Triple Point

Triple Point is an industrial group active from 1991 to the present. The project begins as a duo formed by Daniel Hinds and Vico, who meet at South Umpqua High School in southern Oregon and later start making electronic-based music together after graduation. Wanting to keep the line-up small, they move away from a conventional band setup and work with sampled synth lines, drum patterns, distorted guitar and vocals, building a harsh industrial sound.

Early recordings and development

The name Triple Point comes from a chemistry text. The duo adopts it for the project after making several early recordings, then releases the first demo, Sublimation. In 1993 they regroup, buy new equipment and make a more electronic recording, Complex. This tape features the atmospheric tracks “No Ordinary Psychosis” and “Appeal” alongside the more aggressive “Screening” and “Supereality”, and it draws interest from underground industrial magazines as well as Alternative Press. Artist and musician John Bergin writes to the band with encouragement, and his support helps push them to continue developing their material.

Further demos, compilations and first album

Triple Point reworks earlier songs into new versions, including “Blackpool”, developed from “Tasha”, and “Hate Is”, which becomes a synthpop-style track. Both appear on the third demo, Stolen, which also includes guitar on some tracks and a title track described as metallic in character. John Bergin also provides the cover art.

The group then appears on several compilations. In 1997, its version of “Dynasty” is included on the double-CD set TV Terror, released on Re-constriction Records. A remixed version of “Lorrie Pours Out” appears on Undercurrent - PDX, a compilation of Oregon electro acts released on Doppler Effect. In 1998, Triple Point contributes to the follow-up compilation Resurgence and has a remix on Silicon Warfare.

Its first full-length CD, The Soul Den, arrives in 1999. The album contains nine original tracks, one cover and three remixes. One original features lead vocals by Karen Kardell of The RaZor Skyline, and the remixes are by Deadjump, Fire 99 and Thine Eyes. The record receives reviews and radio play.

Later work and related projects

In 2000, Triple Point appears on Doppler Effect’s Transcendence, with Dan rewriting “Stolen” for a more EBM-oriented version. Around the same time, Dan starts a more metal-focused side project called Binding with guitarist Nels Bruckner.

In 2001, Dan and Vico work with guitarist Tom Wilcox, and the trio develops new songs that draw on metal, freestyle dance and new wave while becoming more cohesive in sound. Laura Light also sings on two tracks, “Glimpse” and a trance-guitar version of Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good”. This material is issued as Sleep in Sodom.

Style and later status

Triple Point’s music develops through industrial, electronic and more experimental approaches, with later work also touching metal, synthpop, gothic and EBM. The project’s recordings are often built from electronics, guitar and vocals, and the group repeatedly revisits older pieces in new forms. Its later activity is tied to a period when the trio attempts to prepare a live show, but then turns back to writing before deciding that continuing under the same name is no longer practical.

Triple Point in the present tense

The project is associated with Pauline Oliveros, Doug Van Nort and Jonas Braasch in a later improvising trio configuration, with soprano saxophone, greis/electronics and V-accordion at its core. In that setting, the trio’s name is treated as a reference to a point of equilibrium on a phase plot, used as a metaphor for improvisational dialogue. The players’ interaction centres on the relationship between acoustic sound, physically modelled acoustics and electronics, with live capture, transformation and return of material as part of the exchange. Oliveros shifts timbres and alters the factory sound models of the virtual instrument, Braasch uses extended techniques such as circular-breathing tones and multiphonics, and Van Nort processes the sound of the other players in real time. The result is a style in which acoustic and electronic sources can be difficult to distinguish, shaped by Deep Listening and immediate response.