"Negotiations", the new album from THE HELIO SEQUENCE, the fifth full-length and the band's first in over four years, was written, recorded and produced by the band in their studio in Portland, Oregon.

THE HELIO SEQUENCE would sound different had it not been for a flood. In 2009, while touring in support of ,Keep Your Eyes Ahead", singer-guitarist Brandon Summers got an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night.

Back home in Portland, the band's studio/practice space was under nearly a foot of water.

Heavy rains had caused the building's plumbing to overflow like a geyser. But Summers and drummer-keyboardist, Benjamin Weikel, were lucky: All of their best equipment was either on tour with them, or racked high enough off the studio floor to be spared.

Still, the band needed a new home and they decided to use this opportunity to try something different in a new studio space.

For reasons related to this new environment and not, recording for ,Negotiations" proved to be the loosest, and most free-form the duo has ever done.

For all of that, ,Negotiations" doesn't demand deconstruction. Still, we're happy to do some of it for you: This collection of shimmering, reverb-heavy songs is a meditation on, among other things, solitude, memory, hope, misgivings, loss, atonement, and inner dialogues (hence, ,Negotiations").

Most of all, it's a record that serves as a testament to the beauty, blessing, and excitement of a fresh start.