CatalogueArtist: Ian Hawgood
Title: Snow Roads
Catalogue: de5024
Duration: 46:00
Format: CD-R
Edition: 250 (out of print)
Release: September 2009
DOWNLOAD FROM ITUNES / EMUSIC / BOOMKAT
1. Oak
2. One Day Winter
3. Sulci
4. Gravel Road
5. Wood Carving
6. Shore Poetry
7. Evening
8. Southern
9. Crows
10. Breeze
11. Specks Then Flakes
12. Snow Roads
13. Northern
14. Hanamic Cubes
Snow Roads, the new full length release from artist Ian Hawgood, is a demonstration of poetry through image and images turning to sound, exploring the feelings of stillness, isolation and loneliness. Composed over an 18-month span, Hawgood deploys a multitude of analog and digital treatments to piano, guitar, vocals, and field recordings that result in a warm, natural and enveloping experience. Over the course of the album, Hawgood displays a tender and visual sensibility, like an impressionist series of dreams influenced by the stillness of the end of winter. Snow Roads also includes contributions of source material from a number of other artists including The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako and in addition was mastered by Taylor Deupree.
Reviews
A lovely and very seasonal release from the Dragon's Eye label, Snow Roads is the brainchild of Ian Hawgood, the man behind the Home Normal label. For this wonderful collection of microsound compositions he calls upon the assistance of a number of additional players, well-known to devotees of the genre: The Remote Viewer, Celer, Le Mépris and El Fog are among the additional players, while Taylor Deupree takes on mastering duties. The record took Hawgood eighteen months to complete, and every passing second of this absorbing soundscape exudes craft and toil. While the integration of programmed content with evocative landscape-based field recordings is hardly a new tactic, Hawgood gets the balance just right on pieces like 'Gravel Road'. Here, the exquisite crunch of footsteps intermingles with the incidental jangle of bells and soft, wafer-thin drone tones - it's musical and carries an innate sense of melody, and yet the execution is so subtle and intangible that there's a certain air of magic about the piece. There's lots to admire here though: see also the colourful, granulated deluge of 'Specks Then Flakes', the decaying snarl of 'Evening' and 'One Day Winter - a composition that offers the auditory equivalent of peering through blurry, frosted-over panes. Highly recommended.
– Boomkat
Strade innevate, sinonimo di immobilità e rigori invernali. Sono le immagini suggerite dall'album del britannico Ian Hawgood, una tormentata elegia ambient che promana per lo più dal trattamento di registrazioni e strumenti acustici (lunga la lista, dal vibrafono alle campanelle tibetane, così come quella degli ospiti: The Remote Viewer, Celer etc., con Taylor Deupree ad occuparsi della masterizzazione). Complessivamente fascinoso, nonostante uniformità di registro e natura didascalica delle singole composizioni.
– Blow Up Magazine
A en croire sa riche discographie, Ian Hawgood possède le don d’ubiquité. Au point qu’il est difficile de suivre le rythme soutenu de cet anglais exilé sur l’archipel nippone. Snow Roads est déjà son troisième album cette année. Et alors que j’écris ces lignes, un quatrième s’apprête à débouler sur la toile ! D’autant que notre homme n’aime pas rester en place et prend plaisir à brouiller les pistes en sortant chacun de ses méfaits sur des labels différents : que ce soit Slow Flow recordings, Hybernate records, ou, dans le cas qui nous intéresse ici, l’écurie Dragon’s Eye. Les connaisseurs d'ambient auront reconnu ici des labels à la ligne éditoriale bien tranchée.
Une question s’impose donc : pourquoi chroniquer Snow Roads plutôt qu’un autre ? Sans doute parce qu’il est l’album qui contient tous les autres. On y retrouve le côté dramatique du monumental We Are Better For Being Built This Way et la richesse des textures de Wolfskin. A ceci près que Snow Roads a cette particularité : c’est un album extrêmement écrit. Certain apprécieront, d’autre regretteront le manque évident de spontanéité.
Question ambiance, Ian Hawgood prend un maximum de risque. Et pour cause, il s’aventure avec Snow Roads sur le terrain le plus éculé de toute l’ambient music : celui de la contemplation hivernale et mélancolique. Mais l’anglais a l’intelligence de la jouer avec beaucoup de retenue et évite ainsi l’écueil de la guimauve. Halleluja oserais-je dire.
