Ian D Hawgood – Tents and Hills

Press material

• Conch 006 – release sheet (PDF)
• Conch 006 – release sheet (TXT)
• Conch 006 – cover front (TIF, CMYK, 300dpi)
• Conch 006 – cover back (TIF, CMYK, 300dpi)
• Conch 006 – cover front (JPG, RGB, 72dpi)
• Conch 006 – cover back (JPG, RGB, 72dpi)

Reviews
smallfish.co.uk
Aah, yes. A new Ian Hawgood work. Marvellous! I’m lucky enough to have had these tracks for quite some time and I’m dead pleased to see them finally being released. Although in its original form this was an EP, here we have a considerably expanded version with 8 full sounding and luscious tracks. Built around Ian’s penchant for gentle, pastoral soundscapes, this nonetheless features a super rhythmic interlude half way through that slots wonderfully in amongst the ambient works. Lovely textures expand and contract, morphing and flowing with the deftest of organic touches – you’re never anything but completely aware there’s a naturalistic side to the artist even though the electronic processing is a tangible force in his music. Moments like the incredible ‘Curvy Borders’ are nothing short of stunning and showcase Ian’s grasp of freeform structure and musicality, whilst the more subtle and delicate pieces really serve to create a hypnotically charming flavour. This is yet another prime example of why his music is held in such high regard. Don’t miss this if you’re a fan because it really is quite gorgeous. Highly recommended.

normanrecords.com
Ian Hawgood seems to release loads of shit but then looking back through the archives we’ve not had too much lately which makes me think we were playing catch up with his back catalogue and now things are normal. Well as normal as they’ll ever be. Tents & Hills sounds lovely on first listen. It’s quite busy sounding drone music with a more electronic sound than his previous releases. Which is weird seeing as though it’s about being all outdoorsy and that (I guess it’s called Tents & Hills for a reason!). The 1st 4 tracks were released before on a long gone out of print EP but here they are with 4 bonus tracks which all feature field recordings of Ian hiking bothering squirrels over some lovely drones. Every time I hear this fella I just think he gets better and better! Essentially it’s beautiful electronic music…..possibly too busy to be drone music…. it’s more electronic soundscapey with interesting noises with some weird ‘almost beats’ in the mix. Deffo recommended…. Really lovely warm sounding stuff! Edition of 250!

textura
Ian Hawgood’s been incredibly prolific the past little while, with a new collection seemingly showing up every month on one label or another (Dragon’s Eye, his own Home Normal, etc.). Written and produced between October 2007 and June of 2008, this latest release actually already appeared in part (its first four tracks) as an EP on luvsound in March 2008, after which Hawgood created four additional pieces to go along with them. Like much of Hawgood’s material, Tents and Hills merges purely synthetic and natural elements into drone meditation settings of sometimes recognizable and sometimes abstract character (the mass of sound streaming through “No Clouds” could be a piano chord stretched out indefinitely, for example, or it could be something else entirely).
A few tracks concentrate on ‘musical’ sounds: “October” blossoms from a single-tone electrified drone into a multi-tiered field of tonalities and shimmering washes, and “Wake Up Mountain” unfolds as a mini-wonderland of rich contrasts, with pitter-patter, shimmering tones, clacking noises, and—surprise!—a straightforward drum beat all appearing during the track’s brief runing time. Elsewhere, Hawgood lets the ‘real’ world prominently seep into the material in the form of field recordings captured during hiking and camping expeditions. “Parasol” speckles its serene electrical drone setting with faint bird chirps and crackling sounds suggestive of a campfire. During “Happy Alone,” fields of symphonic tones wax melancholic amidst looped smatterings of voices, laughter, and birds. In “Curvy Borders,” entrancing slivers of synthetic sound contrast with footsteps crunching through a grassy forest area. The fifth piece, “Foothills,” strikes perhaps the most equal balance between musical and field recording sounds, with drone surges sharing space with the dense collective sounds of dribbling water, crunchy footsteps, and passing trains. Even when the sound sources prove unidentifiable, the album’s material still exudes a natural feel due to the humanizing fingerprint of Hawgood’s distinctive sensibility, as well as an outdoorsy character consistent with the album’s title.

