HAMMOCK

I totally resonate with the word "resolution" that I've seen used to describe the music of this album; the grieving process that began with 2017's Mysterium must be complete (as complete as grieving ever gets) for that is the feeling one comes away with after hearing this collection of calm, soothing songs. And we, the public, are so blessed for Marc Byrd's choice to process his grief through his amazing music. As I listen to this absolutely gorgeous music, I am bathed in feelings of peace, of relief, of completion and readiness for the journey to pick up and start again, anew, refreshed, after a much needed long and healing delay. Would that all humans were able to find such means to process their emotional challenges; it is a flaw in the human design that so few ever reach the heights of artistic perfection that Marc and Andrew do; it is a gift that some of us get to experience their artful expression.

As other reviewers have noted, this music may be more accurately categorized as ambient or neo-classical though the Post Rock label works, too.

1. "Circular As Our Way" (7:00) strings, muted horns, voices at the end (14/15)

2. "Silencia" (5:09) slow and unevolving, it's about constancy. And backdrop. (8.5/10)

3. "When It Hurts to Remember" (6:16) very much like a BERSARIN QUARTETT song; very little development or change. (8.5/10)

4. "Afraid to Forget" (7:08) haunting female choir and organ and, later, strings, all repeating the same Inception/Harry Potter-like theme. Big shift for the final two minutes. (13.5/15)

5. "Saudade" (5:18) horns, strings, and distant choir carrying "arpeggio" of three descending "chords" for five minutes with varying volume, dynamic, and with occasional addition of other solo instrument like cello, synth "underwater bleep" and others. (9/10)

6. "In the Shattering of Things" (5:51) a song that affirms how amazingly evocative music can be. Stunningly gorgeous. A song that pierces me to the core. (10/10)

7. "We Try to Make Sense of It All" (3:56) Piano! and then, Cello! Multiple strings! A modern day chamber quintet masterpiece. With choir of angels! Wow! (10/10)

8. "Slowly You Dissolve" (5:18) slowly shifting low chords with heavily treated electric guitar harmonics and single notes played, one slowly decaying note at a time, over the top almost ROBIN GUTHRIE-like. Strings join in toward the end of the third minute and begin to take the fore. Brilliant. (8.75/10)

9. "Fascinans" (4:16) slow, murky horn arpeggio joined by synth/strings to expand each "note" into a chord and then add embellishments from individual stringed instruments. Beautiful like a lullaby for mermaids. Effected choir is added to the mix in the fourth minute to back the viola and cello as they sing the lead melody. (9/10)

10. "Life is Life" (3:48) low end horns muted and synth washed open this one while whispery things play about at the other end. Then the treble register intensifies as the Icarus-flighty things soar and dissolve. Another piece of emotive genius. (9.5/10)

11. "Without Form and Void" (8:05) quite heavenly--not unlike some of the gentler, more slowly scored work of BATTLESTATIONS, DAVID DARLING or New Age masters like STEVE ROACH. (13.5/15)

Total Time: 62:05

Songs that sound like they could have come from soundtracks by HANS ZIMMER or CLINT MANSELL or albums by Post Rock bands like ULVER, THE BERSARIN QUARTETT, JAKOB, or GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR.

Five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music and a masterpiece of neoclassical/ambient Post Rock music.

Hammock, a post/math rock progressive band from Nashville, is, at it's core, made up of the duo of guitarists Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, both originally from the band "Common Children". The duo first got together to do informal recordings and had no intention on releasing these recordings, at first anyway. But when their collection reached 40 recordings, they decided to form Hammock. They released their first 2 albums in 2005 along with an EP in the same year. In 2007, they gave their first live performance to honor an artistic collaboration between Jonsi Birgisson (Sigur Ros) and Alex Somers (a graphic designer) for the pair's first exhibition outside of Iceland.

