Superhuman Passages
Sound designer Hollan Holmes grew up around a piano, and then began his synthesizer odyssey with a Moog Prodigy. He uses electronic sounds to describe human emotions or to tell a particular story in very creative ways. I think he has found that sweet spot under the sun where the music is stronger, while somehow successfully balancing the family with the dream. He calls his studio The Decompression Chamber. To my ears, these albums are about energy and celebrating all kinds of music in general as well as the Berlin School of Electronic Music in particular.
He has released eight albums so far, the first five were self-released, A Distant Light in 2010, The Farthest Fringes in 2011, followed by Phase Shift in 2013, and The Spirits of Starlight came out in 2014, followed by Prayer to the Energy in 2017. His most recent three albums are on the Spotted Peccary Music label, Milestones (SPM-4401) in 2020, Emerald Waters (SPM-4402) in 2022, and now he has a new album, Sacred Places (SPM-4403), which was crafted using a variety of instruments, including the Oberheim OB-6, Propellerhead Reason and Spectrasonics Omnisphere software synthesizers, plus of course his trusty classic Moog Prodigy.
Constantly the music branches, always reaching up into the sky and pushing roots deep into the earth, which can be heard to dwell in three worlds — a link uniting above and below, between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, holding up the cosmos, and providing a link between the heavens, earth, and the mysterious sympathy between this illusion and human life. Sacred Places evoke sites that are found within a larger geographic or emotional soundscape. Each of these imaginary places can have its own unique history, architecture, and meaning, and is worth exploring for its spiritual and cultural significance. One or more religions may consider the same sacred locations to be of special significance. Some of the track titles are types of locations, some of the titles express an attitude about the human experience. When I listen I imagine that each track contains a hero’s journey, an exciting transformative adventure. Human beings, observing the natural growth and death of trees, and the annual death and revival of their foliage, have often seen them as powerful symbols of growth, death and rebirth.
Hollan is not using music to imitate nature, with his synthesizers he creates complex systems of sonic universes that can carry the listener away to entirely new places. The sound is reliably energizing electronic space music, an homage to the Berlin School of kosmische musik, which is a style of electronic music that originated in West Berlin during the early 1970s featuring bands and musicians such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultze, and Manuel Gottsching. At the time, the city of Berlin was politically and physically partitioned by the Berlin Wall. This structure held for the citizens there the constant reminder of the presence of outsiders who were using guns and concrete to forcibly contain the children of the survivors of World War II. In that sacred place there were the people who would seek to rediscover and expand their own grand musical identity rather than passively accept this conqueror’s imported pop radio sounds. I am imagining very popular stadium sized concerts reaching new heights towards establishing this strange new space age electronic music as a popular art form.
I hear the music of the cosmic wanderer who travels through sacred environments and is woven into the web of cosmologies that represent the unity of world views. These are all electronic sounds, sounds that are original, very unique and very emotive. A journey to a place or location, a way or road, a call to go on an adventure, a ford, a crossing place in the sense of transition or junction, the possibilities include all mountains, all rivers, lakes, dwellings of sages, temples, cowpens, great forests, and all seas. In my opinion each track can stand alone, and they all flow together perfectly in album form. Music and art allows us to venture forth from the world of the common day into a region of supernatural wonder, there are other worlds that touch and do not touch each other, revealing a timeless storytelling pattern in which the constant listener goes through a transformative journey. Civilization is separated by only a thin veneer from the natural world. To ignore this relationship would be folly.
Sharing this music is a surreal experience, the sound is all instrumental, I hear no obvious extended field recordings, always using plenty of the newest music technology. Today I aspire to somehow transmit an adequate glimpse into the production of this new music and what drove Hollan Holmes to create it. In the tradition of Joseph Campbell, the hero is a goal-directed protagonist within the monomyth, he is swallowed into the unknown, or perhaps some passing phenomenon catches his wandering ear and lures him away from the frequented paths. Along the way the hero is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. Listening to this complex and transformative classical electronic music is always energizing and provides a reminder that we are all full of life from around the world, sometimes seeking a refuge from the strenuous conditions of the modern world, or just ready to go on an adventure, perhaps confronting obstacles, overcoming them, and ultimately reaping experiential rewards. This album is all about the extraordinary natural world in which we live and, in many cases, have lost sight of our relationship with nature.
