Release Date: October 2, 2026

01. B-C
02. D
03. F-G
04. I
05. J
06. L-M
07. N
08. O-P
09. Q
10. S-V
11. W-X-Y
12. Z

Written and produced by Brandon Locher, 09/18/25 - 05/09/26
Mastered by Taylor Deupree

Cover artwork by Brandon Locher. Rahu Ketu, ink, graphite, and colored penicl on paper, 9" x 9", 2026

Pennsylvania-based visual artist and musician Brandon Locher shares Rahu Ketu and its companion EP, The Shadow Planets, his first recordings in six years. Rahu Ketu also marks Locher’s debut full-length album under his own name. Across both releases, Locher redefines his craft in rhythmic, cinematic sound design, informed by a love of ambient composition, library music, trip-hop, and experimental sound collage. A dedicated practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, Locher’s work is deeply rooted in introspection, process, and a meditative approach to creativity. By tuning his daily practice to freeform, focused music-making, aligned with concepts of Vedic astrology, he’s found not only a fascinating new chapter within his oeuvre but also a framework for where to go from here.

Raised in Johnstown, Locher spent seven years in New York City before returning to rural Pennsylvania in 2020, where he established a simpler lifestyle and home studio practice. Known for nuanced and immersive drawings, the self-taught artist has thrived in the details over the last decade, amassing a catalog of commissioned visual work, from collaborations with Ghostly International to a recent installation with Aimée Portioli (Grand River). Locher’s art has been featured in publications such as High-Fructose, Vice, and Tiny Mix Tapes, and archived on UbuWeb, affirming his place within the contemporary avant-garde. His website chronicles over 20 years of work, archiving his artistic evolution as he shapeshifts through various modes of expression.

Whether working with colored pencils, monochromatic ink, or the waveforms of his Ableton keyboard and sequencer setup, Locher’s process relies on intuition, freedom, and constraints. Over time, meditation and his study of Advaita Vedanta began informing the daily structure of his artistic practice. “What fascinated me about Vedic astrology wasn't prediction so much as the idea of time and cycles,” he explains. “So when I looked at my own birth chart, I realized that the next period I was entering was Rahu Ketu, a 264-day cycle from September 2025 through May 2026.” As someone who works best within set parameters, he saw the period as a temporal boundary for recording an album, with plans to remain in sync with subsequent cycles.

Further, he devised a symbolic system that shaped both the music and its titles. In Vedic astrology, a Mahadasha is a major planetary period that shapes an individual’s life over several years, and the Antardasha is a sub-period within it, reflecting more specific themes and energies. Inspired, he sought to translate these lived astrological influences into music, using the alphabet as a symbolic framework, deliberately omitting the letters that spell 'Rahu Ketu,' creating a track list of linguistic eclipse that mirrors the shadow planets themselves. The EP, recorded during the same period as the LP, includes the omitted letters, along with remixes by Salvatore Mercatante and Sam Prekop.

Beyond the conceptual framing, the resulting music is both thrilling and hypnotic, built on a mix of organic and synthetic instrumentation. Songs brim with dizzying percussive loops and climactic swoops. Entirely self-produced and performed, the music often feels inhabited by ensembles moving through intricate mazes of sound. “B-C” vibrates with rumbling horns and strings. On “F-G”, somber keys and trumpet meet for a slow march, heightened by drums in the dramatic final pass. “J” is marked by celestial hums; “Q” grooves with vibraphone tones. Album centerpiece “O-P” carries a sense of lowlit mystery. He explains, “My sister and I watched Un flic, a 1972 crime film. The next day, in the back of my mind, I was like, ‘I'll try to make some imaginary French noir music.’”

Emerging from a slow and steady 264-day routine, the 97 minutes of music collected across Rahu Ketu and The Shadow Planets, are the first dispatch from what Locher considers a lifelong musical project and cosmic audio autobiography. He likens it to a reductive sculpture, in which an artist essentially frees the shape hidden within the mass. “You're chiseling away a little bit every single day; then eventually you're gonna have something you've made.” With more auditory shapes to come in Locher’s ambitious musical vision, the first is a worthy space to live in for a while.

01. A-R
02. Rahu Ketu (Salvatore Mercatante Rework)
03. H-T
04. I (Sam Prekop Remix)
05. K-E-U

Written and produced by Brandon Locher, 01/25/26 - 05/09/26
Mastered by Taylor Deupree

Cover artwork by Brandon Locher. The Shadow Planets, ink, graphite, and colored penicl on paper, 9" x 9", 2026

This EP was written and produced by Brandon Locher as a companion to Rahu Ketu, which will be released on October 2, 2026. Created during the same period as the LP, which traced a 264-day cycle corresponding to Locher's Rahu Mahadasha and Ketu Antardasha. In Vedic astrology, a Mahadasha is a major planetary period that shapes an individual's life over several years, and the Antardasha is a sub-period within it, reflecting more specific themes and energies. Its track titles consists of the letters deliberately omitted from the LP that spell 'Rahu Ketu," - "A, E, H, K, R, T, and U". The EP also features remixes by Salvatore Mercatante and Sam Prekop, further refracting material from the forthcoming Rahu Ketu.

Hush Hush Records is proud of announce Brandon Locher's debut solo release under his own name, out February 9th, 2018. Brandon Locher is a musician and visual artist living in New York, NY. After years of creating music under a multitude of aliases, Locher’s shift to his own name signals a newfound focus and honesty in his sonic creations. He states, “From the very beginning my music has always been rooted in a self-produced vision but lately I've felt such an enhanced clarity and boundless freedom with developing my own individual journey."

EP1’s three songs explore a boundless instrumental downtempo terrain that bursts with a jazzy, orchestral, cinematic quality. Locher’s knack for intricate arrangements, deceptively complex details, and creative electro-acoustic productions shines brightly throughout. “Medium Frequency” eases in with a few simple hypnotic notes before gradually building into a feverish orchestra propelled by nimble strings, melodic woodwinds, and a soaring saxophone solo. A gentle calm runs throughout “Slow Steps,” the track’s elegant synth work and theatrical chamber-like orchestration evoking a lush auditory ballet. “Air Notes” closes things out with a minimalist arrangement that touches upon the iconic works of Terry Riley and Philip Glass, while adding a refreshing contemporary touch with a restless underlying rhythmic current.

EP1 is the start of a new era for Locher's audio creations and a uniquely compelling addition to his vast oeuvre. It follows a prolific string of multi-media projects and avant-garde collaborations under various monikers. Most recently, Locher released a 3-hour digital compilation in January 2017 with over 50 selected tracks highlighting a decade’s worth of mostly unreleased material and his contributions to My Idea of Fun, an art and music archive based out of his hometown of Johnstown, PA. Outside of his musical creations, Locher is also a longtime Ghostly International collaborator, his stunning hand-drawn visual art pieces released in forms of limited edition prints, downloadable desktop backgrounds, a turntable slipmat, and various objects by the revered label.