Recording Against the Dying of the Light with Singer-Songwriter José González and Engineer Hans Olsson

José González is a Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist whose minimal, introspective songwriting and fingerpicked nylon-string acoustic guitar style blends classic pop-tinged singer-songwriter sensibility with African and Spanish folk traditions, along with touches of lo-fi modern indie rock.

His latest release, Against the Dying of the Light, is a 45-minute, 13-song journey that offers a sparse, intimate soundscape rich with gentle saturated breakup and deep layers of reverberant space.

The album was tracked in José’s personal recording space and mixed and mastered by Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Göteborg, Sweden.

I was fortunate to speak first with José, followed by Hans, to dig into the creation of this latest record.