The National’s ‘Sleep Well Beast’ was Born in the Hudson Valley

  |  September 12, 2017
the national sleep well beast

Sleep Well Beast album cover depicting Long Pond Studio in the Hudson Valley via www.4ad.com. 

What happens when you take five friends from Cincinnati, reunite them in Brooklyn, and then drop them in the Mid-Hudson Valley? You get more music from the indie band The National, which makes up their most recent studio album Sleep Well Beast released September 8th.

The record was tracked at Long Pond Studio – depicted on the cover of Beast shown above – in the Columbia County city of Hudson. The National’s Aaron Dressner calls the 18th century farmhouse home, and the property’s barn was extensively renovated into a full recording studio. You can see more of the barn in this video on CBS.com. Or, you can fire up your virtual reality glasses and watch a V.R. documentary entitled “The National: Something Out of Nothing” directed by Emmy nominee Marshall Curry. The doc takes the viewer behind the scenes of Beasts‘s recording sessions at Long Pond Studio as well as a live performance in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The National is based in Brooklyn and consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), Aaron Dessner (guitar, keyboards), Bryce Dessner (guitar), Scott Devendorf (bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). Read Rolling Stone’s review of Sleep Well Beast here.

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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