Forest Bathing, or Shinrin-yoku, is a term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere.” It was developed in Japan during the 1980s and has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. “Taking in the forest atmosphere” became the inspiration for A Hawk and A Hacksaw’s newest album. Their forest bath of choice is the Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. This new album features ten original compositions by Heather Trost and Jeremy Barnes. The opening track “Alexandria” features Barnes on the Persian Santur, an ancient hammer struck dulcimer, and Trost’s string and woodwind melodies. The composition evokes the long trader’s route between what is now Bulgaria and the wealthy cities of Istanbul and Alexandria. The band has always had a bird’s eye view of this part the world—looking for the connections between places and even eras: a belief in the power of music to reach across borders and unite. The band is based on the idea of collecting music and inspiration through travel. They are not of a place, but their music evokes places along a route. This is not urban music. It’s rural: songs of the woods and roads where there are no sidewalks or street lamps to light your way. While the bulk of the music heard on this record is played by Barnes and Trost, they do have some incredible guest performances, namely the clarinet virtouso Cüneyt Sepetçi, from Istanbul, Hungarian cimbalom master Unger Balász, and closer...
LP $16.00
04/13/2018
CD $9.25
04/13/2018
MP3 $8.99
04/13/2018
FLAC $9.90
04/13/2018
A Hawk and A Hacksaw, the duo of Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, known for performing traditional and original music steeped in Eastern European folk traditions, present their sixth album You Have Already Gone to the Other World: Music Inspired by Paradjanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. The sixteen tracks feature seven originals along with nine Ukrainian, Hungarian and Romanian traditional songs re-imagined and arranged with inspiration taken from the legendary 1964 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Russian filmmaker Sergey Paradjanov. Taking their cues from the surreal folk magic of Forgotten Ancestors, Barnes (of Neutral Milk Hotel) and Trost (who lends vocals and violin on Josephine Foster’s latest album) began composing new music to perform along with the film and, in 2012, took the project on tour, accompanying the movie live in cinemas and theaters internationally. The new album is the product of those tours and the evolution of the music into something that can stand on its own. Produced by John Dieterich of Deerhoof, this is the first A Hawk and A Hacksaw album for some time to feature only its two primary members (with the exception of two tracks where Dietrich lends guitar) but the instrumentation is not minimal. Dieterich’s sense of musical experimentation has driven the group into new territories of folk psychedelia that explodes with rich ornamentation. It’s also the band’s most dynamic album since they began their Eastern European adventure, with the thundering percussion and dramatic arcs of violin on the title track counterpointed by majestic solo pieces for Persian Santur, and...
CD $13.00
04/02/2013
2XLP $17.50
04/02/2013
MP3 $9.90
04/02/2013
Following a series of albums exploring Eastern European folk music influence that have thrilled indie and world audiences alike, Albuquerque, New Mexico's A Hawk and A Hacksaw present Cervantine, their first release on their own new label, LM Dupli-cation, a record that gloriously connects their deep fascination with the folk and gypsy groups of former Yugoslavia, Greece and Romania with their actual home in the desert plains of the American Southwest. The group's natural blend of diverse global musical styles with their indie rock background lends them the kind of cross-audience appeal enjoyed by bands including Fools Gold, Beirut and Calexico, while their strong sense of musicality and cultural context draws more left-field listeners to them as well. Recorded live at their studio in Albuquerque between two US tours, Cervantine is the vibrant sound of an American band whose geographical and cultural travels bear on their already distinctive music. The 20th century brought the influence of Spanish and Mexican music to Eastern European gypsy folk, and Cervantine celebrates the reflected resonance of this influence in modern-day New Mexico. Alongside the core duo of Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, the album features key contributions from the immensely talented Hladowski siblings--Stephanie (vocals) and her brother Chris (bouzouki)--from Bradford, England, via Poland, who can be heard on album standouts "Mana Thelo Enan Andra," "Cervantine" and the Turkish classic "Uskudar." The original composition "Espanola Kolo" probably best represents the Spanish / Mexican impression on Serbian brass music that A Hawk and A Hacksaw have embraced--an...
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02/15/2011
CD $13.00
02/15/2011
MP3 $7.99
02/15/2011
A Hawk And A Hacksaw was conceived and performed by genre-defying one-man orchestra Jeremy Barnes of Bablicon and Neutral Milk Hotel. The album features intricate piano-based compositions layered with accordion, percussion, horns, bells, a chicken, geese, gongs, cats, a duck, spoons, and pieces of tin. It was recorded over the course of 15 months in the Loire Valley (Saumur, France) with a variety of guest performers. Recalling Kurt Weill’s orchestrations, Carl Stalling’s visionary cartoon soundtracks and Tom Waits’s more whimsical works, Barnes creates a playfully gothic atmosphere with his multi-layered, frantic compositions. Mixing field recordings with accordion, piano and bursts of drunken choruses, he generates a singular and unnerving orchestral whole. A song’s direction can hinge on a dog’s bark or a phone ringing, while cacophony and sweet, hymn-like harmonies cohabit in entertainingly unexpected passages. Influenced by everything from Eastern European folk music to Pierre Schaeffer to Spike Jones & His City Slickers, there’s a healthy disregard for boundaries at play. A Hawk And A Hacksaw is a soundtrack for PT Barnum deceits and backwoods carnivals, top hats and curly moustaches, but maybe gone a little more screwy. What’s more, everything is live-to-tape.
MP3 $9.90
06/14/2004