“My hope is that my music inspires you to get out and experience nature and learn to appreciate all of the natural beauty in the world,” shares the composer. “We really do live on a most amazing planet and I’ve tried to capture that in this music.”
The album begins not with a specific place but an attitude, so bright and bouncy telegraphing the message, “Order Out Of Chaos” (6:06). Embarking with notes pounding, soon the cosmic winds kick in and the energy level rises, finding direction for this ongoing departure into the land of trials. The feeling is upbeat and energizing, uplifting and brightening, we reach another plateau and soon the power keeps escalating, rippling with strength and energy building power and light with a slow intense crescendo at the lofty mountain top.
A location is revealed, a wind whips past as eternal days and nights throw shadows about on the mountain of mythical heroes. These temples are ancient remnants from forgotten dramas rising up from the mist as storm clouds come and go. “Temples Of Stone” (7:20) suggests ancient connections, perhaps these temples anchor living people to the powers above. The stones last longer than the architecture, at various points one repeated pulsing bass note holds up the whole sky, the dance increases in tempo and a throbbing ascension resumes its grip while the melody rolls and pounds. Always, the power grows, forever building up and up. It seems to me that the old stories are almost solid, legends never die but the heroes always do. We are arriving thousands of years after the construction of these temples where famous things happened and remembering to pause, the musical landscape is mineral intensive and goes on forever. The track is calming at the end, letting go and fading away.
“Bristlecone” (5:19) suggests a new location, of pine forests burdened with cones. I hear snowflakes that are flickering, swirling falling snowflakes collecting on fissured rust-brown bark and bunches of short needles, rippling notes weaving in and out of the chill atmosphere, layers of cold aromas and hissing breezes weaving in the pine needles. The pines are thought to be some of the oldest living trees, suggesting a solid foundation that allows for such a kinetic melody to unfold, dark purple cones that bear incurved prickles on their surface, the musical engine shows strength with powerful pulses, yes, the forest dances! I hear dense branches waving around, speaking of the lore from a secret island, turning bright and radiant, the tempo is rapid and light, easily spinning between the pillars of the pulse.
Now I think I hear millions of passionate drone insects scurry to complete their assignments, this track speaks of an attitude, how the butterflies are using intuition to guide their way into a forest, leaving arcs of motion exploding into a wider expanse, repeating melodies convey a pull to the hidden power emerging as water drops first, then floods, which continues with a rapid pulse and gradually cools off and coasts along towards the destination, “Drawn To An Intangible Energy” (6:37) the motion is everywhere, rippling and cycling back within compressing the spark again and again, as if ascending a hall of mirrors, steadily onward. Perhaps there are electronic choral touches, I am trusting in the strength of the attraction with no confirmation or proof to offer. Now the bass takes us the rest of the way there, another explosion, another reformation, a new segment in the history now turning within to settle and gather the fragments.
The next track, “An Elevated Life” (5:52), to me suggests an attitude. I hear kinetic dancing crystals, patient light and dazzling atmospherics as the power increases and historicity remains uncertain. Perhaps this entire biome is rising above the sky, in the distance golden waves just keep on coming, the notes are tight fitting and burning, so powerful. The electric guitar is super simple and punches hard and raw, very clean and elemental. Bill Porter’s powerful electric guitar gives a hard driving steady power with his pounding notes. The instrument can easily bend and smear, these notes are clear and perfect, pounding relentlessly while the synthesizers are always turning around and around.