Blow Up magazine (Nicola Catalano)
“Tents and Hills” ripresenta i quattro pezzi di un EP edito solo in rete con l’aggiunta di altrettante composizioni. Il suono è quello etereo, ma dalla grana bella porosa, cui Hawgood ci ha abituato nelle sue numerose pubblicazioni, lento, ipnotico e a volte sgraziato, imbevuto in taluni passaggi (Inland River Valley) di solennità ambient para-orchestrali, come pure ravvivato in altri (Wake Up Mountain) da inattesa spigliatezza ritmica. (7)

EARlabs (Sietse van Erve)
You see it more and more these days: young musicians who are over-productive as if they do nothing else during the day than make music. One of these musicians is Ian D. Hawgood (also known as Koen Park and several other names). Over the past 3 years he has released over 20 releases in both digital as physical format on labels such as Resting Bell, U-Cover, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, Experimendia and many more. Besides that he also runs 4 records labels of which Home Normal and Hibernate are probably best known. You can consider Hawgood as a really busy bee. In 2008 he released an mp3 release called Tent and Hills on the netlabel Luv Sound and this gained so much love from the people behind Humming Conch that they decided to do a reissue on CD with an addition of four extra pieces.

As you could already expect this release can be divided in two parts. But this is not only because of the 4 extra pieces, no it also comes back in how the music seems to be created. The first part consists of the first 3 tracks. They all show a similar transgression through out the pieces, or better said the lack of it. There are harmonic drones, which are warm. The sound is harmonic and dense, though there isn’t much change in the actual sounds. Even the rhythmical elements in No Clouds and Wake Up Mountain can not hide the very little development in the pieces. In the (tape) loops do not show much creativity in what has been done with them. Because of this they do not have much to offer. In the background they are nice tracks, but when listening with a careful ear they stay a bit empty and rather boring.

The second part are the left over 5 pieces (and ironically the 4 bonus tracks).  From here more exciting and inspiring compositions occur. While we still hear the loops and the soundscapes here they fit better. The development of sounds throughout the pieces is worked out better with subtle changes. Not only do they show more development, they also seem to carry a richer sound palette, which in the last four tracks is even enriched by the addition of field recordings. These tracks are nice but not really something to make this release worth getting.

It is good the extra tracks were added to Tents and Hills making this release a bit more interesting. But still leaves me puzzled why it actually got reissued. Tents and Hills is anything but essential. it is far from that even. The music is ok, but we have heard it all so many times before and in most cases also done better and more interesting. Really a shame to see this back in the overall good catalogue of Humming Conch. Maybe something to keep in mind for this one is that quality counts, not quantity. (6,5)

Cyclic Defrost
Most immediately striking about Ian Hawgood’s Tents and Hills is the cute sleeve design by illustrator Kati Meden. Depicting a man contentedly camping with tent on hill, trees below and stars above, it seems best suited to a Morr Music indietronica release, but Hawgood’s fuzzy drones and field recordings give off a similarly cosy warmth.

It’s this latter element that lifts Tents and Hills above the norm, providing a sense of time and place – captured from camping and hiking trips – to works which otherwise might just drift off. Throughout we hear muffled sounds which place this music firmly outdoors, mostly the snap of twigs and crackle of leaves underfoot, but there’s also rhythm – built from syncopated rain drops on ‘Inland River Valley’, rattled sticks on ‘Wake Up Mountain’, and the din of conversation, most audible, ironically, on ‘Happy Alone’.

The musical elements are built from a host of analogue sources – pump organ, mellotron, guitar and old tube amps. They sound like it, buzzing and warping in rusty, organic ways, enveloping the outdoor clatter like a gentle breeze. Opener ‘October’ builds harmonica-like tones from a slow wheeze into grand orchestral swells before gracefully fading out. In ‘Foothills’ they sound more like strings, sadly rising and falling over a gurgling stream. The drones combine beautifully with the field recordings throughout, making Tents and Hills a compelling document of Hawgood’s recreational and musical pursuits.