Au final, Snow Roads est de ces albums qui mènent au recueillement et à l’apaisement avec simplicité et efficacité. Il nous laisse seul arpenter les sentiers enneigés de notre imagination, tandis que l’hiver pointe lentement le bout de son nez. Admirable!
– dMute
Undertaking a parallel listening of these two most recent albums of Ian Hawgood’s, Snow Roads and Wolfskin, has been nothing short of a fascinating, entrancing experience.
Hawgood, an Englishman who has been a long-time resident of both Tokyo and London, presents a unique ambient vision. Where others fall into the potholes of over-simplistic motifs, an excessive lack of speed or momentum, or an obsession with a particular area of electronica, Hawgood steers well clear and keeps the avid listener interested and engaged.
These two ’solo’ albums contribute to Hawgood’s already extensive output, with 31 recordings over the past 10 or so years. His oeuvre is extended further with the release of these albums, and the territory ploughed is one worthy of tilling. Field recordings are overlaid with harmonium, vibraphone, tingsha bells and various conventional instruments. This exotic array of instruments avoids pastiche and instead the compositions embrace a holistic, rounded orchestration that reflects the collaborative playing captured by this music.
On Snow Roads “Southern” and “Specks then Flakes” both recall the varied musics of say Laraanji, Reich, Glass, and Burton/Corea, particularly with the bright, ringing tones that are captured from the harmonium lines. Short tracks mostly comprising found-sound and field recording sources punctuate Snow Roads, with bird calls and twitters, footsteps and water courses evoking a strong sense of the wintry album title. This snippets help keep the focus and momentum of this record and act as a background for the longer tracks.
In contrast to Snow Roads, Wolfskin delves more deeply into abstract ambient yet resolutely melodic composition, with layered effects-laden guitar lines floating amongst synth chords and the crackle and pops of electronic detritus. The title and opening track is particularly deft with the adopted musical elements, and there is an intense focus evident across the record clearly seen in tracks such as “I went to sleep on a headless mattress” and “All these memories are blue type”. Hawgood is not afraid to vary his dynamic levels to a far greater extent than that which often chracterises ambient or even electro-acoustic music, and he is to be commended for this approach. The shifts of not only pitch, tone and timbre but also of dynamic intensity provide a sense of mobility and pace that is refreshing and appropriate.
That Hawgood is capable of releasing an array of quality creative output in such a short timeframe is amazing. The fact that he works as a school teacher and also curates three separate record labels is more than impressive. I look forward to many productive years from him yet…
– Cyclic Defrost Magazine
Ian Hawgood is a rather active chap. In between his duties as the curator of the Home Normal, Tokyo Droning, and Nomadic Kids Republic labels, he’s taken the time to record and release not one, but four CDs this year. They are, as follows, We Are Better for Being Built This Way, Wolfskin, Snow Roads and The Great Allure. More are on their way. After perusing through the four discs, I decided to review the best one. This was not an easy task, as the releases are all of decent quality. I would have preferred a single disc version of highlights, because the best ideas are spread throughout the quartet. Those who love Hawgood’s music are probably happy to have four collectible releases, but this is not the best way to break into the public consciousness.
Hawgood’s ambient drones are often sprinkled with piano, harmonium, field recordings, and vague electronics. He’s inspired by sticks and stones, homemade instruments, and travel. His pieces tend toward the languid end of the spectrum, swaying slightly but seldom building to anything resembling a climax. Hawgood seems to be aiming in the same direction as Mountains and Richard Skelton, but his productions lack the internal dynamism that we are used to hearing from these other artists.
I think it only fair that the three discarded releases be addressed, at least in passing.The Great Allure is a diary of train journeys. Song titles include “North India in 1998 With My Dad” and “The Great Allure of Travel in the Land Mass That Is America.” This is the least impressive of the four discs, given that the tracks tend to go longer than they should without adequate development – one is over twenty minutes long and continues the same vocal sample throughout the duration.Wolfskin is a much more even album, with mid-length pieces that typically rest their hats on a few specific sounds, varying slightly in intensity as they progress. “Black Teddy Red Flowers” and “Red Rugs of Infinite Grass” are the standout cuts, occupying the louder end of Hawgood’s sonic spectrum. On We Are Better for Being Built This Way, this position is occupied by “Yenali” and “Coombe,” although the better tracks are the opener and closer, due to a more deliberate use of field recordings. This album contains a greater rainbow of tones, but is hampered again by a lack of brevity – two of the tracks log over sixteen minutes.