In November of 2019, the duo released their 12th full length album, "Silencia". Over the years, they have incorporated different artists and orchestras/choirs in several of their albums. Their music is considered post rock, but they actually center their style of music around the more ambient aspect of the sub-genre. That is also the case with this album, which also features the 20-piece Budapest Art Choir. "Silencia" makes up the final part of a trilogy of albums (consisting of "Mysterium", "Universalis" and this one "Silencia") that is made up of music inspired by the works of Arvo Part and Georgy Sviridov and the American poet Li Young Li. According to Byrd, "Mysterium was about a shattering. Universalis, the trilogy's second record, was an attempt to put things back together, and Silencia reflects a quiet resolution of knowing this is what life is. You have to live in the midst of both."

Right from the beginning, the album begins with a slow, mostly orchestral build. The strings and muted horns work together on a long, slow crescendo which reaches it's peak about halfway through and then decrescendos back to the end. It's slow and pensive, never reaching a level of loudness or heaviness, just a swell of the music, peaceful and lovely. "Silencia" makes a soft, layered yet quiet beginning, with the very soft strains of an almost vocal quality deep in the background. A cello comes in and takes the lead over the textured background. The music is slow, serene and reflective, a feeling of resolution. By giving this music your attention, you will find yourself lost inside of its beauty. There are layers of soft strings that join in later. These textured orchestral parts of strings and horns were orchestrated by conductor and violinist Viktor Orri Amason in Hungary, where the instruments were tracked using 30 vintage microphones. "When it Hurts to Remember" continues this soft and flowing sound, letting the orchestra ebb and flow softly along with a light, airy drone that uses variable tones swirling around underneath. There is a slight crescendo as the track moves peacefully forward. Think of Sigur Ros without the vocals and with less harshness or sudden dynamic changes, the dynamics are slow and gradual, left to build more naturally.

"Afraid to Forget" is the first point in which the choir becomes evident as their soft harmonies move in slowly like the layered drones, sounding like an angelic choir singing far off in the distance. As they repeat a 8 note motif of sustained notes. Low string bass finally comes in and soon after, the strings echo the same motif along with the choir, and the music slowly builds. If you are listening closely, the music will penetrate your soul. After 5 minutes, the music backs away from the motif as it uses sustained notes to bridge to a viola solo, again playing slowly and pensively.

It is difficult to describe adequately as some tracks and passages can defy description, the only way to understand them is to experience them. The entire album moves in this manner, beautiful orchestral swells and textural passages. Occasional melodies come out of the textured layers. The music is exactly what they purport it to be, the exploration of the ambient and quiet side of post rock music. It is all well developed and appropriate for relaxation, but it also has a lot of compositional value to it also, not just meandering sounds, but lovely orchestral arrangements with the quietness of subtle guitar, violin and piano motifs and textures. It's all quite ethereal, dreamy and lovely, probably the best ambient album I've heard all year. That's all you need to expect here, no loud noise or heavily layered climaxes, just lush and peaceful sound.

For nearly a first, as long as any Hammock record review figure on this site, (cheers to "Morsenator" who, having a different approach than mine, this being a very good thing, still invested good time to make them known to the happy few!) I've chosen "Oblivion hymns" to present my overall view of their "oeuvre". As i'm mainly french speaking, and doesn't feel nearly as fluent in english as i'd wish, you may find as many "french expression"s as your language of choice seems to allow. Hammock can conveniently be put in the "post rock" category, with the heavy weights, (Mogwai, Godspeed you..., ant other Explosions in the sky). Myself i'd like to open a "Music for the soul" category for them. In fact that's what they provide to me. Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson mainly use textural and processed guitars to create a tapestry of sound which is both soothing and quietly unsettling. One who takes a look at the song titles can't miss the overall feelings and impressions they wish to communicate, knowing that the music is mostly instrumental. Music for sorrow but still, after listening any of their records, you just feel uplifted.

