Hollan Holmes’ second album for Spotted Peccary, Emerald Waters, is an electronic paean to the sea. Inspired by the beauty, power and importance of water, Emerald Waters is both calm and dynamic. A plethora of synthesizers ebb and flow around each other like shifting tides in a sonic mix of Berlin School sequences, traditional melodic structures and emotional chord progressions—all infused into electronic landscapes.
Press release by Beth Ann Hilton
Using creative sound palettes like the Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Valhalla DSP Space Modulator, Emerald Waters paints natural splendor in cosmic tones. The River like its namesake, is both restless and restful. A rippling sequencer entwines with a triumphant bassline to capture the constant motion of the current while a spritely melody evokes fractals of sunlight scattering across water. In another track, Leviathan is an ascent from the depths; first, a rumbling like a storm on the ocean floor, and then a swirling arpeggiation uncoils and rises, yielding an airy melody that gives a glimpse of the surface. Such is the nature of Holmes’s inspiration where even flowing water through arid lands suggest a deep, imaginative experience that explores a universe of spatially evocative sound.
Holmes reveals the impetus for creating this album, “The music I wrote for this album is an attempt to convey the beauty, importance and power of water in our world. This music is a mix of elements of Berlin School, some traditional melodic structures and emotional chord progressions, infused into an electronic music landscape. It is intended to be uplifting, contemplative and emotionally moving.”
About the Artist: Hollan Holme was born into a family of music lovers. Holmes’ father, mother and sister each had their own musical interests, thus Holmes was listening to a wide variety of music from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Perhaps more significantly, he grew up in a house with a piano, which served to feed a thirst for the creative process of making and playing music. The formation of his first band took place during his high school senior year, an interest which was further fueled by his discovery of synthesizers and the purchase of a Moog Prodigy, courtesy of a loan from his grandmother. Holmes still owns and uses (and must regularly calibrate) that old analog classic. In the early ‘80s, he discovered Jean Michel Jarre and later, Tangerine Dream, both of which would forever alter his musical direction.
For more information and music samples, visit spottedpeccary.com/artists/hollan-holmes.