This leaves Snow Roads, an album inspired by “isolation and desertion.” The most desolate of human conditions often lead to the greatest inspiration, and this is the case here. The album feels lonely and snowbound, but it comes across as resigned and determined rather than sad; as the poet Linda Hasselstrom writes, “men like them can take it.” The irony is that Hawgood’s album is not a solo venture; he’s joined here by friends such as The Remote Viewer (harmonium), El Fog (vibraphone), Celer (tingsha bells) and producer Taylor Deupree.
On Snow Roads, Hawgood avoids the excess of his other recordings. The longest track spans seven minutes, and the shortest nine seconds (I’m a fan of brevity, but that’s a bit too brief). The sonic variety is the widest of the four albums, as blended tones give way to clearly identifiable instrumentation. The overall concept is clear and evocative, placing the album in the company of other successful winter-based recordings, the most obvious being Lawrence English’s For Varying Degrees of Winter and Elegi’s Verde. When one plays the shorter, field-recording-based tracks in succession, he inherits the infamous sense of snow; thankfully, such samples are sprinkled throughout the longer tracks as well. “Evening” is a slow, forlorn serenade. “Specks Then Flakes” begins with a quiet violin but develops into a light storm -- the perfect execution of its title. While these two tracks are the album’s highlights, the tiny pieces are important as well; without “Crows” and “Snow Roads,” the sense of time and place would be diminished.
For those who are curious about Hawgood’s music – and there does seem to be a lot of it – Snow Roads is the place to start. Those who enjoy this album may become curious enough to check out the other members of this quartet, which were germinated a couple years ago and are only now seeing release. Or they may wish to wait for Hawgood’s newer material to hit the market. To summarize:Snow Roads stands above its siblings because it avoids overextension, exercises tonal contrast, has a clear theme, and is of consistent quality from start to finish. If Hawgood continues in this vein, and tempers his release schedule a bit, he may yet become a luminary in the genre.
– The Silent Ballet
Slow evolving cinematic ambient music with a focus on details in background sounds.
After a short intro the first tones of Snow Roads, the new full-length album by Ian Hawgood directly sets the overall mood: sad, melancholic music. With light sounds the goal of this album seems to be set as an exploration of feelings such as stillness, isolation and loneliness.
For example, long extended notes deliver melancholic feelings in the piece One Day Winter. For diversity not the strongest piece ever, but considering emotion it wins a lot. Also in the details it finds stronger points with subtle background glitches filling up the emptiness.
When we move on to the next pieces we notice a distinct place for silence in the music. Not that the music has much gaps or goes to complete silence as Francisco Lopez would do. No, we find the silence in a sparse use of field recordings, soft tinkling of bells and soft treatments of a piano. These sound fill up the space that is could be considered the silence. Not unlike the music of Celer a cinematic scenery is created. Slow pulsing drones with subtle environmental recordings are ingredients for all pieces. From the recordings the music gets a organic touch, as if you are walking in the forest early in the morning of a lovely day in fall.
None of the pieces on Snow Roads show distinct development, rather you'll find the interesting part in the subtle changes on a microlevel. This lack of development isn't really a problem in most of the pieces, though those pieces which show a distinct progression do stand out as recognizable, for example Specks then flakes. Overall Snow Roads is a pleasant album, but with a little more attention to change a wider audience, that is less patient, could be reached also.
– Earlabs
Ian Hawgood is a UK artist who resides in Tokyo and London. He plays piano, violin, guitar, vocals, computer, tape [machines], field recordings] and handmade instruments. Also he receives the contributions of Celer on Tingsha bells, The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Katherine Morrice and Le Mépris on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako. The album was mastered by Taylor Deupree. This mass of sound is delicately worked with analog and digital means that formed ambient and drone pieces. Harmonic soundscapes shaping pure nature when emerge animals and birds, seagulls, see sound, domestic objects, people walking and Hawgoods’s vocals. The wind instruments create hypnotic drones on “Evening” and “Southern” whilst the bliss-out “Specks Then Flakes” reaches the highest point of this album.
