Ceremony (Edible Sounds, 2014)
Composer and musician James Hood is well known for his ambient electronic explorations. This time, however, he ventures into the territory of acoustic ambiance with a fascinating double CD featuring the hang drum. The hang drum is starting to appear in more recordings in various genres, attracting the attention of creative musicians.
Ceremony consists of ethereal improvised instrumental pieces performed exclusively on a PanArt Hang, a double-layered metal drum with distinctive tonal and melodic properties.
James recorded ‘Ceremony’ in an extraordinary sound chamber called Integratron, located in Joshua Tree in California’s Mojave desert. “The Integratron is like a sonic ashram,” Hood notes. “It takes the sound and lifts it, and it just sounds amazing and you’re elevated by the environment. Every sound on this record is the Hang, every sound on the record was made by my fingers on this metallic drum.”
Ceremony is a spellbinding album showcasing the ambient side of the hang drum.
Buy Ceremony