“Not too dense while remaining always complex and multifaceted, seemingly forever a powerful deep boom marks each cycle explosions and everlasting resistance that in the end sails away on the ocean never to return…”
A monomythical excursion into 11 special emotional locations
There is an energy within these places of the imagination that is palpable, here is an audio journey towards the pursuit of electronic excellence. Hollan Holmes is using sequence-driven rhythmic melodies to sonically capture the spiritual and emotional energy for a monomythical excursion into 11 special emotional locations. The listener is experiencing just electronic sound with no words, like a painting for the ears. Perhaps Hollan’s music portrays the hero who goes through a transformative journey and ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wondernight.
The album art by Spotted Peccary Graphics Magus Daniel Pipitone features hand drawn sawtooth, square, triangle and sine waveforms, over a desolate windy beach with winter grass. That place looks desolate and cloudy and cold. The musical feeling is actually quite upbeat and energizing, tones pounding through cosmic winds that kick in, the energy level always rises, from a lofty mountaintop beginning. The first track “Order Out Of Chaos” (6:06) is perfectly uplifting and brightening, rippling with strength and energy. The melodic forms are constantly building power and light, also portraying something universally kinetic, like effervescent water.
Visualize a slow intense crescendo, with mythical heroes rising up from the mist. Who would inhabit these “Temples Of Stone” (7:20)? We are arriving thousands of years after the construction of these temples where famous things happened and respectfully remembering to pause before climbing higher. Now the beast has arrived, the power grows, the melody rolls and pounds. These temples anchor living people to the powers above. Now a wind whips past leaving a calm sensation but for a moment, until the throbbing ascension resumes its grip. Here the temples are ancient remnants from never-forgotten dramas, now eternal days and nights throw shadows about until nearly the end of the track when one pulsing bass note leads the universe as storm clouds come and go.
Snowflakes are flickering, rippling notes swirling, there are the echoes of falling ice crystals weaving in and out of the chill atmosphere, in pine forests burdened with their cones. “Bristlecone” (5:19), is where the forest dances, hear layers of cold evergreen aromas and hissing breezes combing the pine needles. The tempo is rapid and light, easily spinning between the pillars of the pulse. “Drawn To An Intangible Energy” (6:37) starts with a rapid pulse ascending into something like a regenerative hall of mirrors, motion is everywhere, arcs of action exploding into a wider expanse. The butterflies are using intuition to guide their way into a forest, some are repeating melodies to convey a pull to the hidden power. Millions of passionate drone insects scurry to complete their assignments until the bass takes us the rest of the way there. With dancing crystal light and dazzling atmospherics, this entire kinetic biome is rising above the sky. “An Elevated Life” (5:52) is tight fitting and burning, golden waves just keep on coming as the power increases. The electric guitar performed by Bill Porter punches hard and raw while always remaining very clean and fundamentally elemental. Sometimes an electric guitar can scream and bend, this delivery is cold and sharp and perfect, while the beat is pounding relentlessly, turning around and around.
Echoes of falling ice crystals weave in and out of the chill atmosphere
Hollan Holmes can do anything, now he takes us into a place where something profound happened, the innermost cave. Hear circles turning into each other, the pieces flow along, new pieces land and fit, some pieces drift away so that the whole melodic evolution grows stronger as it changes, the pattern is central and universal, suggesting a place of deliverance. We are swirling towards a new destiny on “Hallowed Ground” (5:01), circular patterns jumping into a bass driven push that is always powerful and well crafted like a tree in a forest. Approaching these new giants with caution, the tessellated circles spin along, easily blending the intensity with noble darkness. I am realizing my humility, “Walking Among Kings” (7:11) in a distant land, finding calm excellence rising slowly and gaining power. The feeling is proud and enlightened, calm in the face of terrifying might, the stage rises and then melts, vigor aging slowly. Now the strength and the power rippling with energy is too big to comprehend but always thrilling, I see holy skeletons dancing with obvious certainty and confidence, “The Divine Connection” (6:38) bringing unimaginable torments and impossible delights. Pause, remembering the awesome devotion and passion, while crisscrossing melodic components entwine with dark and light, sparkling with many small vigorous units coming together to form a gigantic whole quickly rising into the storm, rapid notes pounding and burning across the sky.
Track nine is cautious and slow. Now growling reptiles consider fight or flight, evoking the cycle of life and death. “Primal Instinct” (7:56) becomes dark and scary, the feeling is nimble but grim, a philosophical reading of the unity of mankind’s spiritual history. There is rising energy, now becoming a thunderstorm of passion, rippling danger and caution reaching into the forgotten behavior based on natural reactions and subconscious urges with no thinking, just action. I might hear a khoomei throat singer making a buzzing overtone sound, I could be wrong. After starting to feel a lighter dancing beat, more power brings a joy that is triumphant in every way, “A Light Unto The World” (7:09) delivers repeating cycles that swell and flare, a conquest of the crystal spheres, weaving and layering evolving forms of gently building excitement that expands and swells while the mountain flashes with fire into eternity.
The title track is an anthem of forever, with a ghost piano blending into electronics, “Sacred Places” (6:06). The powerful and bold magic keeps on blossoming and changing, returning to the ancestors the mystery of perpetuity, the feeling is respectful and celebrative, not too dense while remaining always complex and multifaceted, seemingly forever a powerful deep boom marks each cycle explosions and everlasting resistance that in the end sails away on the ocean never to return.
Composed, performed and recorded by Hollan Holmes in The Decompression Chamber, the composer reflects, “As with most of my work, sound design is at the center of my creative process. The character of the sound determines its use in a composition and is most often the single greatest influence on the direction of the melodic explorations that evolve into the final piece.”
Hollan once said that software synthesizers (soft synths) can make sounds no one has ever heard before. He uses those sounds to describe human emotions or to tell a particular story in very creative ways. Also, working with soft synths is both very efficient and intuitive (most of the time). “Sound design is something that makes up half of my interest in all of my musical endeavors. It’s very important to my overall music making experience.” In the early 80s, he discovered Jean Michel Jarre and, later, Tangerine Dream, both of which would forever alter his musical direction. He still owns and uses (and must regularly calibrate) an old analog classic Moog Prodigy.
Hollan used the following instruments and tools in the production of this album—Dave Smith Instruments: Prophet 12, Pro-2; Oberheim OB-6; Moog Prodigy; Propellerhead Subtractor, Europa, Thor; Native Instruments Kontact; Arturia Pigments; Spectrasonics Omnisphere; Valhalla DSP Room, Shimmer, Space Modulator, Delay; FabFilter Pro-Q, Timeless 2, Twin 2. The Electric Guitar on “An Elevated Life” was performed by Bill Porter.
He has released eight albums so far, the first six 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 in 2020, Emerald Waters in 2022, and now he has the new album, Sacred Places.
Sacred Places is available on Spotted Peccary Music. [Bandcamp]