– Loop
More sonically expansive by comparison, Snow Roads finds Hawgood applying treatments to piano, violin, guitar, vocals, tape machines, and field recordings alongside contributions from a smattering of others (The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako). Not to take anything away from Wolfskin, but Snow Roads feels more strongly connected to an environmental context (something helped along by track titles such as “Oak” and “Wood Carving”) in a way that makes for a richly rewarding listening experience. Bolstered by field recordings, the pieces are so evocative, it becomes easy to picture oneself exploring the desolate wilderness during the winter months; “Gravel Road,” for instance, brings to mind the image of a lone figure trudging down a deserted wintry road with the clink of something rattling against a clothesline or hydro wire the person's sole accompaniment. While a piece such as “Evening” tends towards the epic, “Sulci,” “Southern,” and “Hanamic Cubes” (with the sumptuous wheeze of its harmonium) are infused with a tenderness that's not commonly heard in soundscape recordings. Intercutting tracks of fleeting duration (“Crows” a mere twenty-two seconds) with longer, fully-developed settings, such as the beautiful dirge “One Day Winter” and the shiummering string crystals of “Specks Then Flakes,” Snow Roads makes an impression that lasts long after the recording ends. Dragon's Eye characterizes the album as “a demonstration of poetry through image and images turning to sound,” and the description isn't far off the mark.
– Textura
For “Snow Roads” we find Hawgood inspired by the departing winter, creating haunting and ravaging soundscapes to capture the feelings of solitude and isolation. Where “Wolfskin” leaves a warm and life-giving, natural feeling, “Snow Roads” stands in stark contrast, albeit inspired by nature and organic sounds, but revealing it from its desolate and colder sides, one bereft of (human) life and in which thoughts and dreams are given room for contemplation. The press release actually has the album down as warm and enveloping, but in such regard we only concur with the latter of these characteristics, as Hawgood’s drones repeatedly grow to peaks where the listener feels encompassed in sound. “Snow Roads” also includes contributions of other musicians, like El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, field recordings from Ben Jones and Wataru Osako. Add to that mastering by Taylor Deupree and this star-filled album should leave you in no doubt, and along with the former, both are highly recommendable. Aware of Hawgood’s talent, both as solo artist and with his keen eye to curate the house-favourite Home Normal, we will not hesitate to look for his future works around here.
– Soundscaping
The accumulation of 18 months of production, Snow Roads is a clear labour of love and it only takes a very small glance at the credits to see why 1) you should paying very close attention to this release, and 2) why it’s so damned good. Collaboratively speaking there are a number of artists that have been involved along the way including Celer, The Remote Viewer, Le Mepris, El Fog, Katherine Morrice, Ben Jones and Wataru Osaka as well as Taylor Deupree on mastering duties. These elements are brought together by Hawgood’s guiding hand into an album of such depth and beauty that you’ll find it simply doesn’t quite hit you the first time you listen to it. I’ve heard it too many times to keep track of and each and every time it gives me something entirely new. Maybe the first time you’ll feel the space and minimalism that begins the work with bowed instruments layering together to create an almost classical sound. Then you’ll start to really pick out the tangible journey that the music takes you on as the addition of field recordings and bell sounds give it an earthy, naturalistic quality that’s really quite divine. It’s probable that you’ll be so entranced by this time that you’ll begin to notice the delicate background noises and samples that form a dusty layer which allows the delightfully melancholy instrumentation to shine through in all of its glory. By the end you’ll have been taken in by violin pieces, guitars, processed found sounds, deep, ambient soundscapes and textures as well as a real sense of movement and variety that hangs together exactly as it all should. Pardon the gushing commentary, but this is simply a delicious work of musical art that should be considered a real opus for Ian Hawgood. In some ways it’s completely different to ‘Wolfskin’ and ‘We Are Better…’ but you can hear his sound in there at all times and that’s what gives it such personality. Putting something like this together and being able to call on such talent to provide additional elements is really a wonderful position to be in and he’s done it so, so well. Another utterly essential release for the artist and another string to the bow of the marvellous Dragon’s Eye imprint. Quite simply brilliant and another highlight of the year for me.
