In the late 90s, the Olivia Tremor Control, a group of neo-psychedelicists, achieved significant critical acclaim and a fervent cult following. However, co-founder Will Cullen Hart had greater aspirations. As he told me last year, fans would approach them after shows, exclaiming, 'You're my band!' But Hart desired for them to be a band that resonated with everyone. Yet, he and his musical partner Bill Doss showed little interest in catering to the masses. Major labels like Elektra sensed commercial potential within OTC's often brilliant yet occasionally baffling acid-pop, but contract negotiations quickly hit a snag over creative control, which Hart was unwilling to give up. 'I didn't want to be rich,' he admitted. 'I just wanted to be able to acquire more equipment and keep creating amazing things.'

Early Influences and Musical Beginnings

Simple ambitions like these had bonded Hart with dear friends Doss, Robert Schneider, and Jeff Mangum during their junior high school years in Ruston, Louisiana. Hart's parents, both interior designers, had nurtured his precocious artistic tendencies. His mother provided him with an abundance of paper for him to scribble on. But it was Schneider, his 'mentor', who introduced him to lo-fi home-recording, which became his main focus. 'When we discovered that the Beatles made their records on four-track tape-recorders, it transformed our lives,' Hart said.The quartet started making their own music, sharing cassettes with each other and pushing the boundaries of primitive technology. In the early 90s, they moved to Athens, a college town in Georgia, and formed a musical collective called Elephant 6, which later evolved into a record label. Hart, Doss, and Mangum played in Synthetic Flying Machine, a psychedelic group with avant-garde leanings. Mangum, with his penchant for using unconventional musical instruments like lawnmowers and blenders, left the group, and Hart and Doss renamed it the Olivia Tremor Control.

The Debut Album and Early Success

Their debut album, 1996's Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, was the first Elephant 6 release to gain attention outside their insular scene. It was a work of scattered brilliance, seamlessly transitioning from drug-mangled pop to ambitious shoestring symphonies and uncompromising musique concrète. Critics were ecstatic about the vision, the ambition, and the wayward wandering. It also came with a bonus CD of instrumentals that Doss and Hart recorded during two intense nights. This success was followed by 1999's Black Foliage: Animation Music, during which Hart's LSD intake reached its peak. 'I took acid quite frequently, perhaps 200 times,' he explained, adding that it helped him perceive 'different dimensions'. Black Foliage was a darker musical journey, and once it was completed, Hart quit taking acid. 'I realized I had learned all I could from LSD.'

The Breakup and Later Reunions

The Olivia Tremor Control broke up the following year. Hart was experiencing symptoms of then-undiagnosed multiple sclerosis (MS), and he told me, 'I didn't have the emotional resilience... I cut people off. I couldn't handle confrontations. I stopped answering the door and the phone.' After his friendship with Doss deteriorated, Hart formed a new group, Circulatory System. But his symptoms worsened, and after a period of hospitalization, he was diagnosed with MS in 2005. This news led to a reconciliation with Doss, and OTC reunited at that year's All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands. 'We were a band again, and it was wonderful,' Hart said.However, while he and Doss began working on a third Olivia Tremor Control album, it remained unfinished. Hart struggled with his MS, which he described as 'destroying' him. 'Recording every day? I can't do that anymore. There are these persistent buzzing sensations. It's dreadful.' Then, in 2012, Doss passed away suddenly due to an aneurysm. For years, Hart couldn't bring himself to finish the album without him. 'Just days after Bill passed, I realized I couldn't continue. I needed to let it go.'

The Documentary and Posthumous Release

In the years following Doss's death, filmmaker Chad Stockfleth worked on a documentary about the Elephant 6 scene. His enthusiasm re-energized the obscure Athens collective. 'We were all in an emotional turmoil after Bill's death,' Schneider told me. 'Chad's camera was like a therapist, and a healing process began.' Hart and Schneider returned to the unfinished Olivia Tremor Control album. Progress was slow, but Hart was 'truly enjoying working on the tracks'. The first two songs from the album's sessions, Garden of Light and The Same Place, appeared on Bandcamp on Friday. Schneider noted that before Hart passed away, he was 'excited and happy to see people downloading it'.Indeed, while the last decade of Hart's life was marked by illness and tragedy, there was a sense that he had made peace with his ambitions and clearly recognized his musical achievements. Stockfleth's film, in particular, provided a much-needed perspective. 'It's as if I'm watching someone else,' he told me last summer. 'And those kids are amazing! It makes me happy. We achieved something, and I'm truly proud of it.'