure with a silver matte anodized aluminum faceplate. The unit features audiophile-grade capacitors, four analogue VU meters, Urei-style knobs, and includes a hand-signed certificate of authenticity, travel case, and four-year international warranty.
“This mixer reflects how I actually listen and perform,” says Hilton. “It’s about flow, subtlety, and intention. RESØR understood that immediately.”
Explore the RESØR ‘Trust A Thief’ series with Eric Hilton here.
Listen to ‘A Sky So Close’ below and secure your copy here.
