VH X RR - The Persistence of Memory (2020) [Hi-Res]

VH x RR was founded in 2016 by Kent “Von” Hertzog and Rob Rowe after a meeting set in motion by an intelligent machine known as Google Music’s algorithm.

Hertzog was working on a track with INFORMATION SOCIETY (2018’s “Nothing Prevails”) and his own synthwave-adjacent material for his VON HERTZOG project. He was listening to INSOC when the algorithm recommended CAUSE & EFFECT’s major label debut album, Another Minute.

“I instantly fell in love,” Hertzog says. “Rob’s voice was sublime and the melodies he chose... it all felt like it spoke directly to me.”

Hertzog reached out to Rowe on Twitter and essentially cold-called him to see if they could work together. They got along well, realizing that their lives had a lot of parallels—both were working for themselves in the ad world and both had in-home studios that allowed them to quickly sketch ideas and share them over the Internet.Rowe was cautiously receptive, because he was addled with a potent bout of writer’s block. Neither his CAUSE & EFFECT or WHITEWAITS projects were active, but he tried to keep his creative muscles robust with collaborations.

“I committed to working on a single together in the hopes that it would eventually lead to me beating that writer’s block,” Rowe says. That song would become “Calm Down Lover” by the fall of 2016 — a fitting completion to a song Rowe had been tossing around for years.

VH x RR released "The Persistence of Memory" EP, via Lakeshore Records.

01 - Calm Down Lover
02 - A Little Bit Sweeter
03 - The Long Goodbye
04 - The Sun, The Stars, The Shine
05 - Calm Down Lover (In a Dramatic Gesture Remix)