Since retro mania and vinyl fetishism have met, some labels have outbid each other in re-releases of obscure albums. Such was 2019 when Ernest Hood’s NEIGHBORHOODS was unearthed. Hood (born 1923) had accompanied the saxophonist Charlie Barnet as a guitarist in the forties. He contracted polio in his 1950s and, unable to hold his guitar, switched to the zither.
? Buy BACK TO THE WOODLANDS & WHERE THE WOODS BEGIN at Amazon.de
1975 saw the release of his only album, NEIGHBORHOODS, an impressionistic ambient painting made up of zither playing, field recordings and synth primers. Only 1000 copies were pressed, so Hood’s art has remained largely hidden. More recordings have now been discovered in his archive, taken between 1972 and 1982.
They can be heard on the double CD BACK TO THE WOODLANDS & WHERE THE WOODS BEGIN as an ode to the forests of Hood’s native Oregon. “Found sounds” like birdsong, crickets chirping and rain form a strangely logical connection with Hood’s lyrical understanding of music, with the sounds of the zither and the ambience from the analogue synth. The history
von Ambient doesn’t need to be rewritten as a result, but his music represents an important contribution to a genre that has been experiencing a revival in recent years.
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