Himalion

In WYSIATI, Diogo Sarabando — under the name Himalion, a chamber-pop and indie-folk project from Aveiro — reflects on the need, and the anxiety, of leaving the past behind. After a solo tour with his debut LP BLOOMING in November 2021, Diogo began an artistic residency in the Azores. In the attic of Lost in Pico, the home of his friend Henry Simões, he set up a small studio where, over three weeks spent between Terceira, São Miguel, Pico, and Faial, he began shaping new compositions.

Amid cryptomeria forests, the contrast between volcanic sand and the blue of the Atlantic, and a gaze constantly drawn to the mountain’s magnetism, the embryo of what would become WYSIATI was born. The title is based on a concept created by Daniel Kahneman (What You See Is All There Is), which describes our tendency to make decisions based only on the information available to us, ignoring what remains unknown.

Shortly after, Diogo joined a workshop at the School of Song, led by Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes). The School of Song’s focus on community-building and its pedagogical approach as a “safe harbor” acted as a catalyst for exploring the conceptual core of WYSIATI: how we neglect the role of chance and mistakenly assume that the future will resemble the past.

At the end of the course, Robin Pecknold awarded Diogo a professional budget for recording and mixing, allowing him to fulfill one of Himalion’s founding goals: collaborating with a wider range of musicians — particularly from the Aveiro region — and strengthening a musical and artistic community around the project.

Mixed by Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Tomberlin, Hand Habits, among others) at Sugar Mountain studio, and mastered by Josh Bonati (Sufjan Stevens, Adrianne Lenker, Mac DeMarco, among others) in Brooklyn, New York, WYSIATI is Himalion’s second full-length album, scheduled for release in January.