The new Hammock, "Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow".
Hammock has made a new record called "Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow". As some of you might remember, Hammock performed live for the first time ever in Hot Springs last summer for the US debut art exhibition of Riceboy Sleeps. ??Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow? is a studio recording of the sound installation that we wrote and performed for that event. Actually, ??studio performance? is a better way to put it (more on that below). The title of the record comes from a Riceboy Sleeps painting that we love. There??s still a lot of work going on behind the scenes, but we hope to have it out sometime in March.
We??re really happy to announce that the front and back cover artwork will be created by Riceboy Sleeps (Jonsi Birgisson, lead singer/guitarist of Sigur Ros and Alex Somers of Parachutes). The six-panel, cardstock CD package will also include contributions by Chuck Dodson (words) and Thomas Petillo (photographs of the band, a first for us).
Being so connected to this music means it??s difficult for us to describe it, but we feel like this might be our most personal and focused record to date. It??s definitely our most ??ambient? release so far??it contains no beats. The guitar parts for these eleven new pieces were recorded live in the studio with very little use of a click track. We recorded these songs exactly as we performed them, so hopefully there??s a spontaneity and vulnerability to the music that shines through. The string parts were added in later by our friend Matt Slocum. Working this way was a new experience for us, and we feel like this approach gives this record its own unique personality.
An even bigger challenge than making the recording itself was writing the music. All of these songs had to be written keeping in mind that we would be reproducing it onstage using nothing more than two guitars. The question was, ??Given the limitations, could we write music that was moving and interesting?? Those limitations were really self-imposed, and that??s the philosophy behind this record. Some of the visual artists that we admire the most will deliberately limit themselves to working within one particular medium, and we took a similar approach for this recording.
We hope you like the music, and as always, thank you for listening. We will be performing live in 2008, and there will be more news to come on that in the coming months. Hope to see some of you in person this year.
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I'm really hoping that they play around in Baltimore or DC. Love these guys!
For Hammock beginners, start with their debut CD called "Kenotic". Quite stunning!
