Hammock – Silencia [CD]

Hammock Music

£13.05

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: HMK026CD
Barcode: 0634457824720
Release Date: 24 Mar 2023
Genre: Alternative

Hammock’s hushed Silencia closes a triptych on loss By Ryan Burleson. “Silencia is a prelude to silence.” Hammock’s Marc Byrd is speaking about the Nashville duo’s latest collection of meditative, lustrous compositions from his studio, perched south of Music City’s neon clamor. “It was made in reverence to that space,” he continues, “so it’s great if you don’t feel a need to listen to music after it ends. Silence has become a friend.” Silencia, which arrives November 15 courtesy the band’s own Hammock Music label, is their 10th LP since founding in 2003. And it closes a trilogy that started in 2017 with Mysterium, a towering modern classical record that Byrd and co-founder Andrew Thompson made shortly after the death of 20-year-old Clark Kern, the former’s nephew. “Mysterium was about a shattering,” Byrd says. “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.” Byrd then quotes the Arvo Pärt scholar Paul Hillier (“How we live depends on our relationship with death; how we make music depends on our relationship with silence.”) and the poet Li-Young Li (“The real subject in poetry isn't the voice. The real subject is silence.") before sharing another driver behind his reverence for quiet: Five years ago, he got sober after a silent retreat to Big Sur. “It's like this inner liar was paralyzed long enough for me to have a moment of clarity,” he continues. “And the clarity lasted. Working with Andrew, these last three records were made with an intentionality that arose from that space.”

1 Circular As Our Way 2 Silencia 3 When It Hurts to Remember 4 Afraid to Forget 5 Saudade 6 In the Shattering of Things 7 We Try to Make Sense of It All 8 Slowly You Dissolve 9 Fascinans 10 Life Is Life 11 Without Form and Void