I've discovered them with "Chasing After Shadows...Living with the Ghosts" their 2010's offering, and simply been hooked. Bought at once the following one "Departure songs" a double cd charged to the brim (any Hammock cd is good value as long as one talk about duration!), inspiration being, in my understanding, the matters of the loved ones gone, our own mortality, near death experiences or generation's transmission for good exemples, or, importantly, the capacity or audacity of letting go. Vast program you would say. But it truly seems to be their mission, and i can't chase the idea that they are like non religious angels offered to cure my sadness. Now, i'm not particuly depressive, reasonably happy and healthy for my old age (many prog fans on this site, by very definition , should reach their sixties pretty soon like me...) but i like to feel that as long as any Hammock music is available to me, nothing strongly wrong can happen to my sanity! This may put quite a pressure on their shoulders if they happen to read this, but in the same time they may feel rewarded because that's just the way they seem to interract with the listener.

I now have seven of their records and it can't seem to be enough. And even if a superficial first listening can give the impression that it's "du pareil au même" (just of the same if you wish), i just happen to wait eagerly for the next one. And still their sound has evolved. More keys nowadays, some rythmic patterns more or less present on others, "Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow" is related to an installation in direct link to Sigur Ros. And i'm quite found of the female voices and choir effects which are more and more part of the musical setting. So why Oblivion Hymns? Apart from being a convenient entry ticket resuming the whole discography, it may figure more of these female voices giving a more melodic and accessible side to the music. And the cover picture is simply striking! You can easily pass over it, thinking it's a kind of "fauvism" effect, but once you've caught it, you may feel like me that just staring at the picture may create a kind of spiritual experience.

My other reviews don't adress the record matters in any way like this one. Factuals or song by song descriptions, a prosaic look to the music i love, but in this case it just seems to be the music who loves me! Five stars is just in order to the "bien-être" effect they provide. Long life and afterlife to Hammock!

A glimpse of calm passages.

The music of Hammock has entered in my life in the last couple of years, its multi-layered music offers calm and even mental healing if you are having a difficult moment, so their music could be a very good friend of your ears and soul. The duo released their first EP back in 2005, four very nice songs that might be labelled as post-rock, ambient music, or even new age for the purists; making a total time of 25 worth listening minutes.

"Stranded Under Endless Sky" is the title track and the opener. Here you will be enchanted by its beautiful 5 minutes, you just have to close the eyes, feel comfortable and send your stress away. "Birds Flying in Sequence" is a very visual track, if you are in the correct mood, I bet you will create lots of passages in your mind, so maybe a history can be told within these 8 minutes of peace and tranquility.

"Always Wishing You Were Somewhere Else" is short but with so many colors and textures, a nice vivid trip to self-conciousness. Finally, "An Empty Field" give us almost ten minutes of a great introspective journey, where the sounds flow as well as the mind's pictures. Although it might have the same style all the time, this EP is not plain at all, but you must be open to receive its nuances and let yourself be embraced by its charm.

This is not the best introduction to Hammock's music, but you might give it a spin and enjoy the calm.

Hammock's third full length album is an hour full of guitar-driven instrumental ambient, atmospheric to the fullest. The songs feel like they're somehow transient but still, always moving from nowhere in particular towards an even more undescribable place. The minimalistic approach is quite moving, especially on tracks like "Mono No Aware" and the title track, but overall makes the album a little too flat. It is hard to discriminate between songs as almost all of them share the same soundscape and similar slow, circling harmonies. The picture of grey, dirty streets, cloudy mornings and drug addicts in some back corners, kind of like shown in the cover art is achieved pretty well, I have to admit. While saying so, I feel I cannot give this album more than three stars as it is not especially imaginative or progressive in nature. I believe some ears may appreciate the concept more than I do.

Hammock's "Departure Songs" is an album I find difficult to rate. On the one hand it accomplishes everything it sets out to do, creating a lush, dreamlike sonic landscape with moments of pure ecstacy. On the other, it's not terribly memorable or groundbreaking. I'd be hard pressed to differentiate this music from any number of other similar acts going around.

