Hunters Chorus is an alter-ego, recording moniker, and instrumental music ensemble of classical guitarist Ramon Fermin. This summer they return to offer The Ping Pong Ball Career Center, a five-song EP to follow up 2021’s full-length album The Boy Ain’t Right.
The upcoming release features a familiar roster of musicians, including: Elyse Ader on harp and viola, Ami Nashimoto on cello, Patrick Murphy on acoustic guitar and electric bass, Jason Slota on drums and percussion, Ben Boye on rhodes piano, and Ramon on lead nylon, acoustic, and electric guitars, and electric bass. Joining the band in the studio for the first time are: Brett Carson on acoustic and rhodes piano, and Tony Gennaro on additional percussion. The Ping Pong Ball Career Center was recorded by Jack Shirley at the Atomic Garden in Oakland, CA.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the EP in its entirety ahead of its official release this Friday, August 5th. While it might be easy to simply classify the music as instrumental indie folk, there is far more complexity at play as the band incorporates elements of rock that is at times sunny and dark at others, dramatic orchestration, and unexpected time changes. The band draws from influences like Michael Hedges, Paulo Bellinati and Bill Frisell while also crafting their own sound that simultaneously fun and emotional. The new release is a colorful new turn for the San Mateo-based ensemble, full of bright moments and triumphant snapshots welcoming the listener to stay awhile and revel in the play while easily functioning as the score of a heartwarming movie.
Ramon Fermin describes the inspiration and process behind the album:
We recorded most of what ended up on this EP in the summer of 2021. We had assembled a band to play a local live show, and in the rehearsal for that I liked the way it was sounding and decided to book a day in the studio to record two new songs. We did “Cubhouse” and “It Was Raining on the Day I Moved the Car for My Dad” in one tracking day. We had worked with all the players before in various iterations of the band, but that day in the studio was the first time that exact lineup played together. The players learned the songs from solo guitar demos and lead sheets that I had sent them in advance, and we threw together the arrangements quickly while our engineer Jack Shirley was setting up mics and getting tones. Both songs were recorded with the whole band in the live room, set up in a big circle, playing together. A few weeks later I went in to overdub additional guitars, as well as to track “Thank You for Still Being My Friend.”
I like there to be an element of chaos in the music creation process. The moment is always elusive and unpredictable, and I try to embrace that in the approach towards performing and recording. There are always factors that are out of our control, and rather than trying to impose a strict order on things and being disappointed when reality inevitably deviates from expectations, I try to leave space for the unknown, and to blend with it. I am pleased with a recording if it represents a capsule or snapshot that is unique to a certain place in time. For these reasons I like to keep the compositional process as easy and loose as possible, and for there to be an unfinished quality when going into a recording date or live gig, so that the intangibles may have their way in forming something that is hopefully spontaneously genuine to the moment and inimitable in the future.
LISTEN: