Holy Hum - Let It Be Desire (2022)

Five years ago, Andrew Lee released his brilliant second album All of My Bodies and stole my music heart. Since then, he seems to have moved to New York but the music he offers hasn't changed much. There's no vocals this time, but the complex instrumental side speaks for itself on Let It Be Desire.

This album feels extremely intimate with all those imperfect sounds and noises all over the place, with many silent interruptions, with the clearly audible soul poured into the compositions. They are neoclassically beautiful but also a bit noisy, very experimental, clearly meant to ask questions rather than provide answers. It's poetry turned into music and as such, it goes so well with the poem the artist mentions on his Bandcamp account, a poem in which he that states that "I have lived most of my life in the spaces of becoming". 

Let It Be Desire costs 9 USD.

Holy Hum - All Of My Bodies (2017)

Check: Faith in Doubt

Country: New York, US

Genre: experimental neoclassical

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Holy Hum - All Of My Bodies (2017) EN

Holy Hum is Andrew Yong Hoon Lee, a universal artist who alongside creating sounds, has also exhibited his works in, e.g.,  the Vancouver Art Gallery. As a musician he has played with Siskiyou and In Medias Res and had a show on Primavera. This time he shows his solo project and, boy, is it awesome.

I'm under impression that it's his way to deal with his Asian origins but I can't really decipher the album cover. What I know though is that his music is really touching. Lee's vocal is full of sadness, longing and melancholia, sounds beautiful e.g. in the perfect "Flowers In The Snow" where it is accompanied by a female vocal (this time it's Kathryn Calder's). Another thing is that there's a lot of guests on the album - both vocalists and musicians playing flute, piano, cello or clarinet.

The whole thing is a mixture of sounds that are so different (from the lamenting strings to epic drums in the backgrounds) that it's super surprising how well they resonate together and how big their influence on the audience is. All of them are great: the lyrical songs, the high-paced ones ("Sex At 31") and those that drowns in an ambient-drone sea ("Joseph Pt. 2") or the one with spine-thrilling backing vocals ("White Buzz"). The album is infinitely complex, it's one of those that have to be listened to all over again.

"All Of My Bodies"costs 7 CAD.

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Holy Hum - All Of My Bodies (2017) PL

Holy Hum to Andrew Yong Hoon Lee, artysta uniwersalny, oprócz tworzenia dźwięków wystawiał też m.in. w Vancouver Art Gallery. Jako muzyk grał z Siskiyou i In Medias Res, występował też m.in. na Primaverze. Tym razem pokazuje swój solowy projekt i, serio, jest zachwycający.

Mam wrażenie, że rozlicza się na nim ze swoim azjatyckimi korzeniami ale niestety nie potrafię rozszyfrować okładki. Wiem natomiast, że jego muzyka jest niezwykle poruszająca. Wokal Lee pełen jest smutku, tęsknoty i melancholii, pięknie brzmi na przykład w doskonałym "Flowers In The Snow", gdzie również towarzyszy mu kobiecy wokal (w tym przypadku Kathryn Calder). Zresztą gości jest dużo więcej - zarówno wokalistki jak i muzycy grający na flecie, pianinie, wiolonczeli i klarnecie.

Całość to mieszanka dźwięków tak różnych (od zawodzących smyczków po epickie kotły w tłach), że aż dziw bierze jak doskonale są ze sobą zespolone i jak bardzo oddziałują na słuchacza. Świetnie brzmią zarówno kawałki liryczne jak i te wyposażone w wyraźne tętno ("Sex At 31") i te tonące w ambientowo-drone'owym morzu ("Joseph Pt. 2") czy w końcu pełne melancholijnych chórków powodujących dreszcze ("White Buzz"). Całość jest nieskończenie złożona, jeden z tych albumów, które należy słuchać i słuchać.

"All Of My Bodies" kosztuje 20 złotych (7 CAD).

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