– Smallfish
<< Back
Title: Snow Roads
Catalogue: de5024
Duration: 46:00
Format: CD-R
Edition: 250 (out of print)
Release: September 2009
DOWNLOAD FROM ITUNES / EMUSIC / BOOMKAT
1. Oak
2. One Day Winter
3. Sulci
4. Gravel Road
5. Wood Carving
6. Shore Poetry
7. Evening
8. Southern
9. Crows
10. Breeze
11. Specks Then Flakes
12. Snow Roads
13. Northern
14. Hanamic Cubes
Snow Roads, the new full length release from artist Ian Hawgood, is a demonstration of poetry through image and images turning to sound, exploring the feelings of stillness, isolation and loneliness. Composed over an 18-month span, Hawgood deploys a multitude of analog and digital treatments to piano, guitar, vocals, and field recordings that result in a warm, natural and enveloping experience. Over the course of the album, Hawgood displays a tender and visual sensibility, like an impressionist series of dreams influenced by the stillness of the end of winter. Snow Roads also includes contributions of source material from a number of other artists including The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako and in addition was mastered by Taylor Deupree.
Reviews
A lovely and very seasonal release from the Dragon's Eye label, Snow Roads is the brainchild of Ian Hawgood, the man behind the Home Normal label. For this wonderful collection of microsound compositions he calls upon the assistance of a number of additional players, well-known to devotees of the genre: The Remote Viewer, Celer, Le Mépris and El Fog are among the additional players, while Taylor Deupree takes on mastering duties. The record took Hawgood eighteen months to complete, and every passing second of this absorbing soundscape exudes craft and toil. While the integration of programmed content with evocative landscape-based field recordings is hardly a new tactic, Hawgood gets the balance just right on pieces like 'Gravel Road'. Here, the exquisite crunch of footsteps intermingles with the incidental jangle of bells and soft, wafer-thin drone tones - it's musical and carries an innate sense of melody, and yet the execution is so subtle and intangible that there's a certain air of magic about the piece. There's lots to admire here though: see also the colourful, granulated deluge of 'Specks Then Flakes', the decaying snarl of 'Evening' and 'One Day Winter - a composition that offers the auditory equivalent of peering through blurry, frosted-over panes. Highly recommended.
– Boomkat
Strade innevate, sinonimo di immobilità e rigori invernali. Sono le immagini suggerite dall'album del britannico Ian Hawgood, una tormentata elegia ambient che promana per lo più dal trattamento di registrazioni e strumenti acustici (lunga la lista, dal vibrafono alle campanelle tibetane, così come quella degli ospiti: The Remote Viewer, Celer etc., con Taylor Deupree ad occuparsi della masterizzazione). Complessivamente fascinoso, nonostante uniformità di registro e natura didascalica delle singole composizioni.
– Blow Up Magazine
A en croire sa riche discographie, Ian Hawgood possède le don d’ubiquité. Au point qu’il est difficile de suivre le rythme soutenu de cet anglais exilé sur l’archipel nippone. Snow Roads est déjà son troisième album cette année. Et alors que j’écris ces lignes, un quatrième s’apprête à débouler sur la toile ! D’autant que notre homme n’aime pas rester en place et prend plaisir à brouiller les pistes en sortant chacun de ses méfaits sur des labels différents : que ce soit Slow Flow recordings, Hybernate records, ou, dans le cas qui nous intéresse ici, l’écurie Dragon’s Eye. Les connaisseurs d'ambient auront reconnu ici des labels à la ligne éditoriale bien tranchée.
Une question s’impose donc : pourquoi chroniquer Snow Roads plutôt qu’un autre ? Sans doute parce qu’il est l’album qui contient tous les autres. On y retrouve le côté dramatique du monumental We Are Better For Being Built This Way et la richesse des textures de Wolfskin. A ceci près que Snow Roads a cette particularité : c’est un album extrêmement écrit. Certain apprécieront, d’autre regretteront le manque évident de spontanéité.
Question ambiance, Ian Hawgood prend un maximum de risque. Et pour cause, il s’aventure avec Snow Roads sur le terrain le plus éculé de toute l’ambient music : celui de la contemplation hivernale et mélancolique. Mais l’anglais a l’intelligence de la jouer avec beaucoup de retenue et évite ainsi l’écueil de la guimauve. Halleluja oserais-je dire.
