Albuquerque-based A Hawk and A Hacksaw began in 2000 in the small town of Saumur, France. Initially a solo vehicle for Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes, the main impetus of the project was to focus on the gray areas in borders of music and geography. The first album was released in 2002 by Cloud Recordings. Barnes met violinist Heather Trost in 2004 and the band became a duo.
The pair has since released six albums, and toured extensively around the world. They have learned from and collaborated with some of the great musicians of Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. The duo has been invited to tour with Swans, Calexico, Wilco, Andrew Bird, Portishead, Of Montreal and performed at Roskilde, Pitchfork Music Fest, and All Tomorrow’s Parties. They also collaborated with Iggy Pop on the reworking of a classic sea shanty.
Today Glide is excited to offer an early listen of their new album Forest Bathing, which is out on Living Music Duplication April 13. “Forest Bathing,” or Shinrin-yoku, is a term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere.” It was developed in Japan during the 1980s and has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. The new album features ten original compositions by Heather Trost and Jeremy Barnes. The opening track “Alexandria” features Barnes on the Persian santur, an ancient hammer-struck dulcimer, and Trost’s string and woodwind melodies. The composition evokes the long trader’s route between what is now Bulgaria and the wealthy cities of Istanbul and Alexandria. The subtext of the song says: “The Merchant from Koprivshtitsa travels down to Alexandria to sell textiles. On the way back, he dreams of the music he heard there.”
Forest Bathing took a long time to record and its genesis was spurred along by travels in Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey, Greece and Romania. The band has always had a bird’s eye view of this part the world, looking for the connections between places and even eras with a belief in the power of music to reach across borders and unite. If one were to listen to Forest Bathing with no knowledge of who the musicians were or where they came from, a variety of results certainly wouldn’t include two American musicians from Albuquerque, New Mexico. But it’s important to the band that you know where they are from.
LISTEN:
Forest Bathing is out on April 13th. Check out tour dates below:
Wed-May-30 Chicago, IL Constellation
Fri-Jun-01 Nelsonville Nelsonville Music Fest
Sat-Jun-02 Nelsonville Nelsonville Music Fest
Wed-Jun-06 Denver, CO Shady Grove Series @ Four Mile Park
Fri-Jun-08 Boise, ID Neurolux
Sat-Jun-09 Spokane, WA The Bartlett
Sun-Jun-10 Portland, OR Mississipi Studios
Mon-Jun-11 Seattle, WA Lo Fi Performance Space
Wed-Jun-13 Chico, CA Naked Lounge
Thu-Jun-14 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
Fri-Jun-15 Los Angeles , CA Resident LA
Sat-Jun-16 Phoenix, AZ Trunk Space