Hollan Holmes can do anything. The pattern is central and universal, the sound creates a location where the pieces flow along, into the innermost cave. Steadily new pieces land and fit, some fragments drift away so that the whole melodic evolution grows stronger as it changes, circles turning into each other into that hall of mirrors cycling again and again, seeking a place of deliverance, swirling towards a new destiny, a place where something profound happened, “Hallowed Ground” (5:01). Remaining calm in the face of might, leaving the noble darkness and reaching into the distances, “Walking Among Kings” (7:11) is where the feeling is rising slowly and gaining power, approaching these new giants with caution, some jittery power is barely contained. Because forceful is what kings do, we are in a distant land finding calm excellence but quivering with delight just below the surface. I hear constant rapid precision layer after layer, blending and joining proud and enlightened blessed royal leaders. There comes a keyboard jubilee with a piano in the mix, the stage rises and then melts as the circles spin along easily blending the intensity, tessellated vigor aging slowly.
“The Divine Connection” (6:38) suggests quiet life forming in darkness that soon is quickly rising into the storm, with power abounding. Now rapid notes go pounding across the sky, crisscrossing melodic components that entwine with dark and light. I hear what sounds like new beings dancing with obvious certainty and confidence, many small vigorous units coming together to form a gigantic whole. Revel in the strength and the power which leave jangling reminders of the source, pounding earthquakes and furious storms rippling with energy that is too big to comprehend but always thrilling.
Now consider a philosophical reading of the unity of mankind’s spiritual history, rippling danger and caution, considering fight or flight. The feeling is cautious and slow now. I hear growling reptiles and think of the cycle of life and death reaching into the forgotten gaps and the changes brought about by the seasons. Soon the energetics emerge and takes over, there is no thinking, just action. “Primal Instinct” (7:56) I think of behavior based on natural reactions where the purely emotional feelings take over, nimble but grim, dark, and scary electronic drums and beats, evoking self preservation, the thrilling subconscious urge of sexual attraction, and eventual social adaptation. We are always discovering along the way as the path is taken, towards the end I think I hear energy rising now like a thunderstorm of passion and throat singing. Is there a Khoomei throat singer making a buzzing overtone sound?
“A Light Unto The World” (7:09) brings a lighter dancing beat, I think of it as the conquest of the crystal spheres. Here the mountain flashes with fire into eternity and excitement expands and swells, triumphant in every way. This is a victorious achievement, always shimmering power and an inspiration to all, here more power brings a joy, elation and shivering ascendancy, with a barely masked choral jubilance of repeating cycles that swell and flare with burning exultation. The title track concludes the album’s journey and brings the sound of the mystery of perpetuity in the form of an uplifting sanctified piano blending into electronics, “Sacred Places” (6:06) the piano guided magic keeps on blossoming and changing, layers of exultation that are not too dense yet always complex and multifaceted, powerful and bold, respectful and celebrative.
I hear anthems of eternity. There are occasional powerful deep booms, each cycle always returning to an infinite spring. The instrumental craft is returning to the ancestors, bringing restoration and a feeling of ceaseless sturdy mastery, which before the end of the album all stress has sailed away on the global ocean, never to return.
The album cover was created by Spotted Peccary Graphic Designer Daniel Pipitone and has some waveform lines overlaid. They are the four most common waveforms generated by the oscillators of subtractive synthesizers. Each have their own sound, their own characteristics and can be shaped and manipulated into myriad other sounds, even combined in creative ways to make all new waveforms. The music is intended to celebrate the places that are spiritually significant to the composer. The main reason he included these waveforms on the cover is because, if you look carefully at each waveform, they are indeed glyphs, or representations of various elements of our natural world. Look at them again; Mountains like the Tetons, desert bluffs of Monument Valley, trees in the forests of the Sierra Nevada and water, which many of you know, is a profound part of Hollan’s love of nature.
TRACKS
1 Order Out Of Chaos
2 Temples Of Stone
3 Bristlecone
4 Drawn To An Intangible Energy
5 An Elevated Life
6 Hallowed Ground
7 Walking Among Kings
8 The Divine Connection
9 Primal Instinct
10 A Light Unto The World
11 Sacred Places
LINKS
https://orcd.co/sacred-places
https://spottedpeccary.com/shop/sacred-places/
https://spottedpeccary.com/artists/hollan-holmes/
https://hollan-holmes.bandcamp.com/