Au final, Snow Roads est de ces albums qui mènent au recueillement et à l’apaisement avec simplicité et efficacité. Il nous laisse seul arpenter les sentiers enneigés de notre imagination, tandis que l’hiver pointe lentement le bout de son nez. Admirable!
– dMute
Undertaking a parallel listening of these two most recent albums of Ian Hawgood’s, Snow Roads and Wolfskin, has been nothing short of a fascinating, entrancing experience.
Hawgood, an Englishman who has been a long-time resident of both Tokyo and London, presents a unique ambient vision. Where others fall into the potholes of over-simplistic motifs, an excessive lack of speed or momentum, or an obsession with a particular area of electronica, Hawgood steers well clear and keeps the avid listener interested and engaged.
These two ’solo’ albums contribute to Hawgood’s already extensive output, with 31 recordings over the past 10 or so years. His oeuvre is extended further with the release of these albums, and the territory ploughed is one worthy of tilling. Field recordings are overlaid with harmonium, vibraphone, tingsha bells and various conventional instruments. This exotic array of instruments avoids pastiche and instead the compositions embrace a holistic, rounded orchestration that reflects the collaborative playing captured by this music.
On Snow Roads “Southern” and “Specks then Flakes” both recall the varied musics of say Laraanji, Reich, Glass, and Burton/Corea, particularly with the bright, ringing tones that are captured from the harmonium lines. Short tracks mostly comprising found-sound and field recording sources punctuate Snow Roads, with bird calls and twitters, footsteps and water courses evoking a strong sense of the wintry album title. This snippets help keep the focus and momentum of this record and act as a background for the longer tracks.
In contrast to Snow Roads, Wolfskin delves more deeply into abstract ambient yet resolutely melodic composition, with layered effects-laden guitar lines floating amongst synth chords and the crackle and pops of electronic detritus. The title and opening track is particularly deft with the adopted musical elements, and there is an intense focus evident across the record clearly seen in tracks such as “I went to sleep on a headless mattress” and “All these memories are blue type”. Hawgood is not afraid to vary his dynamic levels to a far greater extent than that which often chracterises ambient or even electro-acoustic music, and he is to be commended for this approach. The shifts of not only pitch, tone and timbre but also of dynamic intensity provide a sense of mobility and pace that is refreshing and appropriate.
That Hawgood is capable of releasing an array of quality creative output in such a short timeframe is amazing. The fact that he works as a school teacher and also curates three separate record labels is more than impressive. I look forward to many productive years from him yet…
– Cyclic Defrost Magazine
Ian Hawgood is a rather active chap. In between his duties as the curator of the Home Normal, Tokyo Droning, and Nomadic Kids Republic labels, he’s taken the time to record and release not one, but four CDs this year. They are, as follows, We Are Better for Being Built This Way, Wolfskin, Snow Roads and The Great Allure. More are on their way. After perusing through the four discs, I decided to review the best one. This was not an easy task, as the releases are all of decent quality. I would have preferred a single disc version of highlights, because the best ideas are spread throughout the quartet. Those who love Hawgood’s music are probably happy to have four collectible releases, but this is not the best way to break into the public consciousness.
Hawgood’s ambient drones are often sprinkled with piano, harmonium, field recordings, and vague electronics. He’s inspired by sticks and stones, homemade instruments, and travel. His pieces tend toward the languid end of the spectrum, swaying slightly but seldom building to anything resembling a climax. Hawgood seems to be aiming in the same direction as Mountains and Richard Skelton, but his productions lack the internal dynamism that we are used to hearing from these other artists.
I think it only fair that the three discarded releases be addressed, at least in passing.The Great Allure is a diary of train journeys. Song titles include “North India in 1998 With My Dad” and “The Great Allure of Travel in the Land Mass That Is America.” This is the least impressive of the four discs, given that the tracks tend to go longer than they should without adequate development – one is over twenty minutes long and continues the same vocal sample throughout the duration.Wolfskin is a much more even album, with mid-length pieces that typically rest their hats on a few specific sounds, varying slightly in intensity as they progress. “Black Teddy Red Flowers” and “Red Rugs of Infinite Grass” are the standout cuts, occupying the louder end of Hawgood’s sonic spectrum. On We Are Better for Being Built This Way, this position is occupied by “Yenali” and “Coombe,” although the better tracks are the opener and closer, due to a more deliberate use of field recordings. This album contains a greater rainbow of tones, but is hampered again by a lack of brevity – two of the tracks log over sixteen minutes.