This almost two hour double album starts with easily the best track. "Cold Front" is a spine tingling gem, incorporating gorgeous pads and an incredible yet simple and haunting guitar melody. This is definitely a song I keep coming back to. As an aside, the film clip is also intriguing and brilliantly presented.

From here, Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson don't change the formula a great deal. There's some sparse vocals on various tracks and there are a few tempo changes here and there, but for the most part we get what we expect on a Hammock release.

And that's also why I find it hard to criticise the album. As I said, it achieves what it sets out to do. This is the perfect kind of album for playing in the background while doing something else. It's not intrusive and it creates a great mood. But I don't feel it does anything to set itself apart from numerous other albums out there designed to do the same thing.

However, if you're after beautiful, atmospheric post-rock to lull your senses, you can't really go wrong here.

On their first album "Kenotic" the post rock duo Hammock focuses on a more ambient style of approach. This is the music of empty city streets on cloudy evenings or of a dim, lonely room with closed curtains. The tracks tend to keep on the peripheral areas of my auditive attention with their melancholic, grey guitar layered tensions. Sometimes a highlighted motif or idea emerges to catch me from falling asleep (which is by the way not always a bad sign to happen while listening to music), like on the wonderful song "Wish". A nice album for "evening dreaming" (a word invented right now, as opposed to daydreaming). Not the most memorable one out there but a pleasant listen nevertheless.

One can always analyze an album down to its contents, track by track and sound after sound. Something I've recently realized however is that music, and especially this kind of ambient influenced music may often be better understood and described through the musical colours and landscapes it creates in the mind absorbing it. Moods and moments. One of the latter happened some nights ago when I was listening this album. While "Passing Away" was playing, I happened to gaze out of my window. The blue hour was just at its fullest and the crescent moon shone its cold light down on me. I felt like a special connection, between myself, the early night sky and the song. And that is what Hammock's "Raising Your Voice... Trying to Stop an Echo" in my opinion is all about. Those little stunning moments of life, expressed musically through those layers of post-rockish ambient that Hammock have specialized in. Beautiful, flowing, painting the palette of all kinds of blue emotions that we are all familiar with, more or less. That kind of stuff that makes the little details lose themselves in the background, drawing a bigger picture.

Hammock's latest release is a massive double cd full of layered guitar harmonies, sweet&slow arpeggios and calm drumbeats. Almost two hours in length, it is hard to say anything fully comprehensive about Departure Songs. I still have very mixed feelings on the album, even after giving it time to grow and listening it through many times in multiple ways. It seems to be loosely themed (how much can you build a semantic theme in a mostly instrumental album, anyway?) around the last moments of life and the various ways in which death can take place. Some moments are breathtaking, like the awesome buildup in Ten Thousand Years Won't Save Your Life and the beautifully moving Frailty (For the Dearly Departed). Other times, especially on the second disc, I just completely lose attention as there's not much new or even interesting going on. Don't get me wrong, this is a fine effort, I just find it too long for it's genre and too bland in terms of variance for my taste. While not really groundbreaking structurally or melodically, Hammock succeeds in creating many very interesting soundscapes that leave the listener in a sense of wonder, a thing often found through their music. Check it out and decide for yourself, that's my advice.

On Stranded Under Endless Sky the post rock-ambient unit Hammock presents a nice blend of sounds, layers and melancholia. Tracks flow beautifully from start to finish, with just enough variation added to keep them thoroughly interesting. Not being really a fan of the genre and its nearest relatives, this album was a surprisingly good find. The title track sets the mood for some fine blue ambience. I imagine a man walking alone in soft rain, wondering his life. Then follows Birds Flying In Sequence, my favourite track here, which uses some drum loops in the background of a guitar groove to create again a layer of deep emotions. The third track, good but nothing particularly interesting, serves as a bridge to An Empty Field, which is just plain nine minutes of epicness. Lots of echoes and ambience, topped by some beautiful guitar playing. After listening to this album I feel a sense of wonder and focus, something not very often found through music. For those who like instrumental and calm music Hammock is definitely something to check out.