Scented Pictures by Nonpareils is the solo debut album by Aaron Hemphill, his first recordings since his departure from the band Liars in 2016. The songs on Scented Pictures, recorded by Hemphill in Berlin, are directly inspired by concepts relating to memories, or more accurately the sensory experience of memory. The tracks brim with poppy ideas and lush colour, yet their structures aim at defying logic, filtering the songs into strange new psychedelic corners. Hemphill believes that encouraging the brain to fill in the gaps in something - be it a piece of music or a specific memory - leads to an amplified, more vivid experience for the listener. The snippets of sound and image inside Scented Pictures songs were mostly culled from the musician’s own memory and tinted by his entry into a new solo phase in his career. The songwriting displayed on Scented Pictures is metaphysically restructured pop, the wealth of sounds and sonic processes at Hemphill’s disposal having diversified and warped since Mess, his final studio album with Liars.