This leaves Snow Roads, an album inspired by “isolation and desertion.” The most desolate of human conditions often lead to the greatest inspiration, and this is the case here. The album feels lonely and snowbound, but it comes across as resigned and determined rather than sad; as the poet Linda Hasselstrom writes, “men like them can take it.” The irony is that Hawgood’s album is not a solo venture; he’s joined here by friends such as The Remote Viewer (harmonium), El Fog (vibraphone), Celer (tingsha bells) and producer Taylor Deupree.
On Snow Roads, Hawgood avoids the excess of his other recordings. The longest track spans seven minutes, and the shortest nine seconds (I’m a fan of brevity, but that’s a bit too brief). The sonic variety is the widest of the four albums, as blended tones give way to clearly identifiable instrumentation. The overall concept is clear and evocative, placing the album in the company of other successful winter-based recordings, the most obvious being Lawrence English’s For Varying Degrees of Winter and Elegi’s Verde. When one plays the shorter, field-recording-based tracks in succession, he inherits the infamous sense of snow; thankfully, such samples are sprinkled throughout the longer tracks as well. “Evening” is a slow, forlorn serenade. “Specks Then Flakes” begins with a quiet violin but develops into a light storm -- the perfect execution of its title. While these two tracks are the album’s highlights, the tiny pieces are important as well; without “Crows” and “Snow Roads,” the sense of time and place would be diminished.
For those who are curious about Hawgood’s music – and there does seem to be a lot of it – Snow Roads is the place to start. Those who enjoy this album may become curious enough to check out the other members of this quartet, which were germinated a couple years ago and are only now seeing release. Or they may wish to wait for Hawgood’s newer material to hit the market. To summarize:Snow Roads stands above its siblings because it avoids overextension, exercises tonal contrast, has a clear theme, and is of consistent quality from start to finish. If Hawgood continues in this vein, and tempers his release schedule a bit, he may yet become a luminary in the genre.
– The Silent Ballet
Slow evolving cinematic ambient music with a focus on details in background sounds.
After a short intro the first tones of Snow Roads, the new full-length album by Ian Hawgood directly sets the overall mood: sad, melancholic music. With light sounds the goal of this album seems to be set as an exploration of feelings such as stillness, isolation and loneliness.
For example, long extended notes deliver melancholic feelings in the piece One Day Winter. For diversity not the strongest piece ever, but considering emotion it wins a lot. Also in the details it finds stronger points with subtle background glitches filling up the emptiness.
When we move on to the next pieces we notice a distinct place for silence in the music. Not that the music has much gaps or goes to complete silence as Francisco Lopez would do. No, we find the silence in a sparse use of field recordings, soft tinkling of bells and soft treatments of a piano. These sound fill up the space that is could be considered the silence. Not unlike the music of Celer a cinematic scenery is created. Slow pulsing drones with subtle environmental recordings are ingredients for all pieces. From the recordings the music gets a organic touch, as if you are walking in the forest early in the morning of a lovely day in fall.
None of the pieces on Snow Roads show distinct development, rather you'll find the interesting part in the subtle changes on a microlevel. This lack of development isn't really a problem in most of the pieces, though those pieces which show a distinct progression do stand out as recognizable, for example Specks then flakes. Overall Snow Roads is a pleasant album, but with a little more attention to change a wider audience, that is less patient, could be reached also.
– Earlabs
Ian Hawgood is a UK artist who resides in Tokyo and London. He plays piano, violin, guitar, vocals, computer, tape [machines], field recordings] and handmade instruments. Also he receives the contributions of Celer on Tingsha bells, The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Katherine Morrice and Le Mépris on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako. The album was mastered by Taylor Deupree. This mass of sound is delicately worked with analog and digital means that formed ambient and drone pieces. Harmonic soundscapes shaping pure nature when emerge animals and birds, seagulls, see sound, domestic objects, people walking and Hawgoods’s vocals. The wind instruments create hypnotic drones on “Evening” and “Southern” whilst the bliss-out “Specks Then Flakes” reaches the highest point of this album.
