After nearly five years since his last release and close to ten since his last physical format, Tom Hall returns with Trip Computer an audio-visual journey exploring memory, transmission, and systemic deconstruction. The album captures Hall’s signature balance of dense textures and minimalist form, hybrid synthesis, generative processes, and custom DSP systems; all built from the ground up by Hall himself.
While Hall’s discography has been quiet, his creative output has not. Over the past decade, he’s performed live across the globe, been a founding member of the Tree Of Life project at NASA/JPL that focuses on sound and bio-cybernetic communication; developed custom software for Nine Inch Nails; contributed to sound design for Hollywood franchises including Fast and Furious; and supported R&D and sound design for top industry audio companies. In parallel, he’s maintained a full-time active role at Cycling ’74 (makers of MaxMSP/Jitter/Max for Live) and joined the faculty at USC Thornton School of Music, teaching courses in audio synthesis, live performance technology, and computer music.
Hall’s return to recorded music (first time on vinly) is not a comeback-it’s a recalibration. One forged in two decades of continuous experimentation and technological inquiry.
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“Tom Hall sculpts granular textures and rhythmic fragments into form—an exercise in data compression through tactile, resonant frequencies. Bass pulses, tonal debris, and percussive detail coalesce into a focused, razor-sharp sound world. Each track breathes with emotion, even as it lives inside the circuitry.” Igloo Magazine – igloomag.com/reviews/tom-hall-trip-computer-sonoptik
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“No melody, no mercy – Trip Computer is a glitchcore odyssey that scrambles your nervous system. It’s not easy listening: Brutal and beautiful in equal measure.. Sharp, strange, and absolutely uncompromising.” – Milian Mori, Raster Media
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“Trip Computer cannot direct you to the destination you imagine or to the place you find yourself on arrival: that’s a matter of what happens right before your ears. You learn by listening where to go – switchbacks, roadcuts, and those long straight descents toward an endless plain with the sun at your back. Trip Computer marks the route and measures the distance, but it’s a road you gotta ride.” – Gregory Taylor, RTQE WORT 89.9FM