Sacred Places is the third release by Hollan Holmes on Spotted Peccary Music, which is comprised of eleven geographic vignettes, each composition inspired from Holmes’s travels to different locales of deep personal significance.
Press release by the B Company
On each piece, Holmes invites the listener into his inner world, reconstructing these sacred places with meticulous sound design and powerful thematic sensitivities. Here, Holmes blends ornate sequencer passages with tribal ambient flourishes that are intricate yet intimate, all to transcribe amazing landscapes in the listener’s mind.
Tidal link
Holmes crafted this latest work from a variety of hardware and software instruments, including the Oberheim OB-6 and Moog Prodigy hardware synthesizers as well as Propellerhead Reason and Spectrasonics Omnisphere software synthesizers. On Temples of Stone, a majestic melody ascends over staccato bass before erupting into a percussion-less trance. Shimmering sequencer passages cascade over an immutable bassline, all the grandeur befitting an ancient temple untouched by time. Bill Porter adds a swaggering electric guitar riff to the Berlin-school warble of An Elevated Life, confident and cosmic. Contrarily, Bristlecone, swirls like windblown pine needles through a forest clearing, meditative and yearning yet no less propulsive. The Divine Connection juxtaposes low end rumbles with bright arpeggiators, soaring to a scintillating crescendo.
“Music has always been for me an endeavor to convey my emotions. It doesn’t have to connect with others the same way that it connects with me, but if the listener feels their own connection or is emotionally moved in any way, then I’ve achieved an incredibly elusive goal,” reflects Holmes. “My goal was to capture sonically the spiritual and emotional energy of these places.” There is a plentitude of subtle details in much of this music that may not be observed on the first listen, but can be discerned through repeated and careful listens.
With Sacred Places Hollan Holmes once again demonstrates a mastery of electronic ambient worldbuilding few can match, presenting a staggeringly cinematic vision that defies simple definitions of analog or digital instrumentation. Rather, he inspires us to experience these remote special environments in such a personal manner as to truly evoke the magic of these very sacred places.
For more information and music samples, visit spottedpeccary.com/artists/hollan-holmes
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