– Loop
More sonically expansive by comparison, Snow Roads finds Hawgood applying treatments to piano, violin, guitar, vocals, tape machines, and field recordings alongside contributions from a smattering of others (The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako). Not to take anything away from Wolfskin, but Snow Roads feels more strongly connected to an environmental context (something helped along by track titles such as “Oak” and “Wood Carving”) in a way that makes for a richly rewarding listening experience. Bolstered by field recordings, the pieces are so evocative, it becomes easy to picture oneself exploring the desolate wilderness during the winter months; “Gravel Road,” for instance, brings to mind the image of a lone figure trudging down a deserted wintry road with the clink of something rattling against a clothesline or hydro wire the person's sole accompaniment. While a piece such as “Evening” tends towards the epic, “Sulci,” “Southern,” and “Hanamic Cubes” (with the sumptuous wheeze of its harmonium) are infused with a tenderness that's not commonly heard in soundscape recordings. Intercutting tracks of fleeting duration (“Crows” a mere twenty-two seconds) with longer, fully-developed settings, such as the beautiful dirge “One Day Winter” and the shiummering string crystals of “Specks Then Flakes,” Snow Roads makes an impression that lasts long after the recording ends. Dragon's Eye characterizes the album as “a demonstration of poetry through image and images turning to sound,” and the description isn't far off the mark.
– Textura
For “Snow Roads” we find Hawgood inspired by the departing winter, creating haunting and ravaging soundscapes to capture the feelings of solitude and isolation. Where “Wolfskin” leaves a warm and life-giving, natural feeling, “Snow Roads” stands in stark contrast, albeit inspired by nature and organic sounds, but revealing it from its desolate and colder sides, one bereft of (human) life and in which thoughts and dreams are given room for contemplation. The press release actually has the album down as warm and enveloping, but in such regard we only concur with the latter of these characteristics, as Hawgood’s drones repeatedly grow to peaks where the listener feels encompassed in sound. “Snow Roads” also includes contributions of other musicians, like El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, field recordings from Ben Jones and Wataru Osako. Add to that mastering by Taylor Deupree and this star-filled album should leave you in no doubt, and along with the former, both are highly recommendable. Aware of Hawgood’s talent, both as solo artist and with his keen eye to curate the house-favourite Home Normal, we will not hesitate to look for his future works around here.
– Soundscaping
The accumulation of 18 months of production, Snow Roads is a clear labour of love and it only takes a very small glance at the credits to see why 1) you should paying very close attention to this release, and 2) why it’s so damned good. Collaboratively speaking there are a number of artists that have been involved along the way including Celer, The Remote Viewer, Le Mepris, El Fog, Katherine Morrice, Ben Jones and Wataru Osaka as well as Taylor Deupree on mastering duties. These elements are brought together by Hawgood’s guiding hand into an album of such depth and beauty that you’ll find it simply doesn’t quite hit you the first time you listen to it. I’ve heard it too many times to keep track of and each and every time it gives me something entirely new. Maybe the first time you’ll feel the space and minimalism that begins the work with bowed instruments layering together to create an almost classical sound. Then you’ll start to really pick out the tangible journey that the music takes you on as the addition of field recordings and bell sounds give it an earthy, naturalistic quality that’s really quite divine. It’s probable that you’ll be so entranced by this time that you’ll begin to notice the delicate background noises and samples that form a dusty layer which allows the delightfully melancholy instrumentation to shine through in all of its glory. By the end you’ll have been taken in by violin pieces, guitars, processed found sounds, deep, ambient soundscapes and textures as well as a real sense of movement and variety that hangs together exactly as it all should. Pardon the gushing commentary, but this is simply a delicious work of musical art that should be considered a real opus for Ian Hawgood. In some ways it’s completely different to ‘Wolfskin’ and ‘We Are Better…’ but you can hear his sound in there at all times and that’s what gives it such personality. Putting something like this together and being able to call on such talent to provide additional elements is really a wonderful position to be in and he’s done it so, so well. Another utterly essential release for the artist and another string to the bow of the marvellous Dragon’s Eye imprint. Quite simply brilliant and another highlight of the year for me.
– Smallfish
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Sulci
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