TURNmusic presents Westerlund/Hagen playing 'Grotto'

Grotto is both the long-form receipt of a friendship as well as a snapshot of a
single winter. Released by Totally Gross National Product, the album features
four songs performed by the duo that blend synths, electronics, trumpet and
drums with a limited edition 12" vinyl in a white jacket, individually painted by
hand.

Grotto
Westerlund//Hagen
TGNP 2026

The story of this album is the long-arc of a friendship punctuated by music. From early childhood, Joe Westerlund and Trever Hagen have routinely found
themselves running parallel on life’s pathways. Yet Grotto marks their first
dedicated intersection – a duo effort after years of cultivating distinct solo sounds on their instruments, percussion and trumpet. And that these two instruments have long sat side by side during the ancient theater of warfare, serves as another departure point between these kindred spirits. This album is an engraving of an aesthetic pairing forged over lifetimes.
Grotto is the culmination of a Wisconsin tour in December 2024. On that tour, Joe and Trever visited the Mary Nohl house just north of Milwaukee and were moved by her artist-built residence. Over the course of her life, Nohl painted, sculpted and designed her home into an artistic sanctuary – a grotto. As such, Grotto is also an homage to little-known artists across the United States who turned their isolated residences into museum-galleries, a home-styled spiritualism.
Leaving Lake Michigan in a snowstorm after the last show, Joe and Trever
headed north to the latter’s family cabin, a place they spent time together in their youth. Arriving in after dark, they cleared out the living room, set up mics and recorded Wrapped in Plastic, Stein Fields and Liberation Bells on the first day, followed by The Reel the next morning before packing up and heading home.